Psalm 81

Psalm 81 belongs to Book III of the Psalms (Psalms 73–89) and is one of the psalms of Asaph in the series that begins with Psalm 73. The preceding psalm, Psalm 80, is a lament pleading for restoration with the refrain "Turn us again." Psalm 81 opens with festival praise and then shifts to divine speech, in which God himself addresses his people.

Structure

• Verses 1–5: The psalm calls the people to sing to God, to play the timbrel, harp, and psaltery, and to blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, and on the feast day. This is described as a statute for Israel, a testimony God ordained among the house of Joseph when he went out against Egypt.
• Verses 6–7: God speaks in the first person. He recalls that he removed the burden from their shoulders and freed their hands from the basket, that he delivered them when they called out in trouble, and that he proved them at the waters of Meribah.
• Verses 8–10: God calls, "Hear," and commands that there be no other god among them. He declares that he is the LORD who brought them out of Egypt and promises, "open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."
• Verses 11–12: Yet the people would not listen, and God gave them up to the stubbornness of their own hearts.
• Verses 13–16: God says that if his people would hearken, he would subdue their enemies and feed them with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock.

Key Verses

• Psalm 81:10: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it" — a promise that the God who saved his people will fill them abundantly.
• Psalm 81:12: "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust" — describing the judgment in which God leaves those who refuse to listen to go their own way.
• Psalm 81:13: "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me" — the central appeal of the psalm, expressing God's desire for his people's obedience.

People and Places

• Asaph: The name in the superscription, traditionally known as a temple musician in the time of David.
• Jacob, Israel: In this psalm these names refer to the people of Israel as a whole.
• The house of Joseph: Used here as another name for Israel.
• Egypt: The land where Israel was enslaved before the Exodus.
• Meribah: The place in the wilderness where the people quarreled over water (Exodus 17).

Points for Reflection

• Which festival? The text does not name the festival. Some interpreters identify it with the Feast of Tabernacles; others, on the basis of the recollection of the Exodus, with Passover; and still others, following Jewish tradition, connect verse 3 with the New Year (the Feast of Trumpets).
• "Their time" in verse 15: Translations and interpretations differ on whether this refers to the prosperity of an obedient Israel or to the fate awaiting those who hate the LORD.
• Connections with other texts: Verses 9–10 recall the preamble to the Ten Commandments and the first commandment. The phrase "honey out of the rock" in verse 16 matches the wording of verse 13 of Deuteronomy 32. In combining a festival summons with a warning drawn from Meribah, the psalm resembles Psalm 95.
• Connections with the New Testament: The idea in verse 12 that God "gave them up" is often read alongside Romans 1, which says that God "gave them up" to the lusts of their own hearts.

In the Korean Church

Verse 10, "open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," is frequently quoted in sermons on prayer and God's provision. Some, however, caution that the verse should not be read solely as a promise of material blessing but together with the rebuke that immediately follows, that the people "would not hearken" (verses 11–13).