Original Meaning
The Heading (81:0)
THE TITLE OF PSALM 81 CONTAINS an instruction to the director (see comments on Ps 75:1) that the psalm should be performed according to the gittith—another one of the mysterious names we find in the superscriptions of the psalms. (For gittith, see also Pss 8:0; 84:0.) There are three main theories regarding the gittith: (1) the designation refers to a type of instrument originating in Gath; (2) the word names a tune; or (3) it associates the psalm with the “winepress” (Hebrew gat), and therefore probably with the harvest festival. It is difficult to draw any definitive conclusion regarding the meaning of gittith, but since the nearby Psalm 84 also seems to have a festival context, the third option may be the most likely.2
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 81 IN THE CONTEXT OF BOOK 3. Psalm 81 plays an important role in the flow of thought we can see in Book 3 of the Psalms. This third book is dominated by laments over the exile of Israel. Some seem to have a northern origin in the Israel of the divided monarchy (Pss 80; 81); others are rooted very clearly in the fall of the Jerusalem temple (e.g., Pss 74, 76, and 79); yet others seem to combine Israelite and Judahite traditions (e.g., Ps 78). But Psalm 81 is significant because it is the first psalm to provide God’s perspective on the crisis of exile. Up to this point we hear the voice of human lament over the suffering faced by the people. Those in exile want to know why this suffering has been allowed to happen, and they want to know how long their suffering will last. The voice we hear up to this point in Book 3 is very human. But now, in Psalm 81, God speaks! This change makes the psalm significant as a response to the community laments that dominate the flow from Psalm 74 onward.
As we have seen above, Psalm 81 is closely linked with Psalm 80 in terms of its response to the “Why?” and “How long?” questions of the exile. God’s answers are quite simple. Why? Because the people rejected their covenantal obligations and worshiped more than just Yahweh. How long? Until the people learn to listen to God and follow his ways again. So, Psalm 81 provides the reader with a very different perspective on Israel’s reality. As we will see below, however, Psalm 81 is also closely linked with Psalm 82, in which God speaks once again as a corrective to the attitudes that prevailed in Israel—attitudes that ultimately led to the exile. Here in Psalm 81 it is Israel’s syncretism that is condemned—their refusal to worship Yahweh alone—and also their unwillingness to listen to God and keep the covenant. As this “narrative” develops, another area of national failure that resulted in the punishment of exile is condemned in Psalm 82, namely, Israel’s failure to maintain social justice within their society.
We see both strands in the texts of the prophets. The refusal to love God, to listen to him, and to follow his ways were key factors that resulted in the exile (e.g., see Jer 7). Equally, however, the social injustices that dominated Israelite and Judahite society contributed to the divine condemnation that led to both kingdoms’ removal from the land (e.g., see Isa 1). So, Psalm 81 fills an important role as a response to the complaints of Book 3 (especially the complaints in Pss 79 and 80). Psalm 81 also begins the divine response to the complaints of the people that continues in Psalm 82.
Psalm 81 in the New Testament. Psalm 81 is not cited directly in the New Testament, but the key theme of listening to God occurs frequently in the Gospels. Central to God’s response to the people’s complaint over the crisis of exile is the expectation that they should listen and hear the message that he has been trying to teach them through their circumstances. Of course, the implication from Psalm 81 is not that the people of the community simply hear his message physically but that they hear, absorb, and respond to the rebuke constituted by their exile. We see similar language and ideas in Jesus’ warnings to his hearers in the Gospels. A frequently recurring refrain on Jesus’ lips is the challenge, “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 11:15; 13:9; 13:43). Christ’s challenge is that the people should truly listen and respond to this new message of the kingdom. It was not enough to hear—they had really to listen to what he was saying and respond accordingly. Similarly, the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation issue the same warning to listen (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The churches in Asia Minor are supposed to listen properly to God’s word to them (whether it be challenge or encouragement) and respond accordingly. Clearly, this theme of listening and responding to God continues as an important one in the New Testament.
Contemporary Significance
PRAISE GOD WELL. We will return to this line of application when we discuss psalms later in the Psalter (esp. Pss 146–50), but here it is worth pointing out the importance of praising God properly. Psalm 81:1–3 encourages us to holistic and wholehearted praise of God. Our praise should involve joyful shouting and loud declaration of God’s goodness and love. It should also be musically uplifting. The imagery speaks of praise that is both fully engaged and engaging. Sometimes while standing in church on a Sunday morning, it seems to me that most people would rather still be in bed, and this attitude is reflected in the way God’s praise is sung there! Is it too much to ask that we should go to bed a little earlier on Saturday night in order to be in a better frame of mind to praise God properly on Sunday morning?
The opening verses of this psalm emphasize the importance of hearty praise of God. It is also possible that they stress the importance of praise even in difficult circumstances. If we read Psalm 81 as a response to the community laments of Psalms 79 and 80 in particular, then the call to praise is quite surprising. In Psalm 80, both psalmist and people wonder how long the exile will continue and why it has occurred in the first place. They get their answer in Psalm 81:6–16, but the opening call to praise seems incongruous in the light of their present suffering. So it may well be that the psalmist encourages the people to praise God even when they are not experiencing the type of situation in which they might naturally want to do so—hence the reminder that the festal remembrance of God in praise is a command to be obeyed (vv. 4–5), even if it is not an act we feel naturally drawn to because of present circumstances of hardship. Why so? The prophetic declaration that follows the call to praise God reminds the hearer of God’s true nature and practice. Psalms of praise were, for the Hebrews, also creedal declarations of God’s character and activity.24
In praise we are reminded of who God is and how God works, so our praises can be important in shaping our perspective on our life and present experience.
