Commentary - Psalm 81:1-5

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 81 is a summons to worship, a call to remember, and a lament over Israel's deafness. The first section, which we consider here, is an exuberant and loud call to celebratory worship. This is not a quiet, private, internal affair. This is public, corporate, and noisy. The reason for this worship is then grounded in God's fixed law and His historic act of redemption. We worship because God has commanded it, and He has commanded it because He has saved us. The foundation of all true worship is God's mighty act of deliverance, which for Israel was the Exodus, and for us is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The psalm transitions abruptly at the end of our text, from the voice of the psalmist calling the people to worship, to the voice of God Himself, recalling the salvation from Egypt. This sets the stage for the tragic lament that follows in the latter half of the psalm, where God bemoans the fact that His people, whom He delivered, will not listen to Him. But it all begins here, with the command to rejoice in the God who saves.

Outline

Context In Psalms

This psalm, attributed to Asaph, is part of the third book of the Psalter. Asaph's psalms often deal with themes of God's covenant with Israel, His judgment, and the importance of remembering His past deeds. Psalm 81 fits squarely within this tradition. It is a liturgical psalm, meaning it was likely intended for use in the corporate worship of Israel, probably during one of the great feasts like the Feast of Tabernacles. The summons to blow the trumpet at the new and full moon points directly to the festival calendar that structured Israel's life of worship. The psalm functions as a covenant renewal text, calling the people to remember their deliverance and recommit themselves to the God who brought them out of Egypt.

Key Issues

Commentary

A Joyful Shout to Our Covenant God - v. 1

Sing for joy to God our strength; Make a loud shout to the God of Jacob.

The first thing to notice is that joy is a command. It is not an optional extra for the emotionally inclined. We are commanded to sing for joy. This is a moral obligation. Christian worship is not a somber, dour affair. It is robustly joyful. And why? Because we are singing to "God our strength." Our joy is not rooted in our circumstances or our feelings, but in the character of our God. He is the source of our strength, and therefore the source of our joy. The command is then intensified: "Make a loud shout." This is not a polite murmur. The Hebrew word here implies a war cry, a shout of triumph. Our worship is a declaration of victory. We are shouting to "the God of Jacob," which is covenant language. We are not shouting into the void; we are addressing the God who made specific promises to our fathers and has kept every last one of them in His Son, Jesus.

A Full-Bodied Musical Celebration - v. 2

Lift up a song of praise, strike the tambourine, The sweet sounding lyre with the harp.

The worship described here is musical and involves instruments. It is not just a mental exercise. We are to "lift up a song," which indicates corporate singing, the primary instrument in worship. But this singing is accompanied. The tambourine provides the rhythm, the percussive backbone. The lyre and harp provide the harmony and melody. Notice the description of the lyre as "sweet sounding." This indicates that skill and artistry are involved. We are to offer God our best, not just in our hearts, but with our hands and voices. This is a full-bodied, aesthetically rich celebration, engaging the whole person. It is a feast for the senses, all directed to the glory of God.

A Calendrical Declaration of Kingship - v. 3

Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast day.

Worship is not haphazard; it is ordered. It is tied to God's created rhythms ("new moon," "full moon") and His redemptive calendar ("our feast day"). The blowing of the trumpet, the shofar, was a public announcement. It was a call to assembly, a declaration of war, and an announcement of the arrival of the king. Our corporate worship on the Lord's Day is all of these things. We assemble as the people of God. We declare war on the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we proclaim that Jesus is King. By tying this to the calendar, God was teaching His people that all of their time belonged to Him. Their days, weeks, and months were to be structured around the worship of their King.

Worship as Covenant Statute - v. 4

For it is a statute for Israel, A judgment of the God of Jacob.

Here we find the ground for all this joyful noise. Why do we do this? Because God said so. This is the regulative principle of worship in its seed form. Our worship is not to be guided by our whims, our preferences, or what we think might be effective. It is guided by the Word of God. The terms "statute" and "judgment" (or ordinance) are legal, covenantal terms. Worship is a matter of covenant obligation. But this is not a burdensome duty; it is a gracious provision. The God of the universe has not left us to guess how He is to be approached. He has told us. This statute is "for Israel," for the covenant people. It is a family rule, a privilege given to the household of faith.

Worship as Testimony to Redemption - v. 5

He established it for a testimony in Joseph When he went forth over the land of Egypt. I heard a language that I did not know:

Now the historical anchor is dropped. This statute of worship was established as a "testimony." A testimony to what? A testimony to God's great act of salvation in the Exodus. He established this worship "when he went forth over the land of Egypt," a reference to God's triumphant judgment against the gods of Egypt and His deliverance of His people. Our worship is always a response to God's redemption. We sing, we shout, we play instruments because He has saved us. For Israel, the central saving event was the Exodus. For the Church, it is the death and resurrection of Christ, the ultimate Exodus. The psalm then makes a dramatic shift in speaker: "I heard a language that I did not know." This is the voice of God breaking in, preparing to remind His people of the salvation they seem so prone to forget. It is the language of redemption, a language unknown to slaves, but now the mother tongue of the free.

Application

The application for us is straightforward. First, our worship must be joyful. Not a superficial happiness, but a deep-seated joy rooted in the fact that God is our strength. If our worship services are joyless, something is deeply wrong. Second, our worship must be robust and full-throated. We are making a loud shout, a victorious declaration. This is no time for timid mumbling. Third, our worship must be ordered by the Word of God. We are not free to invent new forms of worship based on the spirit of the age. We are to do what God has commanded. And finally, our worship must be saturated with the gospel. It must be a constant testimony to the great redemption we have in Jesus Christ. We gather each Lord's Day to celebrate the true Exodus, our deliverance from the slavery of sin and death into the glorious freedom of the children of God.