Praise God for His Deliverance
Book of Psalms 81
It is believed by many that this Psalm was chosen and sung at the dedication of the second Temple.
It is also believed by many that the word "Gittith" means a Harp that King David brought from the city of Gath.
It is also believed by many that this Psalm was the same one used at great Hebrew festivals, especially during the Passover.
Most people believe this Psalm was sung at the Feast of the Tabernacles also called the Feast of Booths.
We must not forget the true meaning of the Passover where our Savior was sacrificed but the Feast of Booths is a celebration of our deliverance.
We must never forget we are a delivered people!
It was love that has rescued us from our sins!
We should understand that the main reason the Passover was observed every year was so that the next generation would know the truth about this festival.
This is the same reason for all the festivals.
Exo 12:26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
Exo 12:27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
We know that the Lord Jesus is our Passover and the true reason we celebrate Easter.
This Psalm would remind the Hebrews of the goodness of God in the past and this same God would always be the same because He never changes.
The Atheists would never agree, but by nature, man is a worshiper.
Mankind will render homage to something or someone!
Atheists worship lies and they make up almost all of them.
God is a person and not some abstract of the mind or some mental concept such as evolution!
God is a person, a Divine person, related to us. God is our strength!
God is greatly to be feared!
Psa_89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
Holy Holy Holy is our God!
Sing with a joyful sound to the Lord.
*****Psa 81:1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
God has ordained congregational worship!
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Sometimes worship is to be solemn such as the Lord's Supper, but on this day the worship was to be loud and joyful.
We serve a great big God and we are to make a joyful noise to Him. To shout joyfully!
Yes, He is the God of Jacob.
Jacob was the fulfillment of the prophecy.
His conception is stated to have been supernatural.
Gen 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Gen 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
Gen 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
Jacob's mother Rebekah felt that she had to deceive her husband Isaac to make sure this prophecy was fulfilled.
Jacob's name means the supplanter.
The name Jacob recalls the weakness of God's people to trust God to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt.
Through the power of God, they were delivered.
It is the same for every child of God who has been delivered from the bondage of sin.
We must never forget the God who has done this miracle for us to have everlasting life and not everlasting death.
God can fulfill His prophecies without our help, but Rebekah was right, her son Esau was not the person needed to lead any new nation.
*****Psa 81:2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Psa 81:3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
Psa 81:4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
The Festivals of Israel were marked upon a calendar and they were to be kept because they all pointed to the Messiah though Israel did not figure this out and those that did kept silent.
This call to a joyous celebration was addressed to the whole congregation!
To the Levites as the appointed leaders of the music.
To the Priests whose duty it was to blow the trumpets.
To the congregation who were to worship the Lord with joy and happiness for what God had already done for them.
Num 10:8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations.
2Ch 5:11 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course:
2Ch 5:12 Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)
It was at the Tabernacle and later the Temple where God would meet with the children of Jacob.
It is the trumpet, the shofar, a ram's horn, that calls for the singing of praise to begin, and it also calls for the humbling of God's people.
We can be bold in going to God but we need to be humble when we get there.
It is the God of Jacob who is the Deliverer of Israel!
Psa 20:1 The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
Psa 20:2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;
God has commanded the Church to assemble to worship Him just as He commanded the people of Israel.
The deliverance of Israel from Egypt is a clear picture of our salvation, our deliverance from the bondage of Satan.
The new moon represents the beginning of Israel's restoration.
God reminds Israel that when He had redeemed them, they still rebelled afterward.
This is our warning not to fall into the same trap, but today we know this holds true for many of the places of worship who are rebelling against the truth of God.
It would not hurt for us to look back at the early Church which made many mistakes but were corrected by the Apostles.
We should also understand that those who do not attend Church regularly are living in disobedience to the command of God.
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
*****Psa 81:5 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.
The children of Israel became slaves in the land of Egypt.
It is hard enough being a slave, but the children of Israel did not understand the language of Egypt and the taskmaster used the whip to speak a language that they would understand.
The writer of this Psalm, probably Asaph, was reminding all of Israel of their deliverance out of Egypt.
Those, that were alive that day were many generations from those who were delivered and they needed to be reminded of how great our God is.
They needed to be reminded of the power of God to divide the waters of the Red Sea.
They needed to be reminded of the manna that kept them alive for forty years.
They needed to be reminded of the water that flowed out the Rock.
