Psalms 81:6

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. -The deliverance described on which God's claim on Israel and Israel's duty are founded. Verse 5. THIS HE ORDAINED IN JOSEPH - Hebrew, Jehoseph, as Jehonadab is used for Jonadab. Poetry love full and sonorous forms. "Joseph" stands for Israel, because during the nation's stay in Egypt they owed their position in Goshen, and, indeed, their original preservation from death by famine, humanly speaking, to Joseph; so much so that when he was dead, and a new king, who knew him not, arose, Israel's state was changed utterly for the worse (Exodus 1:8), Compare Jacob's blessing on him, Genesis 49:26. For a testimony...

6_I have removed his shoulder from the burden. _Here God begins to recount the benefits which he had bestowed upon the Israelites, and the many ways in which he had laid them under obligations to him. The more galling the bondage was from which they had been delivered, the more desirable and precious was their liberty. When, therefore, it is affirmed that their burdens were so heavy that they stooped under them, and that they were doomed to the labor of making bricks, and to other slavish and toilsome occupations, the comparison of this their first state with their condition afterwards is introduced to illustrate the more strikingly the greatness of the blessing of their deliverance. Let us now apply this to ourselves, and elevate our minds to a higher subject, of which it was an image. As God has not only withdrawn our shoulders from a burden of brick, and not only removed our hands fro...

1-7 All the worship we can render to the Lord is beneath his excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our redemption from sin and wrath. What God had done on Israel's behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous drudgery to which Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of sin, and trials by affliction, prove his regard to his people. If the Jews, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious redemption, wrought out for us by...

I REMOVED HIS SHOULDER FROM THE BURDEN - The burden which the people of Israel were called to hear in Egypt. The reference is undoubtedly to their burdens in making bricks, and conveying them to the place where they were to be used; and perhaps also to the fact that they were required to carry stone in building houses and towns for the Egyptians. Compare Exodus 1:11; Exodus 5:4. The meaning is, that he had saved them from these burdens, to wit, by delivering them from their hard bondage. The speaker here evidently is God. In the previous verse it is the people. Such a change of person is not uncommon in the Scriptures. HIS HANDS WERE DELIVERED FROM THE POTS - Margin, as in Hebrew, passed away. That is, they were separated from them, or mad

EXPOSITION PROFESSOR CHEYNE regards this psalm as composed of "two distinct lyrical passages," accidentally thrown together (compare his theory of Psalms 19:1, Psalms 24:1, Psalms 36:1, Psalms 55:1, Psalms 77:1, etc.); and certainly there is more reason for this than can be adduced for his other separations. It is difficult to trace any connection between the joyous opening strophe (Psalms 81:1) and the sad and chastened

I REMOVED HIS SHOULDER FROM THE BURDEN,.... These are the words of God, declaring how he had delivered the Israelites from the oppression and cruelty of the Egyptians; who made their lives bitter in hard bondage, and obliged them to carry heavy loads of bricks upon their shoulders: HIS HANDS WERE DELIVERED FROM THE POTS, or "baskets" c; into which the bricks were put when made, and carried on their shoulders; or from making of pots, as Kimchi, who thinks the Israelites were employed in making pots of clay as well as bricks; see Psalms 68:13, the Targum is, "his hands withdrew themselves from casting clay into the pots:'' the whole is typical of the saints' deliverance by Christ from the bondage of sin, Satan, and the law. c מדוד "a sporta, a cophino", Gejerus, Amama, Michaelis....

We have here an exhortation to praise God; and this is always in season. Perhaps we need more stirring up to praise than to prayer, yet it ought to be as natural for us to praise God as it is for the birds to sing. Thus the Psalm begins, Psalms 81:1. _Sing aloud unto God our strength:_ Yes, the strength which the Lord gives you should be spent in praising him. «Sing aloud.» Throw your whole soul into it. If the Lord makes you strong, then give your strength back to him in sacred song: «Sing aloud unto God our strength.» Psalms 81:1. _Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob._ Other gods, such as Moloch, and Ashtaroth, are worshipped with mournful cries and sorrowful lamentations, but the God of Jacob, the God that heareth prayer, the God of salvation, the Go

Psalms 81 Hope Revived: His Gracious Return to Israel _ 1. The blowing of the trumpet (Psalms 81:1)_ 2. His loving call to His people (Psalms 81:6) 3. Gracious results promised (Psalms 81:13) Hope has revived and singing is commanded. What interests us most is the call to blow the trumpet in the new moon. The blowing of the trumpet, in the feast of trumpets (Leviticus 23:1), marks the beginning of Israel's New Year. Dispensationally it stands for the regathering of Israel and is followed by the day of atonement, that f

LXXXI. This Ps. is probably composite. A. PSALMS 81:1. A FESTAL HYMN, specially adapted for the old New Year's Day or Feast of Trumpets (p. 104), which was held on the new moon of Tishri, the seventh month, and for the Feast of Tabernacles (pp. 103f.) at the full moon of the same month. The old New Year in the autumn, when the cycle of agricultural work was complete, is to be distinguished from the Babylonian New Year in the spring month of Nisan (see p, 118, Leviticus 23:24 ff. and Numbers 29). Possibly Psalms 81 A is a mere fragment. B is different in tone and subject. It relates (Psalms 81:5) God's care for His people in Egypt and the wilderness, ...

I. I [God]. POTS. baskets. Depicted in Egyptian paintings as being used in brickmaking. Not same word as Psalms 68:13, though the same things referred to. Compare 2 Kings 10:7....