Title - To the chief Musician upon Gittith. Very little is known of the meaning of this title. We have given the best explanation known to us in connection with Psalm 8 in Vol. 1 of this work. If it intended to indicate a vintage song, it speaks well for the piety of the people for whom it was written: it is to be feared that in few places even in Christian countries would holy hymns be thought suitable to be sung in connection with the wine-press. When the bells upon the horses shall be holiness unto the Lord, then shall the juice of the grape gush forth to the accompaniment of sacred song. A Psalm of Asaph. This poet here again dwells upon the history of his country; his great forte seems to be rehearsing the past in admonitory psalmody. He is the poet of the history and politics of Israel. A truly national songster, at once pious and patriotic.

Divisions. - Praise is called for to celebrate some memorable day, perhaps the passover; whereupon the deliverance out of Egypt is described, Psalm 81:1-7. Then the Lord gently chides his people for their ingratitude, and pictures their happy estate had they but been obedient to his commands.

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 81:1. - Congregational singing should be general, hearty, Joyful. The reasons for this, and the benefits of it.

Psalm 81:1-3. -

I. Praise should be sincere. It can come from the people of God only.

II. It should be constant: they should praise God at all times.

III. It should be special. There should be seasons of special praise.

1. Appointed by God, as Sabbaths and solemn feasts.

2. Demanded by providence on occasion of special deliverances and special mercies.

IV. It should be public, "sing aloud," "bring hither," etc. - G. H.

Psalm 81:4. - The rule of ordinances and worship; pleas for going beyond it; instances in various churches; the sin and danger of such will-worship.

Psalm 81:5. - What there is in the language of the world which is unintelligible to the sons of God.

Psalm 81:6. - The emancipation of believers. Law-work is burdensome, servile, never completed, unrewarded, more and more irksome. Only the Lord can deliver us from this slavish toil, and he does it by grace and by power. We do well to remember the time of our liberation, exhibit gratitude for it, and live consistently with it.

Psalm 81:7. -

I. Answered prayers, - bonds of gratitude.

II. Former testing times, - warning memories.

III. The present a time for new answers as it is also for resh tests.

Psalm 81:7. - Waters of Meribah. The various test-points of the believer's life.

Psalm 81:8-10. -

I. A compassionate Father, calling to his child, "O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me."

II. A jealous sovereign, laying down his law, "There shall no strange god be in thee."

III. An all-sufficient Friend, challenging confidence, "I am the Lord thy God: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." - Richard Cecil. 1748-1810.

Psalm 81:8, Psalm 81:11, Psalm 81:13. - The command, the disobedience, the regret.

Psalm 81:9. - Idolatry our besetting sin. What are likely to become our idols. The sin of permitting them so to be. The judgments we may expect. The means we should use to purge ourselves therefrom.

Psalm 81:10. -

I. Emptiness supposed in poor sinners: they have lost God.

II. A fill proposed and offered to empty sinners. This is a soul-fill; a filling with all the fulness of God.

III. The party communicating this soul-fill to the sinner: "I," more generally, "I the Lord," in opposition to strange gods.

IV. The sinner's duty in order to this communication, "Open thy mouth wide." - Thomas Boston.

Psalm 81:10. -

I. The God of past mercy: "which brought thee out of Egypt."

II. Expects present petitions: "Open thy mouth wide."

III. Promises future good: "I will fill it."

Psalm 81:11. -

I. Who? "Israel," the chosen, instructed and favoured people.

II. What? "would none of me," my laws, promises, calls, worship, etc.

III. Of whom? "Of Me," their God, good, kind, loving, etc.

Psalm 81:11, Psalm 81:12. -

I. The sin of Israel. They would not hearken. The mouth is opened in attentive hearing: "open thy mouth wide:" but my people," etc. Their sin was greatly aggravated.