They needed to be reminded of the rebellion of some of the people and the judgment of God.
We sometimes forget the many things that God has already done for us!
God removed Israel from that great burden!
*****Psa 81:6 "I" removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
In this verse we see the Lord speaking.
The children of Israel were the lowest form of life to that Pharaoh of Egypt, but God gave them liberty and deliverance.
It was by God alone that the nation of Israel escaped from Egypt.
Things may have been done differently in the many other nations, but Israel received this great gift by the hands of God!
They no longer had to make bricks to build the great monuments of Egypt.
We must understand that it is through faith in the Word of God, that the burden of sin that we were under, slid into the grave of our Savior, where He took that sin to Hell where it belongs!
We can call upon God at any time of the day and He is ready to listen to us.
*****Psa 81:7 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.
God heard the children of Israel as they cried out in sorrow from Egypt which is known to them as the Iron Furnace.
Jer_11:4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the "iron furnace", saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:
Those who say that the children of Israel were no slaves in Egypt are calling God a liar.
They were not known as the children of Israel while they were there but only by the name Hebrew or a name assigned to them by Egypt.
The children of Israel needed to be reminded of this many times.
Though our sins are forgiven, as the children of God, we need to look back sometimes to see what God has saved us from.
God had led them with a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night, to keep them from going astray.
Once we start down that road of deliverance we need to stay on it!
It was these same things that brought fear to the Egyptians!
These things remind us of the Holy Spirit who has the same power of God and will lead us all the days of our life and be with us even in Heaven.
God has done so many things for us and for them, then why will we not worship Him?
*****Psa 81:8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
Psa 81:9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
God is still speaking here in these verses.
It breaks God's heart when we do not listen to what He has to say.
All He asks is for us to listen and then, we can compare it to what the world says and we will see that our God speaks the truth and the world speaks in lies.
Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Israel's duty of allegiance was to God alone. This was the main principle of the covenant God made with them.
It is the same for the Church. We owe nothing to this world.
We are not even citizens of this world once we conceded our ownership to the Lord Jesus Christ
Our allegiance is to our Savior!
What more can we ask of God? He sent His Son to pay our sin debt we could have never paid.
This is the meaning of the word propitiation!
He claims us as His children and promises to care for us throughout eternity.
There is not another God like Jehovah though there are many false gods in this world.
Our own nation believes there may even be a god somewhere in outer space other than Heaven.
God brought Israel through all the trials they faced in the wilderness.
I spent my forty years in the wilderness and I can assure you I never want to go back to it.
All Israel had to do was to listen to what God had to say and God expected a measure of devotion from them.
Deu 5:6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Deu 5:7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
Anything we put before God becomes the god in our lives.
God alone can save us from our sins!
Our God Jehovah is the One who wants a personal relationship with Him!
It is this same God who has blessed us so many times and we deserved none of those blessings.
*****Psa 81:10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
"God simply says open up your mouth and I will fill it" which means:
Jas_4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
God is always ready to supply all our needs.
Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Mat 7:8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
God said to either pray for mercies or just accept the mercies He will give us!
God should not have to remind us of all these things continuously as He does.
How many more miracles would the world have seen in the days that the Lord Jesus was upon this earth, but He could not because of a lack of faith?
How many blessings have we missed out on because of a lack of faith?
We could say we live the life we live today according to the amount of faith we show to the Lord.
We should really think about that one!
A wise man said: God cannot give lavishly unless we desire largely.
Everything we have from God depends upon our faith!
The greatest gift the Lord can give us is the Holy Spirit, and we need a refilling every day.
The only thing God desires from us is our faith!
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Israel just refused to listen to what the Prophets of God had to say.
*****Psa 81:11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
Psa 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Our own self-will can cause us to be disobedient to the truth.
Why does God give us commandments instead of suggestions?
Because we are a stubborn and rebellious people just like Israel.
God gave us the example of one group of people to show us how we are all like them.
No nation has seen the power of God as have the Israelites.
Because every nation and every country is made up of people, God now deals with us as individuals.
The same characteristics of rebellious people exist today so the same commandments apply.
This world will never reach a point where the Ten Commandments are not needed as a reminder of what righteousness looks like.
God will not force His will upon any person, He just gives us the truth.
We live in a world where the "THEORY" of evolution dominates the minds of almost all scientists and the nations listen more to scientists who teach a false science with useless theories than the truth of God.
