Day 837: What God yearns for - Psalm 81

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph. 1-5 Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day. For it is a statute for Israel, a rule (a just decree) of the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over (against) the land of Egypt. 6-7 I hear a language I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah

8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! 9-10 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11-12 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. 13-14 Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. 15-16 Those who hate the Lord would cringe towards him, and their fate would last for ever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Psalm 81 English Standard Version

How do you view God? Sadly, it's not uncommon to meet people who see God as someone who is harsh, even cruel, and always ready to pour out judgment. Yet what would verses 8 and 13-14 of this Psalm suggest that God is like?

Surely they picture someone who yearns to show people just how kind He is, and how willing He is to forgive their wrongdoings. We have a similar picture in the New Testament when Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, knowing what awaited Him there. He said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” (Matthew 23:37)

Once again we see the Lord's yearning to bless people, but it’s their stubbornness that was the obstacle to that. Many years after Jesus said those words there were people mocking Christians because Jesus had not yet returned as He had promised to do. But listen to how the apostle Peter responded to their mocking. He wrote: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

That seems to be the purpose of this Psalm. In vs 1-5 the writer called the nation to celebrate God's goodness to them as He had told them to do. In vs 6 he focuses on how had God rescued them from a land where they were foreigners, and weighed down with burdens. But God had also put them to the test by bringing them to a place called Meribah, where there was no water. It resulted in the people doubting whether God was with them. They questioned His goodness. Do times of distress do that to us as well?

Verses 8-16 are God's response (through the Psalm writer) to their doubting His goodness and turning to idols. He had disciplined them by allowing their enemies to get the upper hand over them. But what was His aim in doing that? Was He just being vindictive? Absolutely not. His yearning was for them to turn back to Him so that He could pour out His blessings upon them. They would be victorious over their foes and their land would produce harvests in abundance. That all comes out in vs 13-16.

There are lessons for believers today. Don't be put off by people who mock God's promises, or who say He is a cruel God of judgment. And don't allow Satan to bring doubts into your mind about God's willingness to forgive your sins. This Psalm suggest He is more ready to forgive than we as people are to repent. Oh let us respond to His yearning that verses 13-14 express.