mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 81.xml

<div2 id="Ps.lxxxii" n="lxxxii" next="Ps.lxxxiii" prev="Ps.lxxxi" progress="50.09%" title="Chapter LXXXI">
<h2 id="Ps.lxxxii-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.lxxxii-p0.2">PSALM LXXXI.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.lxxxii-p1">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,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Lev.23.24 Bible:Num.29.1" parsed="|Lev|23|24|0|0;|Num|29|1|0|0" passage="Le 23:24,Nu 29:1">Lev. xxiii. 24; Num. xxix.
1</scripRef>. 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, I. In praising God for what he is to his
people (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.1-Ps.81.3" parsed="|Ps|81|1|81|3" passage="Ps 81:1-3">ver. 1-3</scripRef>), and has
done for them, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.4-Ps.81.7" parsed="|Ps|81|4|81|7" passage="Ps 81:4-7">ver. 4-7</scripRef>.
II. In teaching and admonishing one another concerning the
obligations we lie under to God (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.8-Ps.81.10" parsed="|Ps|81|8|81|10" passage="Ps 81:8-10">ver. 8-10</scripRef>), the danger of revolting from
him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.11-Ps.81.12" parsed="|Ps|81|11|81|12" passage="Ps 81:11,12">ver. 11, 12</scripRef>), and
the happiness we should have if we would but keep close to him,
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.13-Ps.81.16" parsed="|Ps|81|13|81|16" passage="Ps 81:13-16">ver. 13-16</scripRef>. This, though
spoken primarily of Israel of old, is written for our learning, and
is therefore to be sung with application.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81" parsed="|Ps|81|0|0|0" passage="Ps 81" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.1-Ps.81.7" parsed="|Ps|81|1|81|7" passage="Ps 81:1-7" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.81.1-Ps.81.7">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.9">An Invitation to Praise.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.lxxxii-p1.10">
<p id="Ps.lxxxii-p2">To the chief musician upon Gittith. <i>A psalm</i> of Asaph.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxxii-p3">1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a
joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.   2 Take a psalm, and
bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
  3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time
appointed, on our solemn feast day.   4 For this <i>was</i> a
statute for Israel, <i>and</i> a law of the God of Jacob.   5
This he ordained in Joseph <i>for</i> a testimony, when he went out
through the land of Egypt: <i>where</i> I heard a language
<i>that</i> I understood not.   6 I removed his shoulder from
the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.   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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p4">When the people of God were gathered
together in <i>the solemn day, the day of the feast of the
Lord,</i> 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,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p5">I. The worshippers of God are excited to
their work, and are taught, by singing this psalm, to stir up both
themselves and one another to it, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.1-Ps.81.3" parsed="|Ps|81|1|81|3" passage="Ps 81:1-3"><i>v.</i> 1-3</scripRef>. Our errand is, to give unto
God the glory due unto his name, and in all our religious
assemblies we must mind this as our business. 1. In doing this we
must eye God as <i>our strength,</i> and as <i>the God of
Jacob,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.1" parsed="|Ps|81|1|0|0" passage="Ps 81:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. He
is the strength of Israel, as a people; for he is a God in covenant
with them, who will powerfully protect, support, and deliver them,
who fights their battles and makes them do valiantly and
victoriously. He is the strength of every Israelite; by his grace
we are enabled to go through all our services, sufferings, and
conflicts; and to him, as our strength, we must pray, and we must
sing praise to him as the God of all the wrestling seed of Jacob,
with whom we have a spiritual communion. 2. We must do this by all
the expressions of holy joy and triumph. It was then to be done by
musical instruments, the <i>timbrel, harp, and psaltery;</i> and by
blowing <i>the trumpet,</i> some think in remembrance of the sound
of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, which waxed louder and louder. It
was then and is now to be done by singing psalms, singing
<i>aloud,</i> and making <i>a joyful noise.</i> The pleasantness of
the harp and the awfulness of the trumpet intimate to us that God
is to be worshipped with cheerfulness and joy with reverence and
godly fear. Singing aloud and making a noise intimate that we must
be warm and affectionate in praising God, that we must with a
hearty good-will show forth his praise, as those that are not
ashamed to own our dependence on him and obligations to him, and
that we should join many together in this work; the more the
better; it is the more like heaven. 3. This must be done in the
time appointed. No time is amiss for praising God (<i>Seven times a
day will I praise thee;</i> nay, <i>at midnight will I rise and
give thanks unto thee</i>); but some are times appointed, not for
God to meet us (he is always ready), but for us to meet one
another, that we may join together in praising God. The solemn
feast-day must be a day of praise; when we are receiving the gifts
of God's bounty, and rejoicing in them, then it is proper to sing
his praises.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p6">II. They are here directed in their work.