I recently encountered this principle in reality in my home church in Scotland. For some weeks, as a church family we had been praying for a newborn baby who was desperately ill from the moment of birth. For some six weeks, we prayed with a great deal of intensity for healing for this baby girl and for strength for her family. But this beautiful little baby girl died at the age of six weeks, and there was an almost tangible sense of disappointment in the church. At the evening service of the Sunday following her death, the worship leader spoke very honestly of his disappointment and anger with God. He told the congregation how he had almost resented the fact of having to prepare a service of worship after just hearing the tragic news. Nevertheless, we proceeded to praise God in song regardless of our common feeling of disappointment verging on anger. The ensuing time of worship in song—focused on the character of God—was both precious and, in some way, healing. Praise had brought hope and restored our vision of a caring, sovereign God who holds all things in his hands and knows better than we do. Community praise is important, and it is important that it is done well.
Listening to God. All Christians will readily acknowledge that it is important to pray. Unfortunately, we often think of prayer as an act of speech rather than conversation. What is more, in our twenty-first-century culture we do not, generally speaking, feel comfortable with silence. Our lives tend to be full of constant noise and bustle from TVs, iPods, elevator music, traffic noise, and the like. This predisposition toward “noise and movement” can affect our spirituality as well. Being still and quiet do not come naturally to us any longer. Yet Psalm 81 is clear that we need to listen to God. We must hear what he says and allow that to influence our lives. So it is vitally important for the spiritual health of the contemporary church that we relearn disciplines of silence and meditation.
Rather than just praying and reading the Scriptures (both of which activities can become very task orientated—we speak, God hears; we read, then we go), it is important that we also take time to listen in our personal times of devotion. How might we do so? By taking time with God. Rather than reading quickly as a task, we should read slowly and prayerfully while asking the Holy Spirit to shape our hearts and minds and wills through his word. Equally, in prayer it is important that we take time just to be in the presence of God, to sit in an attitude of prayerful stillness. In prayer we must take time to listen as well as to speak. Otherwise, we—like the Israelites—can miss God’s word of rebuke or redirection, encouragement and blessing. Christians today need to redevelop the discipline of spiritual listening.25
Original Meaning
The Call to Worship (81:1–5b)
SING FOR JOY TO GOD OUR STRENGTH. The opening verses of Psalm 81 are a real surprise for the reader of the Psalter. Since Psalm 74, we have been lost in lament over the exile of God’s people and the desecration of the temple. Psalm 80 ends with a desperate plea for restoration, and then its neighbor begins with this powerful imperative toward praise! The language of praise, of course, is not alien to the Psalms and becomes increasingly prevalent in Books 4 and 5. But this call to voluble praise is out of step with the tone of the poems of Book 3 up to this point.
Note the compelling nature of the commands that we read in these opening verses: “sing for joy . . . shout aloud . . . begin [or better, raise] the music . . . strike the timbrel . . . play the melodious harp . . . sound the ram’s horn.” As we see in many of the Psalter’s calls to praise God, there is something almost vociferous about the psalmic expectation regarding our worship of God (e.g., see Pss 47:1; 66:1; 149; 150 et al.).3
Psalmic worship is not a tepid affair—rather, it is whole-hearted and full of gusto.
There is something of a conundrum in terms of the locus of interpretation in this psalm. Verses 1–3 indicate a festival setting. The command to “sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival” (v. 3) points to an original setting in one of the great pilgrimage festivals of the Old Testament.4
Most likely Psalm 81 is to be associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated God’s protection of the Israelites during the years of their wilderness wandering (Lev 23:33–43; Num 29:12–40).5
So on the one hand the opening verses of Psalm 81 point to Israel’s festival celebrations—which imply that God’s people are in the land and worshiping in the temple.6
On the other hand, however, the canonical context (i.e., reading Ps 81 in the light of its neighbors) suggests a poem addressed to the exilic community.7
The effect of the prophetic oracle in verses 6–16 also places this psalm in the setting of the community of God’s people in exile. And if we are meant to read this psalm as a call to Israel in exile, there is something forcefully defiant about this requirement to praise. There was no temple for the people to journey to, yet they are to remember Yahweh, the Provider, just as though they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. It is almost as if the psalmist says, “Regardless of our present distress, we will praise Yahweh!” These opening verses call them to an act of vocal and musical praise in defiance of their lamentable situation. Why so?
At least part of the rationale for this praise is found in verse 1a—sing for joy to God our strength. The praise command is a reminder that God remains unchanged even in the people’s experience of distress. He is still their God (“the God of Jacob” [v. 1b]), and he is still their strength, regardless of how it might appear. Verses 5c–16 explain the reality of God’s sovereign power in much greater detail, but the opening verse immediately clarifies the object of the people’s worship. They are to sing for joy to their God, who is still their strength!8
Begin the music, strike the timbrel. The poet calls the community to offer fulsome praise to God. The emphasis on praise with loud song (v. 1) and melodious instruments (v. 2) points to heartfelt worship of Yahweh. This call is not to stifled praise out of a sense of obligation. The poet demands a strong level of engagement in the act of public worship. “Sing for joy . . . shout aloud . . . strike the timbrel . . . play the melodious harp . . . sound the ram’s horn!” The encouragement is toward an act of worship in which the people are fully engaged. The Hebrew commands are also all in the plural—the whole community is to be involved in this public proclamation of Yahweh’s worth.9
Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon. Verse 3 poses a few challenges for the reader. Normally the ram’s horn (Hebrew shophar) is associated with entry into battle (Josh 6; Judg 7), but it is also associated with the giving of the law at Sinai (Exod 19–20). (This latter point is interesting because the prophetic oracle in Psalm 81:6–16 focuses on the first commandment.) But it appears that the command to sound the ram’s horn is probably akin to the blowing of trumpets at the three great pilgrimage festivals. This act was not part of the worship itself, but it did call the people together to give their praise and offerings to Yahweh (see Lev 23:24; Num 10:10). The references to the new moon and full moon probably point, more specifically, to the Feast of Tabernacles (see Lev 23:23–34), as these celebrations encompassed both the beginning and middle of the seventh month.10
This command is an interesting one if we are meant to read Psalm 81 through the eyes of the people of God in exile. The psalmist calls on the people to celebrate God’s provision for the exodus generation in the desert, for such was the focus of the Feast of Tabernacles. The symbolism is poignant. The people in the desert after their exodus from Egypt have been released from bondage, whereas the generation of Hebrews in exile do not yet share that experience. The call is to celebrate something that they hope for intensely. They also long for the experience of God’s provision on the way to the promised land. So there is a real sense in which the psalmist’s call to worship is a call to exercise faith in the face of difficult circumstances.
