June 6, 2018 (Wednesday)
Let us never forget that June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day in 1944. Less than a year later, VE Day (Victory in Europe) was being celebrated. But the costs in injury and death were great. Let us always be thankful for the bravery and courage of our military.
Today’s blog: IF MY PEOPLE WOULD ONLY LISTEN TO ME (PSALM 81)
From the Easy English Bible: Psalm 81 is a *Festival Psalm. The *festival was at the time of the *grape *harvest. They called it “the festival of *tents” (Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Booths, Succoth). Tents were houses made of animal skins. At the festival of tents the Jews lived for a week in tents. This taught them how they lived when God took them out of Egypt, hundreds of years before. It told them how good God was to them.
Psalm 81 taught the Jews that, now that God had brought them into their own land, they should have no other gods (verse 9). Then he would give them help against their enemies, as he did in Egypt.
Study the psalm in three parts:
· Verses 1 – 4: Now the Festival
· Verses 5 – 7: What God did in Egypt
· Verses 8 – 16: Trouble when you have other gods
Psalm 81
New International Version (NIV)
For the director of music. According to gittith. Of Asaph.
I. CELEBRATE THE FESTIVAL (1-5)
1 Sing for joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
2 *Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
play the melodious harp and lyre.
3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
4 this is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 When God went out against Egypt,
he established it as a statute for Joseph.
II. HAVE NO OTHER GODS AND BE BLESSED (6-11)
I heard an unknown voice say:
6 “I removed the burden from their shoulders;
their hands were set free from the basket.
7 In your distress you called and I rescued you,
I answered you out of a thundercloud;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you–
if you would only listen to me, Israel!
9 You shall have no foreign god among you;
you shall not worship any god other than me.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
III. PREPARE TO BE PUNISHED (11-12)
11 “But my people would not listen to me;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own devices.
IV. OBEY GOD AND BE BLESSED (13-16)
13 “If my people would only listen to me,
if Israel would only follow my ways,
14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever.
16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Click here for more photos of rams’ horns
*Click here to see the timbrel, harp, lyre and shofar (verses 2-3)