1. They must look up to the divine institution which it is the
observation of. In all religious worship we must have an eye to the
command (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.4" parsed="|Ps|81|4|0|0" passage="Ps 81:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>):
<i>This was a statute for Israel,</i> for the keeping up of a face
of religion among them; it was <i>a law of the God of Jacob,</i>
which all the seed of Jacob are bound by, and must be subject to.
Note, Praising God is not only a good thing, which we do well to
do, but it is our indispensable duty, which we are obliged to do;
it is at our peril if we neglect it; and in all religious exercises
we must have an eye to the institution as our warrant and rule:
"This I do because God has commanded me; and therefore I hope he
will accept me;" then it is done in faith. 2. They must look back
upon those operations of divine Providence which it is the memorial
of. This solemn service was <i>ordained for a testimony</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.5" parsed="|Ps|81|5|0|0" passage="Ps 81:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>), a standing
traditional evidence, for the attesting of the matters of fact. It
was a testimony to Israel, that they might know and remember what
God had done for their fathers, and would be a testimony against
them if they should be ignorant of them and forget them. (1.) The
psalmist, in the people's name, puts himself in mind of the general
work of God on Israel's behalf, which was kept in remembrance by
this and other solemnities, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.5" parsed="|Ps|81|5|0|0" passage="Ps 81:5"><i>v.</i>
5</scripRef>. When God went out against the land of Egypt, to lay
it waste, that he might force Pharaoh to let Israel go, then he
ordained solemn feast-days to be observed by a statute for ever in
their generations, as a memorial of it, particularly the passover,
which perhaps is meant by the <i>solemn feast-day</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.3" parsed="|Ps|81|3|0|0" passage="Ps 81:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>); that was appointed just
then when God went out through the land of Egypt to destroy the
first-born, and passed over the houses of the Israelites, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.12.23-Exod.12.24" parsed="|Exod|12|23|12|24" passage="Ex 12:23,24">Exod. xii. 23, 24</scripRef>. By it that work
of wonder was to be kept in perpetual remembrance, that all ages
might in it behold the goodness and severity of God. The psalmist,
speaking for his people, takes notice of this aggravating
circumstance of their slavery in Egypt that there they heard a
language that they understood not; there they were strangers in a
strange land. The Egyptians and the Hebrews understood not one
another's language; for Joseph spoke to his brethren by an
interpreter (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.6" osisRef="Bible:Gen.42.23" parsed="|Gen|42|23|0|0" passage="Ge 42:23">Gen. xlii.
23</scripRef>), and the Egyptians are said to be to the house of
Jacob <i>a people of a strange language,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.114.1" parsed="|Ps|114|1|0|0" passage="Ps 114:1">Ps. cxiv. 1</scripRef>. To make a deliverance appear the
more gracious, the more glorious, it is good to observe every thing
that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear the more
grievous. (2.) The psalmist, in God's name, puts the people in mind
of some of the particulars of their deliverance. Here he changes
the person, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.6" parsed="|Ps|81|6|0|0" passage="Ps 81:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. God
speaks by him, saying, <i>I removed the shoulder from the
burden.</i> Let him remember this on the feast-day, [1.] That God
had brought them out of the house of bondage, had removed their
shoulder from the burden of oppression under which they were ready
to sink, <i>had delivered their hands from the pots,</i> or
panniers, or baskets, in which they carried clay or bricks.
Deliverance out of slavery is a very sensible mercy and one which
ought to be had in everlasting remembrance. But this was not all.
[2.] God had delivered them at the Red Sea; then they called in
trouble, and he rescued them and disappointed the designs of their
enemies against them, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.9" osisRef="Bible:Exod.14.10" parsed="|Exod|14|10|0|0" passage="Ex 14:10">Exod. xiv.
10</scripRef>. Then he answered them with a real answer, out of
<i>the secret place of thunder;</i> that is, out of the pillar of
fire, through which God looked upon the host of the Egyptians and
troubled it, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.10" osisRef="Bible:Exod.14.24-Exod.14.25" parsed="|Exod|14|24|14|25" passage="Ex 14:24,25">Exod. xiv. 24,
25</scripRef>. Or it may be meant of the giving of the law at Mount
Sinai, which was the secret place, for it was death to gaze
(<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.11" osisRef="Bible:Exod.19.21" parsed="|Exod|19|21|0|0" passage="Ex 19:21">Exod. xix. 21</scripRef>), and it was
in thunder that God then spoke. Even the terrors of Sinai were
favours to Israel, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.12" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.33" parsed="|Deut|4|33|0|0" passage="De 4:33">Deut. iv.
