Psalm 81-83
Dear RTB’ers,
Three psalms today, and not much in the way of a common denominator.
Psalm 81 starts as a worship psalm with the psalmist recalling God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Then God expresses His frustration with His people: But My people did not listen to My voice; Israel would not submit to Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! (vv. 81:11-13) And that’s how the psalm ends, without the standard closure of a writer’s confidence in Israel’s repentance and God’s forgiveness.
In Psalm 82 God is dealing with unjust judges. He has simple commands for His judges: Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. (vv. 82:3-4) The weak, the fatherless, the afflicted, the destitute, the needy. Yes, God loves us, each and every one of us, but He seems to have a particularly warm feeling for the downtrodden. Do we as a people, as a church, share His concerns?
Finally, in Psalm 83 the psalmist is asking for deliverance from Israel’s enemies, especially from their nearby neighbors. His belief is that they want Israel eliminated: They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” (v. 83:4) Several thousand years later, not much seems to have changed. His plea for his own (Israel’s) deliverance is also a concern for God’s “reputation” as we saw yesterday: …that they may seek Your name, O LORD… that they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth. (vv. 83:16-18)
…that You alone are the Most High over all the earth…
Blessings.
See also: