Psalms 81

This Psalm seems to have been made for the use of the Church in solemn Feasts, particularly either upon every first day of the Month, or upon the first day of the seventh month which was celebrated with a more solemn blast of Trumpets, Levit. 23. 24. Numb. 29. 1. Because that Month was more sacred than others by reason of the concurrence of divers Religious Solemnities in it.

SIng aloud unto God our strength Who is all our refuge and safeguard against all our Enemies.: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel the pleasant harp with the psaltery All which Instruments were then prescribed and used in their solemn meetings..

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon Which was a sacred and festival time, as appears from Numb. 10. 10. and 28. 11, 14. 2 Kings 4. 23. Isa. 66. 23 But this may be understood either 1. Generally of every New Moon. Or rather, 2. Specially of that New Moon, as the word may be rendred, which begun the seventh month; as may be gathered both from the following words, and by comparing this place with Levit. 23. 24. and Numb. 29. 1. Where this very day is called a day of blowing of Trumpets., in the time appointed, on our solemn Feast-day Or, for the day, or time of our solemn festivity; whereby may be understood either 1. the day of the New Moon, on which the Trumpets were blown for the celebration of that solemn time. Or 2. The seventh Month, which that New Moon did introduce or begin, and in which, besides other Solemnities, they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, which the Hebrew Doctours call the Feast by way of eminency, and Iosephus affirms to have been the most sacred and the chief of all the Jewish Feasts.

For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob For this is no humane device but an appointment and command of the great God and your Lord..

This To wit, the blowing of Trumpets: he ordained in Joseph Among the posterity of Ioseph, to wit, the people of Israel, as is evident both from the foregoing Verse where they are called Israel, and from the following words in this Verse, where they are described by their coming out of Egypt, which was common to all the Tribes of Israel, who are sometimes callsed by the name of Ioseph; of which see on Psal. 80. 1. for a testimony Either 1. For a Law, which is oft called a testimony. Or rather, 2. For a witness and memorial of that glorious deliverance mentioned in the following words. For 1. That this was a statute and law he had expressed, Vers. 4. which it is not likely that he would here repeat, especially in a more dark and doubtful phrase. 2. He seems to declare the end of that Law, which was to be a testimony., when he To wit, God, he who ordained, as was now said. went out As a Captain in the head, or on the behalf of his people. through the land of Egypt To execute his judgments upon that Land or People. Or, against, &c. to destroy it. Or, out of it, as both ancient and other Interpreters render this Particle al, which is elsewhere put for meal, and meal is put for min, from or out of, as is manifest by comparing 2 Kings 21. 8. with 2 Chron. 33. 8. So this Text notes the time when this and the other Feasts were instituted; which was at, or presently after their coming out of Egypt, even at Sinai.: where I (i. e.) My progenitors, for all the successive Generations of Israel make one body, and are sometimes spoken of as one person. heard a language that I understood not Either 1. The Language of God himself speaking from Heaven at Sinai, which was strange and terrible to me. Or rather, 2. The Egyptian Language, which at first was very ungrateful and unknown to the Israelites, Gen. 42. 23. and probably continued so for some considerable time, because they were much separated both in place and conversation from the Egyptians through Ioseph's pious and prudent design. This Exposition is confirmed from Psal. 114. 1. where this very thing is mentioned as an aggravation of their misery, and from other places of Scripture where this is spoken of as a curse and plague to be with a people of strange Language, as Deut. 28. 49. Ier. 5, 15..

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey Either 1. Metaphorically, with all pleasant and precious fruits and with all delights, as all necessaries may be expressed under the name of wheat. Or rather 2. Properly: this Land of Canaan being commended for its excellent and plentiful honey; and the Bees there did oft-times harbour and make their honey in the holes of Rocks and such like places, from which it flowed down upon the ground. See Deut. 32. 13. 1 Sam. 14. 25, 26. out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

I removed his shoulder from the burden I delivered him from burdensome slavery.: his hands were delivered from the pots As this word is taken 1 Sam. 2. 14. 2 Chron. 35. 13. Or baskets, as it signifies 2 Kings 10. 7. Ier. 24. 2. In the general it seems to note all those Vessels wherein they carried water, straw, lime, bricks, &c..

Thou calledst in trouble At the Red Sea, Exod. 14. 10, 11, 12., and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder From the dark and cloudy pillar, whence I thundred and fought against the Egyptians. See Exod. 13. 21. and 14. 19, 24. Others refer this to the thunder at Sinai. But at that time they were not in trouble, but in a safe and glorious condition.: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

* Hear, O my people, and I will testifie unto thee Concerning my will and thy duty. I will give thee Statutes and Judgments, in the execution of which thou mayst live and be happy for ever. This God did presently after he brought them from Meribah, even at Sinai.: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;

There shall no strange God be in thee: neither shalt thou worship any strange God Thou shalt renounce all false Gods and worships, and worship me only..

I am the LORD thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide Either 1. To pray for mercies: Ask freely and abundantly and boldly (as this Phrase oft signifies) whatsoever you need, or in reason can desire. Or 2. To receive the mercies which I am ready to give you., and I will fill it I will give or grant them all, upon condition of your obedience..

But my people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me Or, did not assent to me, or acquiesce in me, or obey me, or my commands..

So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust Upon their obstinate and oft-repeated Rebellions and Rejections of my Grace and Mercy offered to them I withdrew all the restraints of my providence and my Holy Spirit and Grace from them, and wholly left them to follow their own vain and foolish imaginations and wicked lusts.: and they walked in their own counsels They practised those things both in common conversation and in religious Worship which were most agreeable not to my commands or counsels, but to their own fancies and inclinations, as appeared in the Golden Calf and many other things..

O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

I would soon have subdued their Enemies Those Remainders of the Canaanites whom now for their unbelief and apostacy I have left in the Land to be snares and plagues to them., and turned my hand against their adversaries.

The haters of the LORD All the haters and enemies of God's people, as the neighbouring Nations were, whom he calls haters of God, partly because they hated the Israelites for God's sake, and for the singularity of their Religious Worship, as the Heathen oft declared: and partly to show the strict League and Union which was betwixt God and them, by virtue whereof God had declared all their Friends and Enemies to be his own, which was a great aggravation of their wickedness. should have submitted themselves unto him Should have professed and owned their subjection to them. For the Phrase see on Psal. 18. 44.: but their time i. e. Israel's time; the Relative belonging to the remoter Antecedent; as it is in many other places of Scripture, whereof I have formerly given Instances. By their time he means either 1. Their happy time, as life is oft put for an happy life or state, as Psal. 34. 12. and 49. 18. Deut. 4. 1. and 5. 33, &c. Or 2. The duration of their Common-wealth. should have endured for ever i. e. Lasted for a very long time; whereas now their latter and dolesul end is hastening towards them..