#812 Our Strength

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.” Psalm 81 ESV

A Psalm of Asaph on the Gittith.

Sing aloud to God our strength - The strength of Israel is not found within themselves, nor a nation brought out by their own hands. They were slaves who could not free themselves and were in fact prone to sell themselves back into slavery. A song should constantly be on our lips, praising the God of our salvation, a free will offering of a sound mind, not deluded by the idols of entertainment, the exaltation of self, the idols of vain religion.

Blow the trumpet at the New moon - Attend the feast in awe, come before His presence with singing, know ye that the Lord He is God. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves. Remember His Sabbaths, that in six days He made more than the eye can see or the mind understand. Remember the Passover, teach it with excitement and joy to your children. God judged our oppressors on that night. He sent His angel of death, but Passed over the houses whose doors were covered by the blood.

I heard a language I had not known - We were sojourners in the land, aliens to it's people, and esteemed only for the burdens they could lay upon our backs. They worshiped strange gods, who could not save them, followed those things that appealed to their eyes, their feelings and superstition. We were considered less by them, but God chose to glorify His justice, love, mercy and sovereignty through removing us from them. 

So often when Israel failed to serve the true God, when they worshiped foreign gods, who could not save them, they were turned over to people of foreign tongues. We think we speak the language of the streets, that we are well versed in sin and immune to it's consequences, but we all think far too highly of ourselves. We are certain that we are smarter than average, without need of this thing we think a crutch, yet all the while we think we are bartering, when actually we have sold ourselves out. 

14 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes. 15 Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand. 16 Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.… Jeremiah 5: 14-16

But my people did not listen to my voice - If the Bible is truly the Word of God, then it is the truth that we must not only hear, but also respond in obedience to. Those who only hear, yet don't do, are deceiving themselves.

9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Matthew 13: 9-17

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts - We are too shortsighted to grasp the magnitude of this, and what's worse, that we shall now be left to our own broken discernment and reasoning. Now we shall see sin as our friend and not our captor. 

…27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,… Romans 1: 27-29

From the rock I would satisfy you - God can make life where there is none, bring up fruit from a dead tree, water from rocks and now honey. 

…8 Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.… Matthew 3: 8-10