This is a decree for Israel. Psalm 81:4–5b reminds the people that remembrance of the Feast of Tabernacles is commanded by Yahweh. It is an act of worship that has been ordained by God. Of course, under normal circumstances, the celebration of this feast would occur in the temple following the pilgrimage of the people. But the loss of the temple and the inability to journey there do not change the importance of the act of remembrance. Just because the feast cannot be celebrated “properly” does not mean that its root lesson should be forgotten. God’s provision for his people, which was triggered when they left Egypt (“when God went out against Egypt” [v. 5a]) must always be remembered, even amid circumstances in which that care is less than obvious to the community of faith.
It may seem strange to Christians today that worship can be commanded. We think of public worship as being an act of free expression, so commanding worship brings the genuineness of the activity into question. The command to celebrate the pilgrimage festivals, however, redresses our natural human tendencies toward forgetfulness and taking things for granted. The miracle of the exodus should never be forgotten (thus the celebration of Passover), nor should the provision of God in the harvest (thus the Feast of Weeks). Equally, the miraculous provision in the desert must be remembered (thus the Feast of Tabernacles). The danger is always that such regular celebrations become no more than routine, but the fact that they can become empty ceremony does not diminish the appropriateness of regular reminders. The psalms of Book 3 of the Psalter underline the importance of remembrance, and Psalm 81 is no different.11
If we are to think rightly about God, we must remember who he is and what he has done. This memory serves to shift our focus from the temporality of our experiences to the unchangeability of our God.
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 81 IN THE CONTEXT OF BOOK 3. Psalm 81 plays an important role in the flow of thought we can see in Book 3 of the Psalms. This third book is dominated by laments over the exile of Israel. Some seem to have a northern origin in the Israel of the divided monarchy (Pss 80; 81); others are rooted very clearly in the fall of the Jerusalem temple (e.g., Pss 74, 76, and 79); yet others seem to combine Israelite and Judahite traditions (e.g., Ps 78). But Psalm 81 is significant because it is the first psalm to provide God’s perspective on the crisis of exile. Up to this point we hear the voice of human lament over the suffering faced by the people. Those in exile want to know why this suffering has been allowed to happen, and they want to know how long their suffering will last. The voice we hear up to this point in Book 3 is very human. But now, in Psalm 81, God speaks! This change makes the psalm significant as a response to the community laments that dominate the flow from Psalm 74 onward.
As we have seen above, Psalm 81 is closely linked with Psalm 80 in terms of its response to the “Why?” and “How long?” questions of the exile. God’s answers are quite simple. Why? Because the people rejected their covenantal obligations and worshiped more than just Yahweh. How long? Until the people learn to listen to God and follow his ways again. So, Psalm 81 provides the reader with a very different perspective on Israel’s reality. As we will see below, however, Psalm 81 is also closely linked with Psalm 82, in which God speaks once again as a corrective to the attitudes that prevailed in Israel—attitudes that ultimately led to the exile. Here in Psalm 81 it is Israel’s syncretism that is condemned—their refusal to worship Yahweh alone—and also their unwillingness to listen to God and keep the covenant. As this “narrative” develops, another area of national failure that resulted in the punishment of exile is condemned in Psalm 82, namely, Israel’s failure to maintain social justice within their society.
We see both strands in the texts of the prophets. The refusal to love God, to listen to him, and to follow his ways were key factors that resulted in the exile (e.g., see Jer 7). Equally, however, the social injustices that dominated Israelite and Judahite society contributed to the divine condemnation that led to both kingdoms’ removal from the land (e.g., see Isa 1). So, Psalm 81 fills an important role as a response to the complaints of Book 3 (especially the complaints in Pss 79 and 80). Psalm 81 also begins the divine response to the complaints of the people that continues in Psalm 82.
Psalm 81 in the New Testament. Psalm 81 is not cited directly in the New Testament, but the key theme of listening to God occurs frequently in the Gospels. Central to God’s response to the people’s complaint over the crisis of exile is the expectation that they should listen and hear the message that he has been trying to teach them through their circumstances. Of course, the implication from Psalm 81 is not that the people of the community simply hear his message physically but that they hear, absorb, and respond to the rebuke constituted by their exile. We see similar language and ideas in Jesus’ warnings to his hearers in the Gospels. A frequently recurring refrain on Jesus’ lips is the challenge, “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 11:15; 13:9; 13:43). Christ’s challenge is that the people should truly listen and respond to this new message of the kingdom. It was not enough to hear—they had really to listen to what he was saying and respond accordingly. Similarly, the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation issue the same warning to listen (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The churches in Asia Minor are supposed to listen properly to God’s word to them (whether it be challenge or encouragement) and respond accordingly. Clearly, this theme of listening and responding to God continues as an important one in the New Testament.
