Keller, Walter E.

English

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso University ValpoScholar Walter E. Keller's Devotional Studies of Psalms University Archives & Special Collections 2001 Psalm 81: To the choirmaster: According to The Gittith. Of Asaph. Walter E. Keller Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/kellerpsalms This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives & Special Collections at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Walter E. Keller's Devotional Studies of Psalms by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu. 1  Psalm 81 To the choirmaster:  According to The Gittith.  Of Asaph. (RSV)    1 Sing aloud to God our strength;         shout for joy to the God of Jacob!   2 Raise a song, sound the timbrel,         the sweet lyre with the harp.   3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,         at the full moon, on our feast day.   4 For it is a statute for Israel,         an ordinance of the God of Jacob.   5 He made it a decree in Joseph,         when he went out over(a) the land of Egypt.     I hear a voice I had not known:   6 “I relieved your(b) shoulder of the burden;         your(c) hands were freed from the basket.   7 In distress you called, and I delivered you;         I answered you in the secret place of thunder;         I tested you at the waters of Meribah.                 Selah   8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!         O Israel, if you would but listen to me!   9 There shall be no strange god among you;         you shall not bow down to a foreign god. 10 I am the LORD your God,         who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.         Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;         Israel would have none of me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,         to follow their own counsels. 13 O that my people would listen to me,         that Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies,         and turn my hand against their foes. 15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,         and their fate would last forever. 16 I would feed you(d) with the finest of the wheat,         and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”  Footnotes:        a. (v.5)   Or  against    b. (v.6)   Heb   his    c. (v.6)    Heb   his    d. (v.16)  Cn Compare verse 16b: Heb  he would feed him 2   Psalm 81  consists of two parts:  verses 1-5 (LBW versification) are a call to joyous festivities in the form of a brief hymn, and verses 6-16 are a meditation on the goodness of the God of Jacob, Israel’s faithless disobedience in response, and God’s entreaty to his wayward people.    The Psalm opens with a general call to sing praise “the God of Jacob,” the Covenant God of Israel.  Music and worship go hand in hand, both in David’s day and ours.  David instituted music for the temple worship services (1 Chronicles 25).  Worship involves the whole person, and music helps focus worship by lifting one’s thoughts and emotions to God.  The middle portion of this hymn recaps God’s institution of holidays and festivals, and reminds the people of Gods mighty deeds.  Verse 5b is a reference to the ten plagues preceding Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.   The second part of this Psalm begins the prophetic oracle, with the voice of verse 5c being God’s voice to the prophet, through whom he speaks not only to the people of his time, but also to the Israel of the present.  Notice that verses 9-10 are a restatement of the First Commandment and God’s gracious promise to still our every hunger.  But Israel’s disobedience brings that punishment of God by which he allows us to have our own way (verses 11-12).  Nevertheless God longs for Israel’s obedience, so that he might once more subdue their enemies and feed Israel with the finest bread and honey (verses 16).    God allowed the Israelites go on blindly, stubbornly, and selfishly, when they should have been obeying and pursuing God’s desires.  God sometimes lets us continue in our stubbornness to bring us to our senses.  He does not keep us from rebelling, but wants us to learn from the consequences of sin.  Present day Christians will have no trouble in hearing a warning also to us as God’s New Testament Israel not to be wayward and to be obedient only to him.      Prayer to accompany Psalm 81: Almighty Father, you rescued your people from slavery and, through the Passion of your Son, called a new people united in his body and marked with the sign of holiness.  Feed us with your finest bread so that we may have food for this life and a foretaste of eternity, where you live and reign with your Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.   Amen.   

Psalm 81: To the choirmaster: According to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=kellerpsalms

Psalm 81: To the choirmaster: According to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Valparaiso University