33</scripRef>. [3.] God had borne their manners in the wilderness:
"<i>I proved thee at the waters of Meribah;</i> thou didst there
show thy temper, what an unbelieving murmuring people thou wast,
and yet I continued my favour to thee." <i>Selah—Mark that;</i>
compare God's goodness and man's badness, and they will serve as
foils to each other. Now if they, on their solemn feast-days, were
thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought
we, on the Christian sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious
redemption wrought out for us by Jesus Christ from worse than
Egyptian bondage, and the many gracious answers he has given to us,
notwithstanding our manifold provocations.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.13" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.8-Ps.81.16" parsed="|Ps|81|8|81|16" passage="Ps 81:8-16" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.81.8-Ps.81.16">
<h4 id="Ps.lxxxii-p6.14">Expostulation with Israel.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lxxxii-p7">8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto
thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;   9 There shall
no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange
god.   10 I <i>am</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxii-p7.1">Lord</span>
thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy
mouth wide, and I will fill it.   11 But my people would not
hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.   12 So I
gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: <i>and</i> they walked in
their own counsels.   13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto
me, <i>and</i> Israel had walked in my ways!   14 I should
soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their
adversaries.   15 The haters of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lxxxii-p7.2">Lord</span> should have submitted themselves unto him:
but their time should have endured for ever.   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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p8">God, by the psalmist, here speaks to
Israel, and in them to us, on whom the ends of the world are
come.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p9">I. He demands their diligent and serious
attention to what he was about to say (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.8" parsed="|Ps|81|8|0|0" passage="Ps 81:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): "<i>Hear, O my people!</i> and
who should hear me if my people will not? I have heard and answered
thee; now wilt thou hear me? Hear what is said with the greatest
solemnity and the most unquestionable certainty, for it is what
<i>I will testify unto thee.</i> Do not only give me the hearing,
but <i>hearken unto me,</i> that is, be advised by me, be ruled by
me." Nothing could be more reasonably nor more justly expected, and
yet God puts an <i>if</i> upon it: "<i>If thou wilt hearken unto
me.</i> It is thy interest to do so, and yet it is questionable
whether thou wilt or no; for thy neck is an iron sinew."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p10">II. He puts them in mind of their
obligation to him as the Lord their God and Redeemer (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.10" parsed="|Ps|81|10|0|0" passage="Ps 81:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): <i>I am the Lord thy
God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt;</i> this is the
preface to the ten commandments, and a powerful reason for the
keeping of them, showing that we are bound to it in duty, interest,
and gratitude, all which bonds we break asunder if we be
disobedient.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p11">III. He gives them an abstract both of the
precepts and of the promises which he gave them, as the Lord and
their God, upon their coming out of Egypt. 1. The great command was
that they should have no other gods before him (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.9" parsed="|Ps|81|9|0|0" passage="Ps 81:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>): <i>There shall no strange god be
in thee,</i> none besides thy own God. Other gods might well be
called strange gods, for it was very strange that ever any people
who had the true and living God for their God should hanker after
any other. God is jealous in this matter, for he will not suffer
his glory to be given to another; and therefore in this matter they
must be circumspect, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.23.13" parsed="|Exod|23|13|0|0" passage="Ex 23:13">Exod. xxiii.
13</scripRef>. 2. The great promise was that God himself, as a God
all-sufficient, would be nigh unto them in all that which they
called upon him for (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.7" parsed="|Deut|4|7|0|0" passage="De 4:7">Deut. iv.
7</scripRef>), that, if they would adhere to him as their powerful
protector and ruler, they should always find him their bountiful
benefactor: "<i>Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it,</i> as the
young ravens that cry open their mouths wide and the old ones fill
them." See here, (1.) What is our duty—to raise our expectations
from God and enlarge our desires towards him. We cannot look for
too little from the creature nor too much from the Creator. We are
not straitened in him; why therefore should we be straitened in our
own bosoms? (2.) What is God's promise. I will fill thy mouth with
good things, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.103.5" parsed="|Ps|103|5|0|0" passage="Ps 103:5">Ps. ciii. 5</scripRef>.
There is <i>enough in God to fill our treasures</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.5" osisRef="Bible:Prov.8.21" parsed="|Prov|8|21|0|0" passage="Pr 8:21">Prov. viii. 21</scripRef>), to <i>replenish every
hungry soul</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.6" osisRef="Bible:Jer.31.25" parsed="|Jer|31|25|0|0" passage="Jer 31:25">Jer. xxxi.