Contemporary Significance
PRAISE GOD WELL. We will return to this line of application when we discuss psalms later in the Psalter (esp. Pss 146–50), but here it is worth pointing out the importance of praising God properly. Psalm 81:1–3 encourages us to holistic and wholehearted praise of God. Our praise should involve joyful shouting and loud declaration of God’s goodness and love. It should also be musically uplifting. The imagery speaks of praise that is both fully engaged and engaging. Sometimes while standing in church on a Sunday morning, it seems to me that most people would rather still be in bed, and this attitude is reflected in the way God’s praise is sung there! Is it too much to ask that we should go to bed a little earlier on Saturday night in order to be in a better frame of mind to praise God properly on Sunday morning?
The opening verses of this psalm emphasize the importance of hearty praise of God. It is also possible that they stress the importance of praise even in difficult circumstances. If we read Psalm 81 as a response to the community laments of Psalms 79 and 80 in particular, then the call to praise is quite surprising. In Psalm 80, both psalmist and people wonder how long the exile will continue and why it has occurred in the first place. They get their answer in Psalm 81:6–16, but the opening call to praise seems incongruous in the light of their present suffering. So it may well be that the psalmist encourages the people to praise God even when they are not experiencing the type of situation in which they might naturally want to do so—hence the reminder that the festal remembrance of God in praise is a command to be obeyed (vv. 4–5), even if it is not an act we feel naturally drawn to because of present circumstances of hardship. Why so? The prophetic declaration that follows the call to praise God reminds the hearer of God’s true nature and practice. Psalms of praise were, for the Hebrews, also creedal declarations of God’s character and activity.24
In praise we are reminded of who God is and how God works, so our praises can be important in shaping our perspective on our life and present experience.
I recently encountered this principle in reality in my home church in Scotland. For some weeks, as a church family we had been praying for a newborn baby who was desperately ill from the moment of birth. For some six weeks, we prayed with a great deal of intensity for healing for this baby girl and for strength for her family. But this beautiful little baby girl died at the age of six weeks, and there was an almost tangible sense of disappointment in the church. At the evening service of the Sunday following her death, the worship leader spoke very honestly of his disappointment and anger with God. He told the congregation how he had almost resented the fact of having to prepare a service of worship after just hearing the tragic news. Nevertheless, we proceeded to praise God in song regardless of our common feeling of disappointment verging on anger. The ensuing time of worship in song—focused on the character of God—was both precious and, in some way, healing. Praise had brought hope and restored our vision of a caring, sovereign God who holds all things in his hands and knows better than we do. Community praise is important, and it is important that it is done well.
Listening to God. All Christians will readily acknowledge that it is important to pray. Unfortunately, we often think of prayer as an act of speech rather than conversation. What is more, in our twenty-first-century culture we do not, generally speaking, feel comfortable with silence. Our lives tend to be full of constant noise and bustle from TVs, iPods, elevator music, traffic noise, and the like. This predisposition toward “noise and movement” can affect our spirituality as well. Being still and quiet do not come naturally to us any longer. Yet Psalm 81 is clear that we need to listen to God. We must hear what he says and allow that to influence our lives. So it is vitally important for the spiritual health of the contemporary church that we relearn disciplines of silence and meditation.
Rather than just praying and reading the Scriptures (both of which activities can become very task orientated—we speak, God hears; we read, then we go), it is important that we also take time to listen in our personal times of devotion. How might we do so? By taking time with God. Rather than reading quickly as a task, we should read slowly and prayerfully while asking the Holy Spirit to shape our hearts and minds and wills through his word. Equally, in prayer it is important that we take time just to be in the presence of God, to sit in an attitude of prayerful stillness. In prayer we must take time to listen as well as to speak. Otherwise, we—like the Israelites—can miss God’s word of rebuke or redirection, encouragement and blessing. Christians today need to redevelop the discipline of spiritual listening.25
Original Meaning
The Call to Worship (81:1–5b)
SING FOR JOY TO GOD OUR STRENGTH. The opening verses of Psalm 81 are a real surprise for the reader of the Psalter. Since Psalm 74, we have been lost in lament over the exile of God’s people and the desecration of the temple. Psalm 80 ends with a desperate plea for restoration, and then its neighbor begins with this powerful imperative toward praise! The language of praise, of course, is not alien to the Psalms and becomes increasingly prevalent in Books 4 and 5. But this call to voluble praise is out of step with the tone of the poems of Book 3 up to this point.
Note the compelling nature of the commands that we read in these opening verses: “sing for joy . . . shout aloud . . . begin [or better, raise] the music . . . strike the timbrel . . . play the melodious harp . . . sound the ram’s horn.” As we see in many of the Psalter’s calls to praise God, there is something almost vociferous about the psalmic expectation regarding our worship of God (e.g., see Pss 47:1; 66:1; 149; 150 et al.).3
Psalmic worship is not a tepid affair—rather, it is whole-hearted and full of gusto.
There is something of a conundrum in terms of the locus of interpretation in this psalm. Verses 1–3 indicate a festival setting. The command to “sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival” (v. 3) points to an original setting in one of the great pilgrimage festivals of the Old Testament.4
Most likely Psalm 81 is to be associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated God’s protection of the Israelites during the years of their wilderness wandering (Lev 23:33–43; Num 29:12–40).5
So on the one hand the opening verses of Psalm 81 point to Israel’s festival celebrations—which imply that God’s people are in the land and worshiping in the temple.6
On the other hand, however, the canonical context (i.e., reading Ps 81 in the light of its neighbors) suggests a poem addressed to the exilic community.7
The effect of the prophetic oracle in verses 6–16 also places this psalm in the setting of the community of God’s people in exile. And if we are meant to read this psalm as a call to Israel in exile, there is something forcefully defiant about this requirement to praise. There was no temple for the people to journey to, yet they are to remember Yahweh, the Provider, just as though they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. It is almost as if the psalmist says, “Regardless of our present distress, we will praise Yahweh!” These opening verses call them to an act of vocal and musical praise in defiance of their lamentable situation. Why so?
