Psalms 81 KJV
A Call to Obedience
About This Psalm
God reminds Israel: I rescued you, but you wouldn't listen. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it - if only you'd let me.
1ing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This 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.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 Thou 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.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own heartsโ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
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Did You Know?
The sudden shift in verse 5 from communal praise to a first-person divine oracle reciting the Exodus creates a covenant-renewal structure mirroring ancient Near Eastern treaty forms, where historical prologue precedes stipulations.
Verse 6's reference to delivering hands 'from the pots' specifically evokes the clay baskets used for brick-making under Egyptian taskmasters, underscoring God's intimate knowledge of the most menial details of Israelite slavery.
The mention of testing at the waters of Meribah in verse 7 reinterprets the Exodus 17 narrative by framing God's provision of water from the rock as simultaneously an act of mercy and a judicial exposure of Israel's rebellious heart.
The closing imagery of feeding Israel 'with the fat of wheat' and 'honey out of the rock' echoes Deuteronomy 32:13-14 yet reverses its wilderness setting into a promise of agricultural abundance conditional on rejecting foreign gods.
Psalm 81's trumpet call at the new moon (verse 3) aligns it with the Asaphite temple musicians' role in signaling covenant festivals, suggesting its use in pre-exilic liturgy to reenact Sinai obligations for each generation.