Psalms 81
PATface to shine, and we shall be saved. Hear us, O great Lord, who hast all the angels in heaven at thy command; hear us, we once more beseech thee, and restore us perfectly to our former happiness; and, in order to it, Testore us to thy favour; and let there be a speedy end of all these calamities,
Psalms 81:3
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time, appointed, on our solemn feast-day.) And let the priests especially (Numb. x. 8.) take care to blow with the trumpets at the saered solemnity; on the first day of the seventh month, the principal new moon in the year (which is attended with another feast at the full moon of this month): that all the people may call to mind the trump of God, <(Exod. xix. 16. 19.) which our fathers heard, at his dreadful appearance oa Mount Sinai, to give his law unto them.
Psalms 81:4
For this ivas a statute for Israel, and a lata of the God of Jacob. For thus hath the Lord decreed in that law; -where the God of our father Jacob requires this service of us,.(Lev..xxiii. 24, &c.).:.
Psalms 81:5
This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went oat through the land of Egypt; where I heard a language that I understood not. This he appointed unto the children of Joseph, as well as the rest of the tribes of Israel, for a perpetual memorial of his benefits: when he, going out over all the land of Egypt, (Exod. xi. 4. xii. 23..29.) and destroying all the first-born, forced them to let us depart into the wilderness; where we heard, to our great astonishment (for we were never before acquainted with it), the voice of God.. Ver. G. J removed his shoulder from the burden: his Jiands were delivered from the pots.] Who, considering with himself what a title he had to our service (having taken oif the heavy burdens, which the Egyptians laid upon our.backs, and rid our hands of those sordid and dirty employments, wherein they made us labour),
Psalms 81:7
Thou ealledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Admonished us to this effect, saying; You cried to me by reason of your cruel servitude under Pharaoh s task-masters, (Exod. ii. 23.) and I delivered you out of it; (iii; 8.) and again answered your prayersy when you cried unto me in a new distress, at the Jled Sea, (xiv. 10. 13.) but confounded the Egyptians, with thunder and. lightning out of the cloudy pillar, (ver. 24, 25; Psal. lxxvii. 18.) After all which, I might well expect you should depend upon me: but presently found you full of distrust and infidelity at the waters of strife; (Exod.xvii.7.) where I gave you anew proof of my power.
Psalms 81:8
Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: Israel, if thou’wilt hearken unto me. Of which, if you will still enjoy the benefit, then give ear, O my people, and 1 will solemnly declare my will; and give a severe charge unto you, O ye Israelites, if you resolve to be obedient to jny admonitions.,.:>..,
Psalms 81:9
There shall no strange god be in thee: neither slialt thou worship any strange god. Then this is the principal thing upon which all the rest depends; you shall not puffer any other gods to be acknowledged among you, but only me; (Exod. xx. 3.23.) nor shall you worship the gods^ of other nations, (xxiii. 13. 24. 32.)
Psalms 81:10
J am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out.of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill.it. For I, and I alone, am the living Lord, the eternal God;.who gave a, being to all things; and who urn your peculiar •benefactor; having brought you out of the Egyptian bond- Age:,(Exod. xix. 4. xx. 2,) and if you will be faithful and obedient, to n\e, enlarge your desires; as far as you please, j and I will satisfy them; for all the world is mine, (xix. 5. xxiii* 25.)
Psalms 81:11
But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. But, notwithstanding their seeming compliance with him, and the fair promises they made him, (Exod. xix. 8. xx. 19. xxiv. 3.?.) he presently complained (xxxii. 7 — 9. as I hear him still do at this day), My people would not be obedient to me; and Israel would not rest contented with me alone: Ver* 12. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust; and they walked in their own counsels.] So, provoked by their long stubbornness,. I took no farther care of them, but left them to do as they pleased; saying, Let them follow their own inventions.. r>
Psalms 81:13
O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways I. But it had been better for them to have adhered to me; who, out of my tender affection to their good, still wished, even when they were so re-’ fractory, that my people Israel had been so wise as to have followed my directions, and been led by my advice; and not their own foolish imaginations.
Psalms 81:14
J should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. Then I should in a short time have quelled all their enemies; and, by one victory after another, have quite destroyed those’ adversaries: which (since I brought them into Canaan) have often miserably afflicted and oppressed them, (Judg. ii. 2, 3. 14, 15. 19, 20. iii. 1, &c. iv. 2.)
Psalms 81:15
Tlie haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. All that maligned their prosperity, and set themselves against the design of the Lord, to make them victorious over their enemies, should have been so daunted, that they should have dissembled their inward haired, and been forced, at least, to a counterfeit submission: but his people should have seen blessed’ days, and’ enjoyed a substantial and durable happiness without any interruption. Ver. 1G. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.] He should have made their country exceeding fruitful, and fed them with the richest wheat: and I myself, saith the Lord, would have blessed thee with such plenty, that in the deserts thou shouldest have found the sweetest refreshments; and, without any care of thine, the bees should have laboured honey for thee, in the rocks, and holes of trees, and such-like places, (Dent, xxxii. 13. Judg. xiv. 8. 1 Sam. xiv. 25, 20.)