Psalms 81

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph.

To encourage the people in prompt and cheerful attendance upon one of the great annual festivals is the primary object of this psalm. That this feast was the passover is shown from Psalms 81:5, where the date of its institution is referred to. Exodus 12:0. It was fit now, as then, to celebrate the passover in connexion with the national deliverance. That the people were in their own land at this time need not be affirmed; equally evident is it, from the whole tone of the psalm, that they needed some special urgency to call their attention to the institutes of Moses. That they had been in subjection to their enemies is implied. (Psalms 81:11-15.) The undertone of humiliation cannot be suppressed, yet hope prevails, and the admonition is softened and made more salutary by the encouraging richness and fulness of the promises. In the absence of historic data the internal evidence would seem to assign the psalm to the dedication of the second temple, in the days of Ezra, at which, also, the passover was kept. Ezra 6:16-22. In this psalm the lyric element is preserved in a high degree without abatement of the didactic two qualities difficult to combine. It belongs to the same class with Psalms 77, 78, where, in the former, he calls the entire Hebrew family by the title “sons of Jacob and Joseph;” in the latter, “sons of Ephraim;” here, simply “Joseph.”

“The artificial structure of the psalm gives one strophe of eleven lines and two of twelve.” Delitzsch. But, more practically, Hengstenberg gives two main divisions, an objective and a subjective one, separated by the selah. (Psalms 81:7;) the former historic, the latter spiritual.

TITLE:

Upon Gittith After the manner of Gath. See note on title of Psalms 8:0. The psalms bearing this title are of a lively movement and of a thanksgiving character. The Asaphic origin of this psalm is too clear to require argument.