‏ Psalms 81

* God is praised for what he has done for his people. (1-7)

Their obligations to him. (8-16)1-7 All the worship we can render to the Lord is beneath his

excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our

redemption from sin and wrath. What God had done on Israel's

behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a

deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to

observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear

more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous

drudgery to which Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in

distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the

Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of

sin, and trials by affliction, prove his regard to his people.

If the Jews, 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 our Lord Jesus Christ, from worse bondage. 8-16 We cannot look for too little from the creature, nor too

much from the Creator. We may have enough from God, if we pray

for it in faith. All the wickedness of the world is owing to

man's wilfulness. People are not religious, because they will

not be so. God is not the Author of their sin, he leaves them to

the lusts of their own hearts, and the counsels of their own

heads; if they do not well, the blame must be upon themselves.

The Lord is unwilling that any should perish. What enemies

sinners are to themselves! It is sin that makes our troubles

long, and our salvation slow. Upon the same conditions of faith

and obedience, do Christians hold those spiritual and eternal

good things, which the pleasant fields and fertile hills of

Canaan showed forth. Christ is the Bread of life; he is the Rock

of salvation, and his promises are as honey to pious minds. But

those who reject him as their Lord and Master, must also lose

him as their Saviour and their reward