25</scripRef>), to supply all our wants, to answer all our desires,
and to make us completely happy. The pleasures of sense will
surfeit and never satisfy (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.55.2" parsed="|Isa|55|2|0|0" passage="Isa 55:2">Isa. lv.
2</scripRef>); divine pleasures will satisfy and never surfeit. And
we may have enough from God if we pray for it in faith. <i>Ask, and
it shall be given you.</i> He <i>gives liberally, and upbraids
not.</i> God assured his people Israel that it would be their own
fault if he did not do as great and kind things for them as he had
done for their fathers. Nothing should be thought too good, too
much, to give them, if they would but keep close to God. He
<i>would moreover have given them such and such things,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p11.8" osisRef="Bible:2Sam.12.8" parsed="|2Sam|12|8|0|0" passage="2Sa 12:8">2 Sam. xii. 8</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p12">IV. He charges them with a high contempt of
his authority as their lawgiver and his grace and favour as their
benefactor, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.11" parsed="|Ps|81|11|0|0" passage="Ps 81:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>.
He had done much for them, and designed to do more; but all in
vain: "<i>My people would not hearken to my voice,</i> but turned a
deaf ear to all I said." Two things he complains of:—1. Their
disobedience to his commands. They did hear his voice, so as never
any people did; but they would not hearken to it, they would not be
ruled by it, neither by the law nor by the reason of it. 2. Their
dislike of his covenant-relation to them: <i>They would none of me.
They acquiesced not in my word</i> (so the Chaldee); God was
willing to be to them a God, but they were not willing to be to him
a people; they did not like his terms. "I would have gathered them,
but they would not." They had none of him; and why had they not? It
was not because they might not; they were fairly invited into
covenant with God. It was not because they could not; for the word
was nigh them, even in their mouth and in their heart. But it was
purely because they would not. God calls them his people, for they
were bought by him, bound to him, his by a thousand ties, and yet
even they had not hearkened, had not obeyed. "Israel, the seed of
Jacob my friend, set me at nought, and <i>would</i> have <i>none of
me.</i>" Note, All the wickedness of the wicked world is owing to
the wilfulness of the wicked will. The reason why people are not
religious is because they will not be so.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p13">V. He justifies himself with this in the
spiritual judgments he had brought upon them (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.12" parsed="|Ps|81|12|0|0" passage="Ps 81:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>): <i>So I gave them up unto
their own hearts' lusts,</i> which would be more dangerous enemies
and more mischievous oppressors to them than any of the
neighbouring nations ever were. God withdrew his Spirit from them,
took off the bridle of restraining grace, left them to themselves,
and justly; they will do as they will, and therefore let them do as
they will. <i>Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.</i> It is
a righteous thing with God to give those up to their own hearts'
lusts that indulge them, and give up themselves to be led by them;
for why should his Spirit always strive? His grace is his own, and
he is debtor to no man, and yet, as he never gave his grace to any
that could say they deserved it, so he never took it away from any
but such as had first forfeited it: <i>They would none of me, so I
gave them up;</i> let them take their course. And see what follows:
<i>They walked in their own counsels,</i> in the way of their heart
and in the sight of their eye, both in their worships and in their
conversations. "I left them to do as they would, and then they did
all that was ill;" they walked in their own counsels, and not
according to the counsels of God and his advice. God therefore was
not the author of their sin; he left them to the lusts of their own
hearts and the counsels of their own heads; if they do not well,
the blame must lie upon their own hearts and the blood upon their
own heads.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p14">VI. He testifies his good-will to them in
wishing they had done well for themselves. He saw how sad their
case was, and how sure their ruin, when they were delivered up to
their own lusts; that is worse than being given up to Satan, which
may be in order to reformation (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:1Tim.1.20" parsed="|1Tim|1|20|0|0" passage="1Ti 1:20">1 Tim.
i. 20</scripRef>) and to salvation (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.5.5" parsed="|1Cor|5|5|0|0" passage="1Co 5:5">1
Cor. v. 5</scripRef>); but to be delivered up to their own hearts'
lusts is to be sealed under condemnation. <i>He that is filthy, let
him be filthy still.</i> What fatal precipices will not these hurry
a man to! Now here God looks upon them with pity, and shows that it
was with reluctance that he thus abandoned them to their folly and
fate. <i>How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p14.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.8-Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|8|11|9" passage="Ho 11:8,9">Hos. xi. 8, 9</scripRef>. So here, <i>O that my people
had hearkened!</i> See <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p14.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.48.18" parsed="|Isa|48|18|0|0" passage="Isa 48:18">Isa. xlviii.
18</scripRef>. Thus Christ lamented the obstinacy of Jerusalem.