1. By what God had done for them.

2. By the gods they had preferred to him.

II. The punishment.

1. Its greatness: "I gave them up," etc.

2. Its justice - "They would none of me." - G. R.

Psalm 81:13. - The excellent estate of an obedient believer.

I. Enemies subdued.

II. Enjoyments perpetuated.

III. Abundance possessed.

Psalm 81:13, Psalm 81:14. - The sin and loss of the backslider.

Psalm 81:14. - Spiritual enemies best combatted by an obedient life.

Psalm 81:16. -

I. Spiritual dainties.

II. By whom provided.

III. To whom given.

IV. With what result - "satisfied."

Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings

Title

It is remarkable that as Psalm 80 treats of the church of God under the figure of a vine, so the present is entitled, "upon Gittith," literally upon the winepress. Whether the expression was meant to refer to a musical instrument, or to some direction as to the tune, is uncertain. In our Saviour's adoption of the figure of a vineyard to represent his church, he speaks, of a winepress dug in it, Matthew 21:33. The idea refers itself to the final result in some sense, in a way of salvation of souls, as the same figure of a winepress is used in Revelation 14 of the final destruction of the ungodly. - W. Wilson.

Psalm 81:2

"Timbrel." The toph, English version tabret, timbrel, lxx. τύμπανον, once ψαλτήριον. It was what would now be called a tambourine, being played by the hand; and was specially used by women. It is thrice mentioned in the Psalms: Psalm 81:2; Psalm 149:3; Psalm 150:4. - Joseph Francis Thrupp.

Psalm 81:2

"The Psaltery." It is probably impossible to be sure as to what is intended by a psaltery. The Genevan version translates it viol, and the ancient viol was a six-stringed guitar. In the Prayer-book version, the Hebrew word is rendered lute, which instrument resembled the guitar, but was superior in tone. The Greek word psalterion denotes a stringed instrument played with the fingers. Cassiodorus says that the psaltery was triangular in shape, and that it was played with a bow. Aben Ezra evidently considered it to be a kind of pipe, but the mass of authorities make it a stringed instrument. It was long in use, for we read of it in David's time as made of fir-wood (2 Samuel 6:5), and in Solomon's reign, of algum trees (2 Chronicles 9:11) and it was still in use in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

Psalm 81:3

"Blow up the trumpet," etc. The Jews say this blowing of trumpets was in commemoration of Isaac's deliverance, a ram being sacrificed for him, and therefore they sounded with trumpets made of rams' horns: or in remembrance of the trumpet blown at the giving of the law; though it rather was an emblem of the gospel and the ministry of it, by which sinners are aroused, awakened and quickened, and souls are charmed and allured, and filled with spiritual joy and gladness. - John Gill.

Psalm 81:3

"The trumpet." The sound of the trumpet is very commonly employed in Scripture as an image of the voice or word of God. The voice of God, and the voice of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, were heard together (Exodus 19:5, Exodus 19:18, Exodus 19:19), first the trumpet-sound as the symbol, then the reality. So also John heard the voice of the Lord as that of a trumpet (Revelation 1:10; Revelation 4:1), and the sound of the trumpet is once and again spoken of as the harbinger of the Son of Man, when coming in power and great glory, to utter the almighty word which shall quicken the dead to life, and make all things new (Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). The sound of the trumpet, then, was a symbol of the majestic, omnipotent voice or word of God; but of course only in those things in which it was employed in respect to what God had to say to men. It might be used also as from man to God, or by the people, as from one to another. In this case, it would be a call to a greater than the usual degree of alacrity and excitement in regard to the work and service of God. And such probably was the more peculiar design of the blowing of trumpets at the festivals generally, and especially at the festival of trumpets on the first day of the second month. - Joseph Francis Thrupp.

