¹Sing for joy to God our strength; shout joyfully to the God of Jacob …¹³“Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!

The call to sing for joy (vss. 1-5) arises from a survey of God’s work and intention for believers (vss. 6-16). The picture here does not convey sitting stoically in hard-backed pews, expressionless and motionless except for mouthing the words. “Joyfully” is an emotion. Picture “the timbrel” (the ancient version of a tambourine which inherently involves bodily movement) and the “sweet sounding lyre with harp” (for an equivalent today, think guitar or violin—more than just a piano). Add in trumpets, and you have a lively orchestra with congregational involvement.

In one sense, emotions cannot be commanded; they are responses to inner, personal realities. One cannot force a happy face while suffering deep grief. However, many psalms challenge us to act in joy, with the presumption that our emotions will generally follow. We do ourselves no service to repress this call to sing because we do not feel joyful.

We can choose to order our thoughts, which we can control, on things that will bring us joy, and this psalm encourages us to reflect on how God has worked on our behalf even when we don’t deserve it. All He wants from us is our loyalty, and then we will see Him at work, which will incite the joy that compels us to sing praise to Him.

For the Jews, this call is related to the celebration of an unspecified but commanded “feast day” that takes place during the full moon of the lunar calendar. Some have suggested this refers to the Feast of Tabernacles (also called the “booths.” That is etched in memory (or it should be) referring to the exodus out of Egypt when the descendants of Jacob (aka Israel) trekked through the wilderness before entering the Promised Land of Canaan (the land of Israel, a millennium later). They lived like Bedouins, traveling through the desert living in tents or makeshift “booths.”

The Jews were to constantly root their thinking and lives in the historical event that shaped them into a nation, connecting their emotions and minds to that memory. In the same way, believers today are encouraged to constantly remember the defining event that made us into a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and brought us into the new community of God, that is, the “body of Christ.” It was Jesus who asked us to remember Him in the breaking of bread, that is, communion, a memorial to the foundation truth, Christ’s sacrifice for us. The early church in Jerusalem committed to regularly practicing it in their meetings (Acts 2:42).

The psalm now turns to a proclamation, which gives the motivation to sing joyfully. The writer, in prophetic-literary form, takes on the voice of God, speaking on His behalf (notice the change of pronouns referring to God, from the third person “he” in verses 1-5 to the first person, “I, me, and my” in the remainder of the psalm. The overview profiles the pattern of Israel’s history. From the very beginning, God answered Israel’s cry for relief from the burden of their slavery in Egypt (vs. 6). He continued to meet their needs, even giving them water (for example) despite their complaint and Moses’ disobedience (vs. 7, see also Num. 20:13).

In it all, God indicates that He wants their undivided loyalty and affection. To be a follower of the God of Jacob (vs. 4) was to acknowledge that He is Yahweh God and there is no other god.

“Let there be no strange god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt … (Ps. 81:9–10a)

This belief in only one God was unique in an ancient world filled with imagined deities. The fallen world had come a long way from Eden, degenerated into poor humanly-devised substitutes for the Creator God of the universe. Israel was monotheistic (only one God) to the core. And He singled them out as His priority in the world, through whom He would bless the world.

However, despite their favored position with God, Israel repeatedly acted disloyally and worshiped other so-called gods. Yahweh God would not force them to obey, but He did give them over to the consequences of their disloyalty, namely military defeat before the surrounding nations (vss. 11-12).

Yet, even while punishing them, God pleaded with His people to turn back to Him, promising that He would reverse the sin-consequences, give them victory, and return them to prominence in the ancient world (vss. 13-14). Then, with an imprecation* typical of several psalms (see Pss. 7, 15, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 109, 137, 139) God (speaking through the psalmist) declares His hatred for the hypocrites who pretend loyalty to Him. While this sounds startling today, we must remember that Jesus reserved His most severe denunciation for the pharisaical hypocrites of His day. The point in this psalm is to contrast, in the starkest possible way, God’s favor to those who are loyal to Him. He says, “But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Ps. 81:16).

Lord, when I am struggling in my circumstances, I choose to remember that You are my redeemer who saved me from all my sins. I confess my disloyalty in trusting other things or even myself more than trusting You.

* For a discussion on imprecations in the psalms (the use of severe denunciations of wicked people, of hating people), go to http://www.bible-equip.org/articles/biblical-theological/Psalms.pdf.