<i>If thou hadst known,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p14.5" osisRef="Bible:Luke.19.42" parsed="|Luke|19|42|0|0" passage="Lu 19:42">Luke xix.
42</scripRef>. The expressions here are very affecting (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p14.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.13-Ps.81.16" parsed="|Ps|81|13|81|16" passage="Ps 81:13-16"><i>v.</i> 13-16</scripRef>), designed to show
how unwilling God is that any should perish and desirous that all
should come to repentance (he delights not in the ruin of sinful
persons or nations), and also what enemies sinners are to
themselves and what an aggravation it will be of their misery that
they might have been happy upon such easy terms. Observe here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p15">1. The great mercy God had in store for his
people, and which he would have wrought for them if they had been
obedient. (1.) He would have given them victory over their enemies
and would soon have completed the reduction of them. They should
not only have kept their ground, but have gained their point,
against the remaining Canaanites, and their encroaching vexatious
neighbours (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.14" parsed="|Ps|81|14|0|0" passage="Ps 81:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>):
<i>I should have subdued their enemies;</i> and it is God only that
is to be depended on for the subduing of our enemies. Not would had
have put them to the expense and fatigue of a tedious war: he would
<i>soon</i> have done it; for he would have <i>turned his hand
against their adversaries,</i> and then they would not have been
able to stand before them. It intimates how easily he would have
done it and without any difficulty. With the turn of a hand, nay,
<i>with the breath of his mouth, shall he slay the wicked,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.11.4" parsed="|Isa|11|4|0|0" passage="Isa 11:4">Isa. xi. 4</scripRef>. If he but turn
his hand, the <i>haters of the Lord will submit themselves to
him</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.15" parsed="|Ps|81|15|0|0" passage="Ps 81:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>);
and, though they are not brought to love him, yet they shall be
made to fear him and to confess that he is too hard for them and
that it is in vain to contend with him. God is honoured, and so is
his Israel, by the submission of those that have been in rebellion
against them, though it be but a forced and feigned submission.
(2.) He would have confirmed and perpetuated their posterity, and
established it upon sure and lasting foundations. In spite of all
the attempts of their enemies against them, <i>their time should
have endured for ever,</i> and they should never have been
disturbed in the possession of the good land God had given them,
much less evicted and turned out of possession. (3.) He would have
given them great plenty of all good things (<scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.16" parsed="|Ps|81|16|0|0" passage="Ps 81:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>): <i>He should have fed them
with the finest of the wheat,</i> with the best grain and the best
of the kind. Wheat was the staple commodity of Canaan, and they
exported a great deal of it, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.27.17" parsed="|Ezek|27|17|0|0" passage="Eze 27:17">Ezek.
xxvii. 17</scripRef>. He would not only have provided for them the
best sort of bread, but <i>with honey out of the rock would he have
satisfied them.</i> Besides the precious products of the fruitful
soil, that there might not be a barren spot in all their land, even
the clefts of the rock should serve for bee-hives and in them they
should find honey in abundance. See <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p15.6" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.13-Deut.32.14" parsed="|Deut|32|13|32|14" passage="De 32:13,14">Deut. xxxii. 13, 14</scripRef>. In short, God
designed to make them every way easy and happy.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p16">2. The duty God required from them as the
condition of all this mercy. He expected no more than that they
should <i>hearken to him,</i> as a scholar to his teacher, to
receive his instructions—as a servant to his master, to receive
his commands; and that they should <i>walk in his ways,</i> those
ways of the Lord which are right and pleasant, that they should
observe the institutions of his ordinances and attend the
intimations of his providence. There was nothing unreasonable in
this.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lxxxii-p17">3. Observe how the reason of the
withholding of the mercy is laid in their neglect of the duty: If
they had <i>hearkened to me, I would soon have subdued their
enemies.</i> National sin or disobedience is the great and only
thing that retards and obstructs national deliverance. <i>When I
would have healed Israel,</i> and set every thing to-rights among
them, then <i>the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered,</i> and so a
stop was put to the cure, <scripRef id="Ps.lxxxii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.7.1" parsed="|Hos|7|1|0|0" passage="Ho 7:1">Hos. vii.
1</scripRef>. We are apt to say, "If such a method had been taken,
such an instrument employed, we should soon have subdued our
enemies:" but we mistake; if we had hearkened to God, and kept to
our duty, the thing would have been done, but it is sin that makes
our troubles long and salvation slow. And this is that which God
himself complains of, and wishes it had been otherwise. Note,
<i>Therefore</i> God would have us do our duty to him, that we may
be qualified to receive favour from him. He delights in our serving
him, not because he is the better for it, but because we shall
be.</p>
</div></div2>