Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 81
The lxxxi. PSALM.
The Psalmist quickens up the people of Israel to pour out praises to God, as God himself also hath commanded them to do, for all his mercies to them, specially that great deliverance out of Egypt, and by way of caution hints notwithstanding Israels ingratitude, and unmindfulness of Gods providence and goodness, at the bitter waters in the wilderness, where they murmured and believed not, as also after in Canaan, which cost them full dear, who else had been always a prosperous people, and their land a plentifull land.
To him that is most skilfull upon Gittith, Psalm lxxxi. To the chief musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph.the instrument used by Obed-edom the Gittite and his family, do I Asaph that made this Psalm commit it for his ordering it in the Quire.
1 AS we have received mercies and favours of great extraordinary natures from God,1SIng aloud unto God ourstrength: make a joyfull noise unto the God of jacob. so let our praises be sutable, with heart and voice let all Israel in their solemn conventions magnifie the Lord, & acknowledge all those great things thankfully, which by a mighty hand he hath done and wrought for them; Let them with infinite exultation and confidence in God as theirs, be loud and large in their praises.
2Take a Psalm, & bring hither the timbrel: the pleasant harp with the Psaltery.2 All we can do will be too little, and come short of what the Lord demerits, but let not us be wanting to the utmost of our power, but with voice and instrument, yea, all manner of musicall instruments, one and other, specially the sweetest and choicest of them, let us sound forth his praises, that heaven and earth may ring of us.
3Blow up the trumpet in the new moon: in the time appointed on our solemn fea…t day.3 Be sure when you celebrate those solemn festivities appointed in the law, as the new moon &c. That you perform it in a faithfull chearfull manner▪ and express it heartily by sound of trumpet, and all other wayes as may most testifie your inward joy, and best enliven it.
4For this was a statute for Israel: and a law of the God of Jacob.4 This you ought to do not onelyonly of gratuity, but also of duty, for God doth not onelyonly deserve it, but hath expresly enjoyned it, as a statute and everlasting law for Israel to yield obedience to, even these solemn meetings, for solemn thanksgivings appointed of old by the God of our forefather Jacob.
5This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.5 Even then did he institute it, when Josephs posterity had the precedency among all the Tribes, not Judah as now it is, ever since the time that God destroied the first born in Egypt, and thereupon ordained the Passeover, when miraculously he brought us out thence, from being imbondaged under a people whom we understood not, saving by blows as beasts do men, they not speaking our language nor we theirs; a people strange to God, and as strangely using his Church, that uncomfortably sojourned amongst them without civil converse.
6I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.6 From the wofull slavery and cruell bondage of those Egyptian Tyrants and Task-masters, did God by a strong hand wonderfully deliver us, and made us free-men to serve him of bondmen, serving them in hard labour of bearing burdens, and doing base offices of brick-clamping, and pot-making in kills & furnaces.
7 Thou criedst unto me (sayes God) in thy bondage in Egypt,7Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. after also in thy danger at the red sea, and I, thou knowst, heard thee, and by a mighty hand and apparent signs of favour delivered thee from the one & the other, from on high plaguing and troubling thine enemies the Egyptians with thunder and lightning, and delivering thee; which I thought thou wouldst have remembred, and for which I could not but believe thou wouldst have been thankfull, and believing in my grace and providence in after-times, but did I find it so, when I tried thy faith, meekness, and patience a little after at the waters of strife? no, thou knowst I did not.
8, 9, 10 Where yet for all thine ungratefull murmurings,8Hear O my people and I will testifie unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. thou remembrest I did not reject thee, nor so much as punish thee,9There shall no strange God be in thee: neither shalt thou worship any strange God. but took occasion thence to enter and renew my covenant with thee, and to take thee into my service, and make further proof of thee, whereupon I made a statute and an ordinance,10I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. that if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and walk as my people before me, in obedience of those laws which I shall give thee, worshipping none but me, and keeping your distance to all other Gods, worshipped by those that are not my people, chusing me onelyonly for yours, by the same token I powerfully and with such sign of favour brought you out of the land of Egypt, the Type indeed of a nearer spirituall relation, whereby we are or ought to be united; that then if thou wouldest but do thus, if ever thou wantedst what thou wouldst have, and was usefull for thee, it should not be because I would not give it, for then would I withhold no needfull blessings from thee, but because thou didst not ask it, the fault should be thine and not mine, if in the faith of my gracious covenant-engagements, and their often performances, thou wilt confidingly importune me, and obedientially walk with me, so doing, and so praying, I will deny thee nothing, but supply all thy wants, satisfie all thy desires, and give thee abundant cause of praise.
11But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.11 But for all that I could do or say, these people that I had done so much for, and said much to, to perswade and draw them to me, though I had engaged and obliged them all the ways in the world, by covenanting with them, working miracles for them, making choice of them, giving laws to them, yet they would not be prevaild withall to obey my commands, nor believe in my promises, but ungratefully and rebelliously rejected me and my service, and distrusted my faithfulness.
12So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust: and they walked in their own counsels.12 Insomuch as I was quite tired out with them, when I saw all my labour lost, my goodness abused, and mine advice slighted, so that at last I even suspended my dispensations, left them to do as they list, what their own wicked hearts prompted to, to follow the dictates of their corrupt and carnall judgements, and I never so much as said why do you so. But it was little for their profit.
13O that my people had hearkned unto me: and Israel had walked in my ways!13 O that this ungratefull back-sliding people of mine, whom I have loved so well for their fathers sakes, had but obeyed my voice, believed in the promises, & kept the commandments which I gave them.
14 It should not have been with them,14I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. as it was by their own folly and stubbornness, the enemy should never have so often got the better of them, but according to my promise and former providences, I would have been sure to deliver them, and have made quick dispatch of their adversaries (as they may remember I did by the Egyptians) and made them as much in bondage to my people, as they were to them; if their sins had not stood in my way, they had been happy and flourishing, for I would have turned the scales, and made them as much over-weight to their enemies, as they were to them; for it was from me that they prevailed, which they should never have done, but perpetually have gone by the worse: if my people had not failed of their duty, I would not have failed of my mercy to them, and judgements upon their foes.
15 Those wicked heathenish nations,15The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him; but their time should have endured for ever. that so oft oppressed them, and warred upon them out of a hatred to them (I know) as being my people, I would have made them stoop to their yoak, been bond-men and tributaries to them, who should never have known what infelicity had meant, but have been ever prosperous and fruitfull.
16 And whereas their land,16He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied them. the land of promise, which God undertook should be so fruitfull and plentifull for them, was instead thereof fruitless and barren many times, and they hunger-bit and starved, they may thank themselves, their sins kept off his blessings, else they should neither have wanted things necessary nor convenient for profit or pleasure, to sustain nature or to delight it, for God would have made the land exceeding fruitfull, and abundantly productive of all requisite provision, so that they should have eaten the fat and drunk the sweet, yea, the most craggy and barren places, he would have caused extraordinarily to have yielded them much pleasure, and store of deliverances. The earth should have been like store-houses, and the rocks like hives.