8 Give ear, O my people, and I will give you my word, O Israel, if you will only do as I say!
Give ear, O my people, to my words; O Israel, I will be a witness against you; I am God, even your God.
And he said, If with all your heart you will give attention to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes, giving ear to his orders and keeping his laws, I will not put on you any of the diseases which I put on the Egyptians: for I am the Lord your life-giver.
Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your children to do every word of this law.
If only my people would give ear to me, walking in my ways!
Give ear, and come to me, take note with care, so that your souls may have life: and I will make an eternal agreement with you, even the certain mercies of David. See, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a ruler and a guide to the nations.
Truly, I say to you, We say that of which we have knowledge; we give witness of what we have seen; and you do not take our witness to be true.
Preaching to Jews and to Greeks the need for a turning of the heart to God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 81
Commentary on Psalms 81 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 81
This psalm was penned, as is supposed, not upon occasion of any particular providence, but for the solemnity of a particular ordinance, either that of the new-moon in general or that of the feast of trumpets on the new moon of the seventh month, Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1. When David, by the Spirit, introduced the singing of psalms into the temple-service this psalm was intended for that day, to excite and assist the proper devotions of it. All the psalms are profitable; but, if one psalm be more suitable than another to the day and observances of it, we should choose that. The two great intentions of our religious assemblies, and which we ought to have in our eye in our attendance on them, are answered in this psalm, which are, to give glory to God and to receive instruction from God, to "behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple;' accordingly by this psalm we are assisted on our solemn feast days,
This, though spoken primarily of Israel of old, is written for our learning, and is therefore to be sung with application.
To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm of Asaph.
Psa 81:1-7
When the people of God were gathered together in the solemn day, the day of the feast of the Lord, they must be told that they had business to do, for we do not go to church to sleep nor to be idle; no, there is that which the duty of every day requires, work of the day, which is to be done in its day. And here,
Psa 81:8-16
God, by the psalmist, here speaks to Israel, and in them to us, on whom the ends of the world are come.