Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 81

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

Who is all our refuge and safeguard against all our Enemies.

2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel▪ the pleasant harp with the psaltery .

All which Instruments were then prescribed and used in their solemn meetings.

3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon , in the time appointed, on our solemn Feast-day ▪

Which was a sacred and festival time, as appears from Numb. 10. 10. and 28. 11, 14. 2 Kings 4. 23. Isa. 66. 23 But this may be understood either 1. Generally of every New Moon. Or rather, 2. Specially of that New Moon, as the word may be rendred, which begun the seventh month; as may be gathered both from the following words, and by comparing this place with Levit. 23. 24. and Numb. 29. 1. Where this very day is called a day of blowing of Trumpets.

Or, for the day, or time of our solemn festivity; whereby may be understood either 1. the day of the New Moon, on which the Trumpets were blown for the celebration of that solemn time. Or 2. The seventh Month, which that New Moon did introduce or begin, and in which, besides other Solemnities, they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, which the Hebrew Doctours call the Feast by way of eminency, and Iosephus affirms to have been the most sacred and the chief of all the Jewish Feasts.

4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob .

For this is no humane device but an appointment and command of the great God and your Lord.

Marginal references: Lev. 23. 24: Num. 10. 10.

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 .

To wit, the blowing of Trumpets:

Among the posterity of Ioseph, to wit, the people of Israel, as is evident both from the foregoing Verse where they are called Israel, and from the following words in this Verse, where they are described by their coming out of Egypt, which was common to all the Tribes of Israel, who are sometimes callsed by the name of Ioseph; of which see on Psal. 80. 1.

Either 1. For a Law, which is oft called a testimony. Or rather, 2. For a witness and memorial of that glorious deliverance mentioned in the following words. For 1. That this was a statute and law he had expressed, Vers. 4. which it is not likely that he would here repeat, especially▪ in a more dark and doubtful phrase. 2. He seems to declare the end of that Law, which was to be a testimony.

To wit, God, he who ordained, as was now said.

As a Captain in the head, or on the behalf of his people.

To execute his judgments upon that Land or People. Or, against, &c. to destroy it. Or, out of it, as both ancient and other Interpreters render this Particle al, which is elsewhere put for meal, and meal is put for min, from or out of, as is manifest by comparing 2 Kings 21. 8. with 2 Chron. 33. 8. So this Text notes the time when this and the other Feasts were instituted; which was at, or presently after their coming out of Egypt, even at Sinai.

(i. e.) My progenitors, for all the successive Generations of Israel make one body, and are sometimes spoken of as one person.

Either 1. The Language of God himself speaking from Heaven at Sinai, which was strange and terrible to me. Or rather, 2. The Egyptian Language, which at first was very ungrateful and unknown to the Israelites, Gen. 42. 23. and probably continued so for some considerable time, because they were much separated both in place and conversation from the Egyptians through Ioseph's pious and prudent design. This Exposition is confirmed from Psal. 114. 1. where this very thing is mentioned as an aggravation of their misery, and from other places of Scripture where this is spoken of as a curse and plague to be with a people of strange Language, as Deut. 28. 49. Ier. 5, 15.

Marginal references: Or, against.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] not.

6 I removed his shoulder from the burden : his hands were delivered from the pots .

I delivered him from burdensome slavery.

As this word is taken 1 Sam. 2. 14. 2 Chron. 35. 13. Or baskets, as it signifies 2 Kings 10. 7. Ier. 24. 2. In the general it seems to note all those Vessels wherein they carried water, straw, lime, bricks, &c.

Marginal references: Heb. passed away.

7 Thou calledst in trouble , and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder : I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

At the Red Sea, Exod. 14. 10, 11, 12.

From the dark and cloudy pillar, whence I thundred and fought against the Egyptians. See Exod. 13. 21. and 14. 19, 24. Others refer this to the thunder at Sinai. But at that time they were not in trouble, but in a safe and glorious condition.

Marginal references: Exod. 2. 23.; Exod. 17. 6, 7: Num. 20. 13.; Or, strife.

8 * Hear, O my people, and I will testifie unto thee : O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;

Concerning my will and thy duty. I will give thee Statutes and Judgments, in the execution of which thou mayst live and be happy for ever. This God did presently after he brought them from Meribah, even at Sinai.

Marginal references: Psal. 50. 7.

9 There shall no strange God be in thee: neither shalt thou worship any strange God .

Thou shalt renounce all false Gods and worships, and worship me onely.

10 I am the LORD thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide , and I will fill it .

Either 1. To pray for mercies: Ask freely and abundantly and boldly (as this Phrase oft signifies) whatsoever you need, or in reason can desire. Or 2. To receive the mercies which I am ready to give you.

I will give or grant them all, upon condition of your obedience.

11 But my people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me .

Or, did not assent to me, or acquiesce in me, or obey me, or my commands.

12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust : and they walked in their own counsels .

Upon their obstinate and oft-repeated Rebellions and Rejections of my Grace and Mercy offered to them I withdrew all the restraints of my providence and my Holy Spirit and Grace from them, and wholly left them to follow their own vain and foolish imaginations and wicked lusts.

They practised those things both in common conversation and in religious Worship which were most agreeable not to my commands or counsels, but to their own fancies and inclinations, as appeared in the Golden Calf and many other things.

Marginal references: Act. 7. 42. and 14. 16.; Or, to the hardness of their hearts or imaginations.

14 I would soon have subdued their Enemies , and turned my hand against their adversaries.

Those Remainders of the Canaanites whom now for their unbelief and apostacy I have left in the Land to be snares and plagues to them.

15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him : but their time should have endured for ever .

All the haters and enemies of God's people, as the neighbouring Nations were, whom he calls haters of God, partly because they hated the Israelites for God's sake, and for the singularity of their Religious Worship, as the Heathen oft declared: and partly to shew the strict League and Union which was betwixt God and them, by virtue whereof God had declared all their Friends and Enemies to be his own, which was a great aggravation of their wickedness.

Should have professed and owned their subjection to them. For the Phrase see on Psal. 18. 44.

i. e. Israel's time; the Relative belonging to the remoter Antecedent; as it is in many other places of Scripture, whereof I have formerly given Instances. By their time he means either 1. Their happy time, as life is oft put for an happy life or state, as Psal. 34. 12. and 49. 18. Deut. 4. 1. and 5. 33, &c. Or 2. The duration of their Common-wealth.

i. e. Lasted for a very long time; whereas now their latter and dolesul end is hastening towards them.

Marginal references: Or, yielded seigned obedience.; Heb. lied.

6 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Either 1. Metaphorically, with all pleasant and precious fruits and with all delights, as all necessaries may be expressed under the name of wheat. Or rather 2. Properly: this Land of Canaan being commended for its excellent and plentiful honey; and the Bees there did oft-times harbour and make their honey in the holes of Rocks and such like places, from which it flowed down upon the ground. See Deut. 32. 13. 1 Sam. 14. 25, 26.

Marginal references: Heb. with the fat of wheat.