Psalms 81:1-16

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

A revelation of three great subjects

I. True worship (verses1-5)

1. True worship is the highest happiness, which consists in--

(1) Right activity. Worthy of our nature. In harmony with all our faculties.

(2) The highest love.

(3) The sublimest hope.

2. True worship is a Divine ordinance, binding on all moral intelligences.

(1) Right in itself.

(2) Essential to their happiness.

II. Divine kindness (Psalms 81:6). This appears in--

1. Their deliverance from thraldom. God’s mercy should inspire the soul with gratitude; and gratitude is an element of worship.

2. Answering their prayer.

3. Giving them direction.

III. Human foolishness (Psalms 81:11). By disobedience they lost--

1. His superintending care.

2. Victory over enemies.

3. The choicest provisions. Disobedience to the Divine law is supreme folly. Sinners are fools. The Bible calls them so, and the experience of humanity proves them such. (Homilist.)

Exhortation to sing God’s praise

If you begin praising God you are bound to go on. The work engrosses the heart. It deepens and broadens like a rolling river. Praise is something like an avalanche, which may begin with a snowflake on the mountain moved by the wing of a bird, but that flake binds others to it and becomes a rolling ball: this rolling ball gathers more snow about it till it is huge, immense; it crashes through a forest; it thunders down into the valley; it buries a village under its stupendous mass. Thus praise may begin with the tear of gratitude; anon the bosom swells with love; thankfulness rises to a song; it breaks forth into a shout; it mounts up to join the everlasting hallelujahs which surround the throne of God. What a mercy is it that God by His Spirit will give us greater capacities by and by than we have here! for if we continue to learn more and more of the love of Christ we shall be driven to sore straits if confined within the narrow and drowsy framework of this mortal body. (C. H. Spurgeon.)