At least part of the rationale for this praise is found in verse 1a—sing for joy to God our strength. The praise command is a reminder that God remains unchanged even in the people’s experience of distress. He is still their God (“the God of Jacob” [v. 1b]), and he is still their strength, regardless of how it might appear. Verses 5c–16 explain the reality of God’s sovereign power in much greater detail, but the opening verse immediately clarifies the object of the people’s worship. They are to sing for joy to their God, who is still their strength!8
Begin the music, strike the timbrel. The poet calls the community to offer fulsome praise to God. The emphasis on praise with loud song (v. 1) and melodious instruments (v. 2) points to heartfelt worship of Yahweh. This call is not to stifled praise out of a sense of obligation. The poet demands a strong level of engagement in the act of public worship. “Sing for joy . . . shout aloud . . . strike the timbrel . . . play the melodious harp . . . sound the ram’s horn!” The encouragement is toward an act of worship in which the people are fully engaged. The Hebrew commands are also all in the plural—the whole community is to be involved in this public proclamation of Yahweh’s worth.9
Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon. Verse 3 poses a few challenges for the reader. Normally the ram’s horn (Hebrew shophar) is associated with entry into battle (Josh 6; Judg 7), but it is also associated with the giving of the law at Sinai (Exod 19–20). (This latter point is interesting because the prophetic oracle in Psalm 81:6–16 focuses on the first commandment.) But it appears that the command to sound the ram’s horn is probably akin to the blowing of trumpets at the three great pilgrimage festivals. This act was not part of the worship itself, but it did call the people together to give their praise and offerings to Yahweh (see Lev 23:24; Num 10:10). The references to the new moon and full moon probably point, more specifically, to the Feast of Tabernacles (see Lev 23:23–34), as these celebrations encompassed both the beginning and middle of the seventh month.10
This command is an interesting one if we are meant to read Psalm 81 through the eyes of the people of God in exile. The psalmist calls on the people to celebrate God’s provision for the exodus generation in the desert, for such was the focus of the Feast of Tabernacles. The symbolism is poignant. The people in the desert after their exodus from Egypt have been released from bondage, whereas the generation of Hebrews in exile do not yet share that experience. The call is to celebrate something that they hope for intensely. They also long for the experience of God’s provision on the way to the promised land. So there is a real sense in which the psalmist’s call to worship is a call to exercise faith in the face of difficult circumstances.
This is a decree for Israel. Psalm 81:4–5b reminds the people that remembrance of the Feast of Tabernacles is commanded by Yahweh. It is an act of worship that has been ordained by God. Of course, under normal circumstances, the celebration of this feast would occur in the temple following the pilgrimage of the people. But the loss of the temple and the inability to journey there do not change the importance of the act of remembrance. Just because the feast cannot be celebrated “properly” does not mean that its root lesson should be forgotten. God’s provision for his people, which was triggered when they left Egypt (“when God went out against Egypt” [v. 5a]) must always be remembered, even amid circumstances in which that care is less than obvious to the community of faith.
It may seem strange to Christians today that worship can be commanded. We think of public worship as being an act of free expression, so commanding worship brings the genuineness of the activity into question. The command to celebrate the pilgrimage festivals, however, redresses our natural human tendencies toward forgetfulness and taking things for granted. The miracle of the exodus should never be forgotten (thus the celebration of Passover), nor should the provision of God in the harvest (thus the Feast of Weeks). Equally, the miraculous provision in the desert must be remembered (thus the Feast of Tabernacles). The danger is always that such regular celebrations become no more than routine, but the fact that they can become empty ceremony does not diminish the appropriateness of regular reminders. The psalms of Book 3 of the Psalter underline the importance of remembrance, and Psalm 81 is no different.11
If we are to think rightly about God, we must remember who he is and what he has done. This memory serves to shift our focus from the temporality of our experiences to the unchangeability of our God.
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 81 IN THE CONTEXT OF BOOK 3. Psalm 81 plays an important role in the flow of thought we can see in Book 3 of the Psalms. This third book is dominated by laments over the exile of Israel. Some seem to have a northern origin in the Israel of the divided monarchy (Pss 80; 81); others are rooted very clearly in the fall of the Jerusalem temple (e.g., Pss 74, 76, and 79); yet others seem to combine Israelite and Judahite traditions (e.g., Ps 78). But Psalm 81 is significant because it is the first psalm to provide God’s perspective on the crisis of exile. Up to this point we hear the voice of human lament over the suffering faced by the people. Those in exile want to know why this suffering has been allowed to happen, and they want to know how long their suffering will last. The voice we hear up to this point in Book 3 is very human. But now, in Psalm 81, God speaks! This change makes the psalm significant as a response to the community laments that dominate the flow from Psalm 74 onward.
As we have seen above, Psalm 81 is closely linked with Psalm 80 in terms of its response to the “Why?” and “How long?” questions of the exile. God’s answers are quite simple. Why? Because the people rejected their covenantal obligations and worshiped more than just Yahweh. How long? Until the people learn to listen to God and follow his ways again. So, Psalm 81 provides the reader with a very different perspective on Israel’s reality. As we will see below, however, Psalm 81 is also closely linked with Psalm 82, in which God speaks once again as a corrective to the attitudes that prevailed in Israel—attitudes that ultimately led to the exile. Here in Psalm 81 it is Israel’s syncretism that is condemned—their refusal to worship Yahweh alone—and also their unwillingness to listen to God and keep the covenant. As this “narrative” develops, another area of national failure that resulted in the punishment of exile is condemned in Psalm 82, namely, Israel’s failure to maintain social justice within their society.
