"Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—if you would only listen to me, Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it."
Psalm 81:8-10
Psalm 81 has two parts. It starts on a note of exuberant worship, with a call to celebrate a corporate festival marking God’s action in freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Then, from verse 6 onward, our attention shifts. It’s as though we have been raised up, out of the throng of noisy praise, to a place where we can hear the very voice of God.
The difficulty the psalmist pinpoints is that the Israelites do not seem to understand, or even want to know, what they were saved for. Having been rescued from captivity in Egypt, they are refusing to listen to God (v. 11). It’s as though they think they no longer have any need for him, now that he has ‘removed the burden from their shoulders’ (v. 6); ‘would not submit to,’ in verse 11, may be more accurately rendered ‘did not want.’ God, however, longs for them to know the full nature of their salvation: to live with him as his people, to listen to him, and to follow his ways (v. 13). Do you hear the voice of God, longing for you to listen to him, yearning for you to enter into the fullness of life with him that Christ has given so much to obtain?
God lays out before the people a vision of what would happen if they ‘would only listen’ to him (vv. 8, 13). He would quickly ‘subdue their enemies’ (v. 14) and they would be fed with ‘the finest of wheat’ and honey from wild bees (v. 16), echoing the song of Moses. Ultimately, however, God wants his people to be motivated not by what he can do for them but simply by who he is: ‘I am the Lord your God’ (v. 10).
CLOSING PRAYER
Lord Jesus, help me to abide in you and know the fullness of your joy—the joy that only you can give. Help me to remember all you have done, follow you in obedience, and cling to your promises.
(Encounter with God)