Psalm 81 – God wants to bless us

Psalm 81 is another of Asaph’s Psalms. He addressed it to the choir director. The phrase “on the Gittith” also appeared in Psalm 8. This phrase, an obscure Hebrew term, was referring to a musical instrument or a musical cue. It signalled the mood to which the Psalm was to be performed. Psalm 81 finds its setting in the Feast of Trumpet. This is one of the seven feasts of Israel prescribed in the book of Leviticus. It was a feast observed on the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish religious year. On that day, trumpets would be blown throughout the land. These trumpets sound the call to the people of Israel to repentance. It was to prepare them for the forgiveness of their sins on the Day of Atonement, an event that would take place ten days after the Feast of Trumpet. Verse 4 tells us that the feast was a part of the statutes of Israel, prescribed by the God of Jacob.

Verses 1-5 is a call for the people to praise God. They were reminded of the institution of this feast when they were on their journey out of Egypt, the land of bondage.  Abruptly we see a prophetic element introduced in the last part of verse 5. Asaph said he heard a language he did not know. It could well be that at this point a prophet came forward to deliver an oracle from God from verses 6-16. The first part of the oracle told of God’s mighty and miraculous deliverance and provision for His people in the Exodus. Regretfully, the oracle also revealed how the ungrateful people of God resisted His goodness and refused to obey Him. Here we also see a desire of the Lord for total obedience. The Lord’s desires is to bless His people who are obedient to Him. Let’s be quick to hear the word of God but be even faster to obey and apply them to life.

We can see the heart of God clearly implied in verses 13-16. He has the best intention for His people. These verses remind us that God yearns to grant us victory in the negative experiences of life. Like it or not, the unpleasant experiences in life are often merely God’s signal to us to consider and draw near to Him. The heart of God is to provide sweetness to our life, and we can experience it through obedience to Him. This Psalm categorically tells us that God longs to bless us. He cannot do so when we choose to disobey Him. And He does when we do. So let’s be wise and choose to seek and obey Him!