Psalms 81:1 - Meaning and Application

When God’s people were gathered on the solemn feast day, they were reminded that they had work to do. We do not go to worship to sleep or waste time, but to do the day’s duty in its proper time. Here the worshipers of God are stirred up to their task, and by singing this psalm they encourage themselves and one another, Psalm 81:1-3.

Their main work is to give God the glory due to his name. In every church gathering, that must be our focus. We should think of God as our strength, the God of Jacob, Psalm 81:1. He is the strength of Israel as a people, because he is in covenant with them, meaning he has bound himself to protect, support, and rescue them. He fights for them, makes them strong, and gives them victory. He is also the strength of each believer, because his grace enables us to carry out our service, endure suffering, and face conflict.

We must praise him with every expression of holy joy and triumph. In that time, people did this with instruments such as the timbrel, harp, and psaltery, and by blowing the trumpet. Some think the trumpet reminded them of the sound on Mount Sinai, where the trumpet grew louder and louder. Today, as then, this is done by singing psalms, singing loudly, and making a joyful noise. The sweetness of the harp and the seriousness of the trumpet show that God should be worshiped with gladness and with reverence and godly fear.

Singing aloud and making a joyful noise also show that we should praise God with warmth and sincere feeling. We should gladly show his praise, without shame, as people who freely own our dependence on him and our duty to him. We should also join together with many others in this work, because the more voices, the more it resembles heaven. This praise must also be offered at the appointed time. No time is wrong for praising God, but some times are set apart so that we may gather together and praise him in one voice. The solemn feast day was to be a day of praise, especially when God’s gifts were being received and enjoyed.

They are also given direction in their work. First, they must look to the command that established it. In all worship, we must keep God’s instruction in view, Psalm 81:4. This was a statute for Israel, a law from the God of Jacob, and all the children of Jacob were bound by it. Praising God is not only a good thing to do, it is a duty we are required to do. We act at our own risk if we neglect it. In all worship, we should ask whether God has commanded it, because that is our warrant and rule. Then we can say, “I do this because God has commanded it, and so I trust that he will accept me.” That is worship done in faith.

Second, they must look back on the works of God’s providence that this feast was meant to remember. This solemn service was given as a testimony, Psalm 81:5, a standing witness to the facts. It reminded Israel of what God had done for their fathers, and it would stand against them if they ignored and forgot those acts. The psalmist, speaking for the people, recalls God’s great work on Israel’s behalf, which was kept in memory by this and other holy times, Psalm 81:5.

When God moved against the land of Egypt to lay it waste and force Pharaoh to let Israel go, he appointed solemn feast days to be kept forever through their generations, especially the Passover. That may be what is meant by the solemn feast day, Psalm 81:3. The Passover was set in place when God passed through Egypt to strike the firstborn and passed over the houses of the Israelites, Exodus 12:23-24. By this feast, that wonder was to be remembered forever, so that every generation could see both God’s kindness and his severity.

The psalmist also points out a detail that made their slavery worse: in Egypt they heard a language they did not understand. They were strangers in a strange land. The Egyptians and the Hebrews did not understand one another’s speech, since Joseph spoke through an interpreter to his brothers, Genesis 42:23, and the Egyptians are described as a people of a strange language, Psalm 114:1. When we remember deliverance, it helps to think clearly about how bitter the trouble was, so that the rescue appears even more gracious and glorious.

Then the psalmist, speaking in God’s name, reminds them of the details of their deliverance, Psalm 81:6. God says, “I removed the burden from your shoulder.” They should remember that he brought them out of the house of bondage and took away the weight of oppression under which they were about to sink. He freed their hands from the baskets, pots, or panniers in which they carried clay or bricks. Deliverance from slavery is a very great mercy, and it should never be forgotten.

But that was not all. God also rescued them at the Red Sea. Then they called out in trouble, and he saved them and ruined their enemies’ plans, Exodus 14:10. He answered them from the secret place of thunder, which may mean the pillar of fire, through which God looked at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion, Exodus 14:24-25. It may also refer to the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, the secret place where no one could look, Exodus 19:21, and where God spoke in thunder. Even Sinai’s terrors were a kindness to Israel, Deuteronomy 4:33.

God also bore with their conduct in the wilderness. “I tested you at the waters of Meribah,” he says. There they showed their true temper, proving themselves an unbelieving and complaining people, and yet he still kept favoring them. That is worth noting carefully. God’s goodness and human sin stand out all the more when we set them side by side.

If they were to remember their redemption from Egypt on their feast days, how much more should we, on the Christian Sabbath, remember a greater redemption by Jesus Christ from a worse bondage than Egypt. We should also remember the many gracious answers he has given us, even though we have often provoked him.