We see both strands in the texts of the prophets. The refusal to love God, to listen to him, and to follow his ways were key factors that resulted in the exile (e.g., see Jer 7). Equally, however, the social injustices that dominated Israelite and Judahite society contributed to the divine condemnation that led to both kingdoms’ removal from the land (e.g., see Isa 1). So, Psalm 81 fills an important role as a response to the complaints of Book 3 (especially the complaints in Pss 79 and 80). Psalm 81 also begins the divine response to the complaints of the people that continues in Psalm 82.
Psalm 81 in the New Testament. Psalm 81 is not cited directly in the New Testament, but the key theme of listening to God occurs frequently in the Gospels. Central to God’s response to the people’s complaint over the crisis of exile is the expectation that they should listen and hear the message that he has been trying to teach them through their circumstances. Of course, the implication from Psalm 81 is not that the people of the community simply hear his message physically but that they hear, absorb, and respond to the rebuke constituted by their exile. We see similar language and ideas in Jesus’ warnings to his hearers in the Gospels. A frequently recurring refrain on Jesus’ lips is the challenge, “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 11:15; 13:9; 13:43). Christ’s challenge is that the people should truly listen and respond to this new message of the kingdom. It was not enough to hear—they had really to listen to what he was saying and respond accordingly. Similarly, the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation issue the same warning to listen (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The churches in Asia Minor are supposed to listen properly to God’s word to them (whether it be challenge or encouragement) and respond accordingly. Clearly, this theme of listening and responding to God continues as an important one in the New Testament.
Contemporary Significance
PRAISE GOD WELL. We will return to this line of application when we discuss psalms later in the Psalter (esp. Pss 146–50), but here it is worth pointing out the importance of praising God properly. Psalm 81:1–3 encourages us to holistic and wholehearted praise of God. Our praise should involve joyful shouting and loud declaration of God’s goodness and love. It should also be musically uplifting. The imagery speaks of praise that is both fully engaged and engaging. Sometimes while standing in church on a Sunday morning, it seems to me that most people would rather still be in bed, and this attitude is reflected in the way God’s praise is sung there! Is it too much to ask that we should go to bed a little earlier on Saturday night in order to be in a better frame of mind to praise God properly on Sunday morning?
The opening verses of this psalm emphasize the importance of hearty praise of God. It is also possible that they stress the importance of praise even in difficult circumstances. If we read Psalm 81 as a response to the community laments of Psalms 79 and 80 in particular, then the call to praise is quite surprising. In Psalm 80, both psalmist and people wonder how long the exile will continue and why it has occurred in the first place. They get their answer in Psalm 81:6–16, but the opening call to praise seems incongruous in the light of their present suffering. So it may well be that the psalmist encourages the people to praise God even when they are not experiencing the type of situation in which they might naturally want to do so—hence the reminder that the festal remembrance of God in praise is a command to be obeyed (vv. 4–5), even if it is not an act we feel naturally drawn to because of present circumstances of hardship. Why so? The prophetic declaration that follows the call to praise God reminds the hearer of God’s true nature and practice. Psalms of praise were, for the Hebrews, also creedal declarations of God’s character and activity.24
In praise we are reminded of who God is and how God works, so our praises can be important in shaping our perspective on our life and present experience.
I recently encountered this principle in reality in my home church in Scotland. For some weeks, as a church family we had been praying for a newborn baby who was desperately ill from the moment of birth. For some six weeks, we prayed with a great deal of intensity for healing for this baby girl and for strength for her family. But this beautiful little baby girl died at the age of six weeks, and there was an almost tangible sense of disappointment in the church. At the evening service of the Sunday following her death, the worship leader spoke very honestly of his disappointment and anger with God. He told the congregation how he had almost resented the fact of having to prepare a service of worship after just hearing the tragic news. Nevertheless, we proceeded to praise God in song regardless of our common feeling of disappointment verging on anger. The ensuing time of worship in song—focused on the character of God—was both precious and, in some way, healing. Praise had brought hope and restored our vision of a caring, sovereign God who holds all things in his hands and knows better than we do. Community praise is important, and it is important that it is done well.
Listening to God. All Christians will readily acknowledge that it is important to pray. Unfortunately, we often think of prayer as an act of speech rather than conversation. What is more, in our twenty-first-century culture we do not, generally speaking, feel comfortable with silence. Our lives tend to be full of constant noise and bustle from TVs, iPods, elevator music, traffic noise, and the like. This predisposition toward “noise and movement” can affect our spirituality as well. Being still and quiet do not come naturally to us any longer. Yet Psalm 81 is clear that we need to listen to God. We must hear what he says and allow that to influence our lives. So it is vitally important for the spiritual health of the contemporary church that we relearn disciplines of silence and meditation.
Rather than just praying and reading the Scriptures (both of which activities can become very task orientated—we speak, God hears; we read, then we go), it is important that we also take time to listen in our personal times of devotion. How might we do so? By taking time with God. Rather than reading quickly as a task, we should read slowly and prayerfully while asking the Holy Spirit to shape our hearts and minds and wills through his word. Equally, in prayer it is important that we take time just to be in the presence of God, to sit in an attitude of prayerful stillness. In prayer we must take time to listen as well as to speak. Otherwise, we—like the Israelites—can miss God’s word of rebuke or redirection, encouragement and blessing. Christians today need to redevelop the discipline of spiritual listening.25
Original Meaning
The Prophetic Oracle: Part 2 (81:11–16)
THE SAME THEMES OF LISTENING, trust, and obedience are developed again in the second part of the prophetic oracle.