Psalm 81:3

"In the new moon," etc. The feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by sound of trumpet. For want of astronomical knowledge, the poor Jews were put to sad shifts to know the real time of the new moon. They generally sent persons to the top of some hill or mountain about the time which, according to their supputations, the new moon should appear. The first who saw it was to give immediate notice to the Sanhedrim; they closely examined the reporter as to his credibility, and whether his information agreed with their calculations. If all was found satisfactory, the president proclaimed the new moon by shouting out, מקדש, mikkodesh! "It is consecrated." This word was repeated twice aloud by the people; and was then proclaimed everywhere by blowing of horns, or what is called the sound of trumpets. Among the Hindoos some feasts are announced by the sound of the conch, or sacred shell. - Adam Clarke.

Psalm 81:3

"In the time appointed." The word rendered "the time appointed," signifies the hidden or covered period; that is, the time when the moon is concealed or covered with darkness. This day was a joyful festival, returning every month; but the first day of the seventh moon was the most solemn of the whole; being not only the first of the moon, but of the civil year. This was called the feast of trumpets, as it was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets from sun-rising to sun-setting; according to the command, "It shall be a day of the blowing of trumpets to you."

This joy was a memorial of the joy of creation, and the joy of giving the law: it also pre-indicated the blowing of the gospel-trumpet, after the dark, the covered period of the death of Christ, when the form of the church changed, and the year of the "redeemed" began; and, finally, it prefigured the last day, when the trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead shall be raised. - Alexander Pirie.

Psalm 81:5

"I heard a language that I understood not." The "language" that he then heard - the religious worship of idolaters, - vows offered up "to birds and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things," Romans 1:23, and strength and mercy sought from every object in nature, except himself, - was a language unknown to him - "he knew it not." - William Hill Tucker.

Psalm 81:6

"Pots," or burden-baskets. Compare Exodus 6:6, Exodus 6:7. Rosellini gives a drawing of these baskets from a picture discovered in a tomb at Thebes. "Of the labourers," says he, "some are employed in transporting the clay in vessels, some in intermingling it with straw; others are taking the bricks out of the form, and placing them in rows; still others with a piece of wood upon their backs, and ropes on each side, carry away the bricks already burned or dried. Their dis-similarity to the Egyptians appears at the first view: their complexion, physiognomy and beard permit us not to be mistaken in supposing them to be Hebrews." - Frederic Fysh.

Psalm 81:6

"Pots." The bricklayer's baskets; hanging one at each end of a yoke laid across the shoulders. - William Kay.

Psalm 81:7

To "answer in the secret place of thunder," refers us to the pillar of cloud and fire, the habitation of the awful Majesty of God, whence God glanced with angry eyes upon the Egyptians, filled them with consternation and overthrew them. - Venema.

Psalm 81:10

"Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Surely this teaches us, that the greater and more valuable the blessings are which we implore from the divine beneficence, the more sure shall we be to receive them in answer to prayer.... But, though men are to be blamed, that they so seldom acknowledge God in any thing, yet they are still more to be blamed, that they seek not from him the chief good. Men may, however, possibly cry to God for inferior things, and apply in vain. Even good men may ask for temporal blessings, and not receive them; because the things we suppose good, may not be good, or not good for us, or not good for us at present. But none shall seek God for the best of blessings in vain. If we ask enough, we shall have it.

While the worldling drinks in happiness, if it will bear the name, with the mouth of an insect, the Christian imbibes bliss with the mouth of an angel. His pleasures are the same in kind, with the pleasure of the infinitely happy God. - John Ryland.

Psalm 81:10

"Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." You may easily over-expect the creature, but you cannot over-expect God, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it;" widen and dilate the desires and expectations of your souls, and God is able to fill every chink to the vastest capacity. This honours God, when we greaten our expectation upon him; it is a sanctifying of God in our hearts. - Thomas Case (1598-1682), in "Morning Exercises."

Psalm 81:10

"Open thy mouth wide." This implies,

I. Warmth and fervency in prayer. To open the mouth is in effect to open the heart, that it may be both engaged and enlarged ... We may be said to open our mouths wide when our affections are quick and lively, and there is a correspondence between the feelings of the heart and the request of the lips; or when we really pray, and not merely seem to do so. This is strongly and beautifully expressed in Psalm 119:131, "I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments."

