VIP Ministry Network

Psalm 81

We have reasons to praise God!

The psalmist commands us to praise God and provides the reasons for our praise in the history of Israel.

“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 festal day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a voice I had not known: ‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.’ Selah”

God has reasons to admonish us!

When we forget what God has done for us and go in our own ways, God appeals to us, reminding what God has done for us.

“Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me! 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. ‘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.

There are consequences of our actions and God care for us!

When we do not listen to God, we have to pay the price. God does not want us to suffer the consequences of our actions. That is why God appeals to us! As a just God, God cannot just condone our iniquities. Ultimately God has to pay our sins with the blood of His Son, Jesus!

O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’”