But my people would not listen to me. The people’s failure to keep the terms of the covenant made at Sinai is key for the reply of Psalm 81 to the questions of Psalm 80. In Psalm 80 the psalmist asks God “Why?” and “How long?” with regard to the exile. The second part of Yahweh’s soliloquy in Psalm 81:11–16 answers both questions. First, the answer to the “Why?” question of Psalm 80:12 comes in Psalm 81:11–12. The exile occurred because Israel would not listen! Nor would they submit to God. The point of these verses is that, in the Sinai covenant and its restatement in Deuteronomy (cf. Ps 81:8–10), God told his people how they should live, but they refused to listen and obey. He had laid out a plan for life in community based on the two tablets of the law. Israel was called to live in right relationship with Yahweh and right relationship with one another, but the prophets make it clear that they did neither one. They refused to listen to God’s original plan, they refused to listen to the rebuke and redirection of the prophets, and they refused to change their behavior. These refusals give the reason why the exile happened. Exile was the ultimate tool in God’s hand to lead his people back to repentance (cf. Deut 28:64–68).
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. Literally, the Hebrew text of Psalm 81:12 says, “So I sent them off in their stubbornness of heart, so they could follow their own counsel.” The point made is that the people would not bend, so God allowed them to experience the consequences of their own worldview. They prioritized their own wisdom over God’s and ended up bearing the consequences of that decision.22
Their refusal to worship Yahweh alone ultimately led to their forced worship of gods of wood and stone in exile. So Yahweh, through Psalm 81’s prophetic voice, answers the “Why?” question: the exile occurred because Israel would not listen.
If my people would only listen to me. The prophet-poet’s answer to the “How long?” question follows in verse 13. How long will the exile last? Well, if the people would finally listen, they would then see just how quickly Yahweh responds to their change of heart! In this verse there is an element of appeal in the words of the Lord. It is as though God is simply longing for his people finally to hear what he has been saying to them all along, and, as soon as they do so, they will witness the outpouring of his grace, restoration, and liberation, as did the exodus generation so many years earlier. Once again, the importance of listening properly is paramount in terms of the dynamic that must come into play before the people will be released from exile. “The essence of Israel’s identity as God’s people is found in the ability to listen. For not listening Israel was punished (v. 12). If only she would again listen, God would rescue and provide for her.”23
How quickly would I subdue their enemies. Restoration is focused on two factors in the closing verses of Psalm 81. The first factor is political renewal in the defeat of Israel’s enemies. Reading this poem as original to the exilic setting would point to liberation from Israel’s present captivity. Reading the psalm from a postexilic perspective would mean that it points to a renewal of Israel’s disappointing fortunes following the community’s return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple and city. Once again the Warrior God would fight on Israel’s side (cf. Ps 80), and the enemies of his people would feel the fullness of his power (Ps 81:15)—the same power that was poured out on Egypt, one of the world’s great superpowers at the time of the exodus.
But you would be fed with the finest of wheat. The second focus of the restoration that would follow the people’s active repentance is voiced in terms of provision. Just as Israel experienced God’s power in the exodus, so also they experienced his great provision in the desert wanderings. Equally, here in Psalm 81 power is promised for the defeat of enemies and provision is promised as a sign of God’s rich blessing. Not just any old food will be given—rather, the people will be fed with the choicest grain. The divine source of this splendid provision is implied in the idea of “honey from the rock.” Honey is inevitably associated with the good produce promised in the land of Canaan, and the combination of honey from the rock with choice grain is probably to be associated with Deuteronomy 32:13–14. God’s desire is to bless his restored people in the same way that he blessed them in the beginning. This imagery speaks of God’s abundant blessing on his children if they will but listen and follow his ways rather than rebelling and following their own (Ps 81:13).
There is an intriguing open-endedness about the close of Psalm 81. “If only my people would listen, then they would know my blessing.” The question is left hanging, “Will they listen and respond appropriately?” The openness of the conclusion makes it a vital question addressed to every generation of God’s people. Will we listen to God, or will we follow our own wisdom?
Bridging Contexts
PSALM 81 IN THE CONTEXT OF BOOK 3. Psalm 81 plays an important role in the flow of thought we can see in Book 3 of the Psalms. This third book is dominated by laments over the exile of Israel. Some seem to have a northern origin in the Israel of the divided monarchy (Pss 80; 81); others are rooted very clearly in the fall of the Jerusalem temple (e.g., Pss 74, 76, and 79); yet others seem to combine Israelite and Judahite traditions (e.g., Ps 78). But Psalm 81 is significant because it is the first psalm to provide God’s perspective on the crisis of exile. Up to this point we hear the voice of human lament over the suffering faced by the people. Those in exile want to know why this suffering has been allowed to happen, and they want to know how long their suffering will last. The voice we hear up to this point in Book 3 is very human. But now, in Psalm 81, God speaks! This change makes the psalm significant as a response to the community laments that dominate the flow from Psalm 74 onward.
As we have seen above, Psalm 81 is closely linked with Psalm 80 in terms of its response to the “Why?” and “How long?” questions of the exile. God’s answers are quite simple. Why? Because the people rejected their covenantal obligations and worshiped more than just Yahweh. How long? Until the people learn to listen to God and follow his ways again. So, Psalm 81 provides the reader with a very different perspective on Israel’s reality. As we will see below, however, Psalm 81 is also closely linked with Psalm 82, in which God speaks once again as a corrective to the attitudes that prevailed in Israel—attitudes that ultimately led to the exile. Here in Psalm 81 it is Israel’s syncretism that is condemned—their refusal to worship Yahweh alone—and also their unwillingness to listen to God and keep the covenant. As this “narrative” develops, another area of national failure that resulted in the punishment of exile is condemned in Psalm 82, namely, Israel’s failure to maintain social justice within their society.
