Psa. 81:1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
Sing It Out!
Losing your voice.
This month the GP’s, surgeries, pharmacies are all offering flu jabs. There is nothing more frustrating when you are trying to communicate with someone than losing your voice.
The first three verses describe the events that would happen every year at the pinnacle of the festival calendar. The people of Israel would celebrate the new year (rosh hashana), ten days later the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and then on the fifteenth day Feast of Tabernacles.
Somehow, though they had made promises to trust God and follow Him, the hustle and bustle of the year would crowd out their memory of what God had done for them and prevent them from rejoicing in his salvation. During these fifteen days they would retell the story or redemption from creation to salvation from slavery to the giving of the covenant on Mount Sinai.
Remember
The people of Israel discovered their voice again by remembering (v4 -10) God’s great deeds of the past. When the Psalmist used the words blow the trumpet, Israel was reminded of the trumpet blasts at Jericho’s walls. As Asaph uttered the words, “Hear, O my People,” the singers of this psalm were transported back to those beautiful words in Deut 6:4 “Hear O, Israel, The Lord your God, The Lord is One.”
Joy
On the last and greatest day of this Feast many years later, Jesus would call His people back to Himself. His call for repentance and our need for washing and cleansing would lead to joyful response of overflow. As we remember God’s goodness towards us our only response is joyful obedience and celebration. So the psalm ends with a strong reminder of God’s grace and resource. The One whom Israel distrusts is neither stingy nor powerless: he gives the best, and brings sweetness out of what is harsh, forbidding and wholly unpromising.
Let us celebrate the new life that Jesus provided for us on the Day of Atonement.
This post is also available in: Spanish