Psalm 81 explained: A Festival Song and a Plea

Call to the festival (vv. 1-5a)

The people are called to celebrate with drums, harps and the ram's horn at a festival God ordered as a lasting reminder of the escape from Egypt. It was held at the new moon and full moon, and scholars are unsure which festival is meant; many suggest the autumn Festival of Shelters, others Passover.

A voice speaks (v. 5b)

The Hebrew here is hard, and translations differ. It may mean the singer hears an unfamiliar voice that introduces God's words, or it may recall Israel living in Egypt among people whose language they did not know.

Remembering the rescue (vv. 6-7)

God recalls freeing the people from slave labor, when they carried loads on their shoulders and clay or bricks in baskets, and answering them from a thundercloud, perhaps the storm at Mount Sinai or the cloud at the Red Sea. Meribah was the desert place where the people complained bitterly about having no water and doubted God.

The heart of the message (vv. 8-10)

God pleads with the people to listen and repeats the first of the Ten Commandments: worship no other god, because he is the one who brought them out of Egypt. He then invites them to open their mouths wide so he can fill them, a promise to provide fully.

They would not listen (vv. 11-12)

The people refused, so God let them go their own stubborn way and follow their own plans.

What could have been (vv. 13-16)

God wishes aloud that the people would follow him, saying he would quickly defeat their enemies and feed them with the finest wheat and honey from the rock, images of rich plenty. The Hebrew of verse 15 is unclear, so translations differ on whether it speaks of the enemies' lasting fate or Israel's lasting good times.

Key verse: Psalm 81:13

Something to think about

What makes it hard to take advice from someone who has helped you in the past?