God will judge us according to His Word, and according to our disobedience to it.
It is the word "judge" that people do not like. No one wants somebody else telling them what to do!
This begins with childhood and never leaves us.
This why it is so important to raise our children, teaching them that none can live according to our own will.
Pro_22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
This is the most important thing we can do as parents.
Pro_20:11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.
You see, we become "judges" of our own children so we can get them in the right direction in life.
You can bet that those who want to influence our children to a certain doctrine clearly understand this and we have allowed it to happen far too long.
I say all this because we are God's children so, why would we think He should be different?
There is a right way and a wrong way to raise children and God's way is the right way.
Job 8:4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
Job 8:5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
Job 8:6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
Job 8:7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
We all want our children to grow up and do better than we did and Jehovah God is no different and this is another reason God sent His only Son to this world as an example of and a teacher of righteousness.
We can only push God so far and He will allow us to go the way of the world if we insist on doing it, but we must understand that our ending will not be pleasant which is putting it very lightly.
Most people reject the idea that we have a soul that cannot die because it was made by God Himself and they only concern themselves with their body that will only live to be seventy or weighty years old for most of them.
It is the soul that gives "life" to the body!
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
We are only a lifeless bundle of dirt without our soul!
We all know what happens when we are put in a grave, we change back to the dirt we are made of.
We need to listen to what God has to say!
Most people are beginning to see that this world has a doctrine that is only good for the elite and bad for everyone else, and this is what the Bible teaches us, if "IF", we have the right Bible and not a world-altered Bible.
This world and our own nation may take away our freedoms but God will never take away our freedom to choose.
He just only wants us to know there are consequences to every choice we make.
God pleads with us to not listen to the world.
*****Psa 81:13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
Psa 81:14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
God may give us up to our own decisions, but for most of us, until the day we die, we can still turn to God and repent.
Sadly there are some who find it is too late to do so.
We here nations talk about some imaginary red line, but God has a real red line that must not ever be crossed.
Gen_6:3 And the LORD said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man", for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
God gave the world that existed in the time of Noah one hundred and twenty years to change and only Noah repented to righteousness, and the Lord allowed Noah's family to go with him.
The entire world of humanity and all land based animals died in a world-wide flood that could have been avoided and it was not because some angels came down to be with the women on this earth.
Those who believe in such a thing make my God to be powerless against His angels and He is not.
He tossed Satan out of Heaven so hard that he appeared as lightning.
God uses Satan for His purpose, but God does not tolerate the foolishness of other angels and they cannot impregnate a female from this world. They are not made as we are!
God does not reject His people forever.
We know this because we read from the history of Israel and this lesson is for all believers.
If God was through with Israel, there would be no New Testament which means a New Covenant.
You see God does not ever give up on His children, but He will surrender them into the hands of their enemies where they want to be, as He did Israel many times.
Today, we see this thing in reverse for a short time where "those who hate the Lord" will pretend obedience to God as if God does not know this.
Mat_13:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Mat_13:26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
Mat_13:27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
Mat_13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Mat_13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
*****Psa 81:15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
Psa 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
The enemies of God are the enemies of God's people.
If Israel had submitted themselves to the Lord their happy time would have lasted forever.
Israel would have had the finest things in this world.
Famine would have been an unknown word in Israel.
These things are also happening in America today.
America was far more prosperous than it is today because the elite has decided to kick God out of every portion of our lives and we now see America on a slide to Hell that may be irreversable.
They will find out that their riches do not buy them everything they seek and those actors who get paid to be something they are not, need to be what they are. Just people with a good job.
We do not need to hear about their politics. I respect their ability for free speech so, they need to respect mine!
There is no doubt in my mind that to be a Democrat you have to be a demoncrat or you cannot be accepted in that party.
God provides the necessities of life to every Christian!
A satisfied life usually has no complaints!
God offers abundant life but few there be that realize it!
Deu 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
As Christians, we are to gather in the name of the Lord!
We are to exalt the Lord in worship and prayer.
We are to hear what the Lord has to say from His Word.
We are to respond positively to what God has to say to us.
We are to act like we are God's children and not the children of the world!
God always thrives to provide the best for us.
When we do these things we will be spared the consequences of our sin.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1Jn 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the only answer this world will ever get!
It is really very simple!
Amen
