Call to Repentance

Psalms 81:1-16 

To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of Asaph.

1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob.

2 Raise a song and strike the timbrel,
The pleasant harp with the lute.
3 Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon,
At the full moon, on our solemn feast day.

4 For this is a statute for Israel,
A law of the God of Jacob.
5 This He established in Joseph as a testimony,
When He went throughout the land of Egypt,
Where I heard a language I did not understand.

6 "I removed his shoulder from the burden;
His hands were freed from the baskets.
7 You called in trouble, 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, and I will admonish you!
O Israel, if you will listen to Me!

9 There shall be no foreign god among you;
Nor shall you worship any foreign god.

10 I am the LORD your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 "But My people would not heed My voice,
And Israel would have none of Me.
12 So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart,
To walk in 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 adversaries.

15 The haters of the LORD would pretend submission to Him,
But their fate would endure forever.
16 He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat;
And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you."

This plea for repentance is to be sung for God’s people as we forget His mercy and grace.  It should be sung out loud with raised voices with joy in knowing Him.  Percussion, strings, and brass should follow our voices to celebrate and honor Him in worship and praise.  This was the law of the LORD for Israel and a pattern for all with the law written in our hearts now, to honor God in songs of joyful praise as part of our worship with our very lives (Romans 12:1-2).  Here the worship loudly testified during the feast days, but for us it should be in all things and at all times as we reflect on His great mercy and grace in Christ our Lord in honor to our Father by the enabling of His Spirit living in each of us; every day can be celebrated, not only on the Lord’s Day where we feast on His body and drink of His blood in communion with Him.  Like Israel, we have had our burden taken from us, the greatest of all which was the weight of sin’s penalty.  Like Israel, we are delivered from trouble when we cry out to Him, even when we are tested and found wanting.  Dwell on these things.  Selah.  As the psalmist said, we should also listen when admonished and have no other objects of worship and reverence, which for us means neither idols on church walls nor rulers on political pedestals.  The first commandment makes it clear, having been written now on our hearts (Ezekiel 36:26, 2 Corinthians 3:3) that we worship no other.  He has delivered us from the bondage of sin and fills us with good things, which things were symbolized by the exodus from Egypt and God’s providence of providing manna in the desert.  May we then not repeat the mistakes of Israel in turning away again, for then they were left to their own desires of a hardened heart and the unhappy ending of that choice.  May all of us as His people listen and heed all the scriptures record Him telling us, that we do not suffer in the hands of the world who hate the Lord.  The world hates God and sometimes pretends to follow, but in reality, their fate bears out in judgment.  Our eternal fate is sealed in Christ and in following Him, not in the deceit and misleading of our adversary (Matthew 24:24, 2 Timothy 2:18-19).  When we stumble, we admit it, repent, and turn from sin to following Him again and again (1 John 1:9).  Let this example remind us of our heart’s worship.  Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).