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Psalms 81
It opens like a festival: trumpet at the new moon and full moon, tambourine, lyre and harp, a statute appointed in Joseph (vv.1-5). Then mid-poem the voice shifts — God himself speaks, recalling the relief at the basket and the test at Meribah. The celebration becomes a complaint. "My people didn't listen to my voice" (v.11), so God let them follow their own counsels. Watch the mood pivot from feast to a withheld blessing.
- 1
Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!
- 2
Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant 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 appointed it in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know.
- 6
“I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.
- 7
You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah.
- 8
“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!
- 9
There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any 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 didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me.
- 12
So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.
- 13
Oh 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 adversaries.
- 15
The haters of the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
- 16
But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”
An open mouth, unfilled
God's offer is vivid: "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" (v.10). The tragedy of the psalm is that Israel desired none of him, so the promise hangs unclaimed.
The ending is the road not taken: had they listened, God would have subdued their enemies and fed them "with the finest of the wheat" and "honey out of the rock" (vv.14-16). The festival frame makes the missed abundance sting.
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