II. It implies a holy fluency and copiousness of expression, so as to order our cause before him, and fill our mouths with arguments. When the good man gets near to God, he has much business to transact with him, many complaints to make, and many blessings to implore; and, as such seasons do not frequently occur, he is the more careful to improve them. He then pours out his whole soul, and is at no loss for words; for when the heart is full, the tongue overflows. Sorrow and distress will even make those eloquent who are naturally slow of speech

III. Enlarged hope and expectation. We may be too irreverent in our approaches to God, and too peremptory in our application; but if the matter and manner of our prayer be right, we cannot be too confident in our expectations from him ... Open thy mouth wide then, O Christian; stretch out thy desires to the uttermost, grasp heaven and earth in thy boundless wishes, and believe there is enough in God to afford thee full satisfaction. Not only come, but come with boldness to the throne of grace: it is erected for sinners, even the chief of sinners. Come to it then, and wait at it, till you obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Those who expect most from God are likely to receive the most. The desire of the righteous, let it be ever so extensive, shall be granted. - Benjamin Beddome.

Psalm 81:10

"I will fill it." Consider the import of the promise - "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find." Particularly,

I. If we open our mouths to God in prayer, he will fill them more and more with suitable petitions and arguments. When we attempt to open the mouth, God will open it still wider. Thus he dealt with Abraham when he interceded for Sodom: the longer he prayed, the more submissive and yet the more importunate he became. By praying we increase our ability to pray, and find a greater facility in the duty. "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly."

II. God will fill the mouth with abundant thanksgivings. Many of David's Psalms begin with prayer, and end with the most animated praises. No mercies so dispose to thankfulness as those which are received in answer to prayer; for according to the degree of desire will be the sweetness of fruition

III. We shall be filled with those blessings we pray for, if they are calculated to promote our real good and the glory of God. Do we desire fresh communications of grace, and manifestations of divine love; a renewed sense of pardoning mercy, and an application of the blood of Christ? Do we want holiness, peace, and assurance? Do we want to hear from God, to see him, and be like him? The promise is, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus," Philippians 4:19. You shall have what you desire, and be satisfied: it shall be enough, and you shall think it so. "The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." - Benjamin Beddome.

Psalm 81:10

The custom is said still to exist in Persia that when the king wishes to do a visitor, an ambassador for instance, especial honour, he desires him to open his mouth wide; and the king then crams it as full of sweetmeats as it will hold; and sometimes even with jewels. Curious as this custom is, it is doubtless referred to in Psalm 81:10 : "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it;" not with baubles of Jewels, but with far richer treasure. - John Gadsby.

Psalm 81:11

"My people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me." Know, sinner, that if at last thou missest heaven, which, God forbid! the Lord can wash his hands over your head, and clear himself of your blood: thy damnation will be laid at thine own door: it will then appear there was no cheat in the promise, no sophistry in the gospel, but thou didst voluntarily put eternal life from thee, whatever thy lying lips uttered to the contrary: "My people would have none of me." So that, when the jury shall sit on thy murdered soul, to inquire how thou camest to thy miserable end, thou wilt be found guilty of thy own damnation. No one loseth God, but he that is willing to part with him. - William Gurnall.

Psalm 81:11

"And Israel would none of me." It is added, "and Israel would none of me," more closely, was not borne to me by a natural bent. For this is the original force of the word אבה, as it still survives in Job 9 where it is used of the ships borne outward by a favourable wind and tide. - Venema.

Psalm 81:11

"Israel would none of me." That is, would not be content alone with me, would not take quiet contentment in me (as the Hebrew word signifies); the Lord was not good enough for them, but their hearts went out from him to other things. - Thomas Sheppard, 1605-1649.

