Psalm 81
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.
Verse 3 may be referring to the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Booths with the Day of Atonement in between ().
All three events took place in the same month on Jewish calendar and were together an extended time of consecration, remembrance, repentance, and rejoicing.
Here I too am called to consecration, remembrance, repentance, and rejoicing; I am commanded to SING ALOUD! and SHOUT FOR JOY! to the God of Jacob.
Like the commands to sing aloud and shout for joy, I am also commanded to raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre, and the harp.
What this commands me to do is worship, not in an unrestrained way, which leads to disorder, but in an unashamed way.
And even more important than the way of worship is the who of worship: I am to worship God who is my strength; the God of Jacob.
Now, two questions come to mind...
Why should we worship the God of Jacob?
Why does he command us to worship him in this unashamed way?
Let’s answer that first question first: Why should we worship the God of Jacob?
There are three big REASONS in Psalm 81...
MAJOR IDEAS
MAJOR IDEAS
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
Reason #1: I should worship the God of Jacob because he has delivered me (vv. 4-7).
Reason #1: I should worship the God of Jacob because he has delivered me (vv. 4-7).
For it is a statute for Israel, a rule of the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a language I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
[Exp] God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt; from a people of a strange language (cf. ). He relieved them and freed them. They called and he delivered. He answered in thunder on Mount Sinai () and showed himself holy in the test at Meribah (cf. ; ).
[Exp] God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt; from a people of a strange language (cf. ). He relieved them and freed them. They called and he delivered. He answered in thunder on Mount Sinai () and showed himself holy in the test at Meribah (cf. ; ).
[App] The exodus is, of course, a picture of what God has spiritually done for everyone of us in Christ Jesus. We were dead in our sins and trespasses against, enslaved to sin and death, but God sent a Deliverer in Jesus Christ to rescue us through his perfection, his sacrifice, and his resurrection.
If we have come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, then we have been delivered! And, therefore, we should be rejoicing!
[TS] And there’s another REASON...
Reason #2: I should worship/ rejoice in the God of Jacob because he will discipline me (vv. 8-12).
Reason #2: I should worship/ rejoice in the God of Jacob because he will discipline me (vv. 8-12).
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
[Exp] God disciplined his people according to the covenant that he had made with them; the covenant that they had agreed to in Exodus 19.
[Exp] God disciplined his people according to the covenant that he had made with them; the covenant that they had agreed to in Exodus 19.
God disciplined his people for not listening to him.
To listen meant more than to hear. It meant to believe, appreciate, and obey God’s Word. As v. 12 shows, it meant that they would not submit to God.
God disciplined his people for not worshipping him alone.
God’s people were often attracted to strange, foreign gods rather than YHWY the One True God.
God disciplined his people for not finding their satisfaction in him.
This is why they wanted a human king. This is why they went after strange, foreign gods. They weren’t content with YHWH!
To show them the emptiness of what their stubborn hearts craved, God let them go to follow their own counsels.
[App] God loves us too much to simply save us and leave us as we are. He not only saves us; he also sanctifies us, making us more and more like Christ, and he sometimes uses affliction or pain to do it.
Consider Psalm 94:12...
Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law,
Why is the man blessed? Because the Lord disciplines him so that he will obey God’s law!
Psalm 119:67...
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.
Why was the man afflicted? Because he went astray from God’s word.
What brought him back to obedience? The affliction of God!
How about Psalm 119:75?
I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
What does the man know? That God’s rules are right and that in faithfulness God has afflicted him so he would obey them!
...
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Or ...
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Or , where Jesus says...
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Why then should we rejoice in the fact that God has and will discipline us? BECAUSE IT MEANS THAT HE LOVES AND THAT WE BELONG TO HIM!
That’s a great reason to rejoice!
[TS] But there’s one more in this psalm...
Reason #3: I should rejoice in the God of Jacob because he desires to deliver me further still (vv. 13-16).
Reason #3: I should rejoice in the God of Jacob because he desires to deliver me further still (vv. 13-16).
[Exp] Verse 13 proves that God did not give up on his people when he gave them up to their stubborn hearts.
He desired for them to listen/submit to him; to walk according to the covenant; to walk according to God’s Word; to walk in his ways!
If they would turn from there rebellion in response to his loving discipline, God would deliver them and satisfy them. They could open their mouth wide and God would fill it!
Their enemies were rods of discipline in the hand of the Lord. If his people repented, God would no longer have need to discipline. Thus, God would turn his hand against Israel’s foes.
But he would feed his people with the finest wheat, and with honey from the rock he would satisfy them. God’s Word is the rock and from obedience to it flows the finest and sweetest things.
[App] Oh Brothers and Sisters, God desires to deliver us further than we have been delivered! He desires to not only set us free from the penalty and power of sin, but to remove us from its very presence!
He loves and so he will discipline us when we are disobedient, but he desires to give us the finest things! He desires to give us the sweetest things! And those things only come in obedience to him!
Isn’t the whole problem of man that he thinks the finest and sweetest things can be found in rebellion against God? The things of this world are not the finest and sweetest things.
Sometimes our flesh reminds us that we used to think that way and aren’t so far removed from it.
But though the flesh is weak, the spirit is willing. Because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we know that the finest and sweetest things are not found in rebellion against God but in obedience to him! So then, let’s be zealous and repent as Jesus commands ()!
[TS] Those three REASONS then are the answer to that first question: Why should we worship the God of Jacob?
Because he has delivered us.
Because he has and will discipline us.
Because he desires to deliver us further still.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Now, the answer to the second question: Why does God command me to worship him in an unashamed and overjoyed way? The answer to this question are same as the answers to the first.
Because God has delivered me sin, I will worship unashamed! I will worship with overflowing joy!
To worship in this way doesn’t mean to be loud for the sake of being loud or acting crazy because that somehow passes for being more spiritual.
It does mean singing and shouting from a heart that believes, desires to obey, and is immensely grateful for having been set from sin!
A loud voice with a cold heart is just noise, but a heart warmed by Jesus sings aloud!
What if we are ashamed to sing aloud?
It may be that we aren’t as grateful for deliverance and discipline as we should be. In that case we must go to God’s Word (passages like ) and read and pray through it slowly asking God to give us the joy we should be worshipping him with. Will you take the time to do that?
If we are ashamed to sing out, it may be because our hearts have become cold toward Christ because we’ve been filling them with the things of this world. God has in his grace, by the blood of Jesus, given us new hearts that are alive to him and desire to worship him unashamed. But when we give ourselves to the things of this world those new hearts are made numb toward God. If that’s us, will we cut the world out so that we will desire Christ once again?
And perhaps if I am ashamed to sing out to the God of Jacob it means that I have a strange, foreign god that I’m bowing down to rather than the One True God (). Maybe that strange, foreign god is what people will think of me if I sing aloud and shout for joy; if I live a life of unashamed devotion to Christ.
Worship should be ordered by the Word of God, but it should be unashamed in light of God’s saving love toward us in Christ!
Let us examine ourselves: Are we singing aloud and shouting for joy from grateful hearts as we worship the God of Jacob? We singing aloud and shouting for joy as we live a life of unashamed devotion to Christ?