Today's Featured Psalm
Psalm 81

Read this Psalm

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
   shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
   the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
   at the full moon, on our feast day.

4 For it is a statute for Israel,
   a rule of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph
   when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
   your hands were freed from the basket.
7 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
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
   O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
   you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 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.

11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
   Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
   to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
   that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
   and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
   and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
   and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Scripture taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm Devotional
Open Your Mouth Wide!

The two great intentions of our religious assemblies,” writes Matthew Henry, “are to give glory to God and to receive instruction from God…we do not go to church to sleep nor to be idle” (commentary on Psalm 81). Public worship is designed by the Lord as the primary means of grace in which He intends us “to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple” (Ps. 27:4). These are the two great themes addressed in Psalm 81.

The setting of the psalm is clearly one of the feast days of Old Testament worship. The form is of an appeal by God to His people to be serious about giving Him the glory and receiving and living His revealed Word and will. Anything less is a hypocritical sham that spits in the face of God. Worship is holy work.

God’s first question is: “Will you give Me the glory as you come together to worship?” (vv. 1-7). What does it mean to give Him the glory?

Listen to this Psalm

Communion album art To God Our Strength (Psalm 81A)
The Book of Psalms for Worship | Communion
Communion album art Hear, O My People (Psalm 81B)
The Book of Psalms for Worship | Communion