Psalm 81:12

"So I gave them up." The word give up suggests the idea of a divorce, whereby a husband sends away a capricious wife, and commands her to live by herself ... Transferred to God, it teaches us nothing else than that God withdraws his protecting and guiding hand from the people, and leaves them to themselves; so that he ceases to chasten and defend them, but, on the other hand, suffers them to become hardened and to perish. - Venema.

Psalm 81:12

1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

2 Take a Psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.

6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.

7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

Psalm 81:1

"Sing" in tune and measure, so that the public praise may be in harmony; sing with joyful notes, and sounds melodious. "Aloud." For the heartiest praise is due to our good Lord. His acts of love to us speak more loudly than any of our words of gratitude can do. No dulness should ever stupify our psalmody, or half-heartedness cause it to limp along. Sing aloud, ye debtors to sovereign grace, your hearts are profoundly grateful: let your voices express your thankfulness. "Unto God our strength." The Lord was the strength of his people in delivering them out of Egypt with a high hand, and also in sustaining them in the wilderness, placing them in Canaan, preserving them from their foes, and giving them victory. To whom do men give honour but to those upon whom they rely, therefore let us sing aloud unto our God, who is our strength and our song. "Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob." The God of the nation, the God of their father Jacob, was extolled in gladsome music by the Israelitish people: let no Christian be silent, or slack in praise, for this God is our God. It is to be regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our congregations from joining lustily in the hymns. For our part we delight in full bursts of praise, and had rather discover the ruggedness of a want of musical training than miss the heartiness of universal congregational song. The gentility which lisps the tune in wellbred whispers, or leaves the singing altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship. The gods of Greece and Rome may be worshipped well enough with classical music, but Jehovah can only be adored with the heart, and that music is the best for his service which gives the heart most play.

Psalm 81:2

"Take a psalm." Select a sacred song, and then raise it with your hearty voices. "And bring hither the timbrel." Beat on your tambourines, ye damsels, let the sound be loud and inspiriting. "Sound the trumpets, beat the drums." God is not to be served with misery but with mirthful music, sound ye then the loud timbrel, as of old ye smote it by "Egypt's dark sea." "The pleasant harp with the psaltery." The timbrel for sound, must be joined by the harp for sweetness, and this by other stringed instruments for variety. Let the full compass of music be holiness unto the Lord.

Psalm 81:3

"Blow up the trumpet in the new moon." Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord. "In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day." Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment: God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had been divinely set apart. The Lord's people in the olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never speak of the Sabbath as though it could be other than "a delight" and "honourable." Those who plead this passage as authority for their man-appointed feasts and fasts must be moonstruck. We will keep such feasts as the Lord appoints, but not those which Rome or Canterbury may ordain.

Psalm 81:4

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8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;

9 There shall no strange God be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

10 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.

15 The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.

16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Psalm 81:8

"Hear, O my people, and I will testily unto thee." What? Are the people so insensible as to be deaf to their God? So it would seem, for he earnestly asks a hearing. Are we not also at times quite as careless and immovable? "O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me." There is much in this "if." How low have they fallen who will not hearken unto God himself! The deaf adder is not more grovelling. We are not fond of being upbraided, we had rather avoid sharp and cutting truths; and, though the Lord himself rebuke us, we fly from his gentle reproofs.

Psalm 81:9

"There shall no strange god be in thee." No alien god is to be tolerated in Israel's tents. "Neither shalt thou worship any strange god." Where false gods are, their worship is sure to follow. Man is so desperate an idolater that the image is always a strong temptation: while the nests are there the birds will be eager to return. No other god had done anything for the Jews, and therefore they had no reason for paying homage to any other. To us the same argument will apply, We owe all to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: the world, the flesh, the devil, none of these have been of any service to us; they are aliens, foreigners, enemies, and it is not for us to bow down before them. "Little children keep yourselves from idols," is our Lord's voice to us, and by the power of his Spirit we would cast out every false god from our hearts.

Psalm 81:10

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