For my next few posts I want to focus on what Psalm 81 has to teach us about God and our relationship with Him. Why this Psalm? Because I just read it for my quiet time. And second, because it deals with idolatry, listening and obedience, and satisfaction in God – all of which seem so much more apt to our current season than ever before as we’re all being tested in our faith. Will we draw strength from Christ in our weakness or seek refuge in false substitutes? Psalm 81 points us to our Savior, especially when we find it hard to point ourselves.
So, the first thought about God that Psalm 81 offers us is this: It is only fitting and right to joyfully sing to God (vv. 1-3).
Asaph begins with a string of commands to praise God – to praise Him joyfully and with musical instruments (vv. 1-3). He specifically points to the trumpet-blowing statute for a feast day (vv. 3-5). Most likely, this was the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Lev 23:33-36, 39-43; Deut 16:13-15).
The Feast of Tabernacles was associated with the grape harvest and marked the end of summer and the beginning of the rains. It was the last of the three great harvest festivals. It involved giving thanks not only for the harvest but for God’s delivering Israel out of Egypt. In commemorating God’s strength for them, it also reminded the Jews of how they were sustained by God in the wilderness.
So, in response to God being “our strength,” Israel was called to “shout joyfully to the God of Jacob” (v. 1). It’s a statute established by God as a testimony of God’s faithful power exercised graciously on Israel’s behalf (vv. 4-5). A command, yes. But one that was eagerly carried out by all who savingly trusted in God and remembered all He had done for them.
He delivered them, He sustained them…through countless trials and recurring sins. He was always their strength. What else could they, should they, do but out of glad love in their hearts, sing for joy to God? Not just sing about Him, but worship Him, love Him, enjoy Him? Praise befits such a God. And we know that because we’ve been delivered out of our sins and sustained in our salvation. Christ sanctified us, His people, through His own blood so that we might dwell with Him forever (Heb 13:12, 14)!
So then, what is the fitting and right response. It is this: “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that. Give thanks to His name” (Heb 13:15). It’s a command. But when you know Christ as your strength, it’s effortless to obey.