We see both strands in the texts of the prophets. The refusal to love God, to listen to him, and to follow his ways were key factors that resulted in the exile (e.g., see Jer 7). Equally, however, the social injustices that dominated Israelite and Judahite society contributed to the divine condemnation that led to both kingdoms’ removal from the land (e.g., see Isa 1). So, Psalm 81 fills an important role as a response to the complaints of Book 3 (especially the complaints in Pss 79 and 80). Psalm 81 also begins the divine response to the complaints of the people that continues in Psalm 82.
Psalm 81 in the New Testament. Psalm 81 is not cited directly in the New Testament, but the key theme of listening to God occurs frequently in the Gospels. Central to God’s response to the people’s complaint over the crisis of exile is the expectation that they should listen and hear the message that he has been trying to teach them through their circumstances. Of course, the implication from Psalm 81 is not that the people of the community simply hear his message physically but that they hear, absorb, and respond to the rebuke constituted by their exile. We see similar language and ideas in Jesus’ warnings to his hearers in the Gospels. A frequently recurring refrain on Jesus’ lips is the challenge, “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 11:15; 13:9; 13:43). Christ’s challenge is that the people should truly listen and respond to this new message of the kingdom. It was not enough to hear—they had really to listen to what he was saying and respond accordingly. Similarly, the letters to the churches in the book of Revelation issue the same warning to listen (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The churches in Asia Minor are supposed to listen properly to God’s word to them (whether it be challenge or encouragement) and respond accordingly. Clearly, this theme of listening and responding to God continues as an important one in the New Testament.
Contemporary Significance
PRAISE GOD WELL. We will return to this line of application when we discuss psalms later in the Psalter (esp. Pss 146–50), but here it is worth pointing out the importance of praising God properly. Psalm 81:1–3 encourages us to holistic and wholehearted praise of God. Our praise should involve joyful shouting and loud declaration of God’s goodness and love. It should also be musically uplifting. The imagery speaks of praise that is both fully engaged and engaging. Sometimes while standing in church on a Sunday morning, it seems to me that most people would rather still be in bed, and this attitude is reflected in the way God’s praise is sung there! Is it too much to ask that we should go to bed a little earlier on Saturday night in order to be in a better frame of mind to praise God properly on Sunday morning?
The opening verses of this psalm emphasize the importance of hearty praise of God. It is also possible that they stress the importance of praise even in difficult circumstances. If we read Psalm 81 as a response to the community laments of Psalms 79 and 80 in particular, then the call to praise is quite surprising. In Psalm 80, both psalmist and people wonder how long the exile will continue and why it has occurred in the first place. They get their answer in Psalm 81:6–16, but the opening call to praise seems incongruous in the light of their present suffering. So it may well be that the psalmist encourages the people to praise God even when they are not experiencing the type of situation in which they might naturally want to do so—hence the reminder that the festal remembrance of God in praise is a command to be obeyed (vv. 4–5), even if it is not an act we feel naturally drawn to because of present circumstances of hardship. Why so? The prophetic declaration that follows the call to praise God reminds the hearer of God’s true nature and practice. Psalms of praise were, for the Hebrews, also creedal declarations of God’s character and activity.24
In praise we are reminded of who God is and how God works, so our praises can be important in shaping our perspective on our life and present experience.
I recently encountered this principle in reality in my home church in Scotland. For some weeks, as a church family we had been praying for a newborn baby who was desperately ill from the moment of birth. For some six weeks, we prayed with a great deal of intensity for healing for this baby girl and for strength for her family. But this beautiful little baby girl died at the age of six weeks, and there was an almost tangible sense of disappointment in the church. At the evening service of the Sunday following her death, the worship leader spoke very honestly of his disappointment and anger with God. He told the congregation how he had almost resented the fact of having to prepare a service of worship after just hearing the tragic news. Nevertheless, we proceeded to praise God in song regardless of our common feeling of disappointment verging on anger. The ensuing time of worship in song—focused on the character of God—was both precious and, in some way, healing. Praise had brought hope and restored our vision of a caring, sovereign God who holds all things in his hands and knows better than we do. Community praise is important, and it is important that it is done well.
Listening to God. All Christians will readily acknowledge that it is important to pray. Unfortunately, we often think of prayer as an act of speech rather than conversation. What is more, in our twenty-first-century culture we do not, generally speaking, feel comfortable with silence. Our lives tend to be full of constant noise and bustle from TVs, iPods, elevator music, traffic noise, and the like. This predisposition toward “noise and movement” can affect our spirituality as well. Being still and quiet do not come naturally to us any longer. Yet Psalm 81 is clear that we need to listen to God. We must hear what he says and allow that to influence our lives. So it is vitally important for the spiritual health of the contemporary church that we relearn disciplines of silence and meditation.
Rather than just praying and reading the Scriptures (both of which activities can become very task orientated—we speak, God hears; we read, then we go), it is important that we also take time to listen in our personal times of devotion. How might we do so? By taking time with God. Rather than reading quickly as a task, we should read slowly and prayerfully while asking the Holy Spirit to shape our hearts and minds and wills through his word. Equally, in prayer it is important that we take time just to be in the presence of God, to sit in an attitude of prayerful stillness. In prayer we must take time to listen as well as to speak. Otherwise, we—like the Israelites—can miss God’s word of rebuke or redirection, encouragement and blessing. Christians today need to redevelop the discipline of spiritual listening.25
