Daily Meditations

Psalm 81:11-12 Cause and effect We like to use the term “cause and effect” and rarely is it seen so devastatingly clearly as in these verses!  The cause: - “ But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.” The effect:  - “So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.”   Notice that God still causes Israel “my people”. Despite their foolish disregard of His commands, God did not abandon or disown them. He never has and He never will; by covenant promise they are His people forever.   Secondly, the judgement that came upon Israel was not sent from heaven, it was self-induced, God just left them to follow their own devices and it spelled disaster for the whole nation. On more than one occasion!   Our world today is being judged on many fronts. As I write, the war in Ukraine is causing concern at many levels. God didn’t make it happen; Putin follows his own devices. The judgements seen in climate change are recognised as being caused by man

Psalm 81:10 I am the Lord your God When God speaks, He doesn’t really need to repeat Himself. He speaks and He acts and there is no going back. Thus, it is unusual to hear Him duplicating His words, but today’s verse is a re-run of a statement He has made on numerous occasions and in different formats.  “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.”   ·        Exodus 19:4-5 includes these words;  “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”   ·        Exodus 20:2-4 includes the words;  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”   ·        Deuteronomy 4:15-20 includes the words; “ But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.”   These passages include injunctions not to worship idols or created things but to worship God alone. In today’s verse the people are also invi

Psalm 81:9 No other gods The previous verse carried a warning and this is it,  “You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me.”  This is why the Lord was pleading with His people to hear Him out, in this above all else, they were to obey Him. The first of the 10 commandments says the same thing,  “You shall have no other gods before me.”  It’s obvious is it not? As soon as we exalt something or someone above God, we are at the beginning of a slippery slope. And when that something or someone is a pagan god, then we are doomed!   God had chosen Israel, they were to be a holy nation, set apart to Him. He had proved His faithfulness and His mercy towards them by a number of miraculous events, and in so doing He had made them a people who were separate and unique. He had demonstrated His power over the gods of Egypt and the foreign deities of the nations, including the Canaanites. It was obvious that He was greater than all of these inferior objects o

Psalm 81:8 If you only would listen If this isn’t a divine heart cry, down through the ages, then I don’t know what is!  “Hear me, my people – if you would only listen to me. Israel. ” What is obvious is that God listened to His people, He heard their cries for help, He was not deaf to their distress in Egypt and on their travels. What He longed for was a corresponding response from them that He might warn them and guide them. Too often the conversation was one-sided, He heard their pleading, but they never listened to His response.   Here is a mighty lesson for us for little has changed. How often we offer our rambling prayers to heaven, usually heartfelt and full of pleading. We set apart hours in our weekly calendars to meet and pray with others and we constantly pour out our requests and remind the Lord of His responsibilities. But do we listen? The earlier verses of this Psalm reveal a God who speaks, who is always communicating, whose actions are His words. He speaks through circ

Psalm 81:6-7 In your distress you called The Israelites in Egypt were oppressed by forced labour and their slave masters worked them ruthlessly, partly because the Egyptians dreaded them! The Hebrew slaves were made to produce bricks and mortar and transport these to building sites for construction projects like the cities of Pithom and Rameses. In addition, the slaves were the agricultural workers, managing the fields in the harsh sun and being treated no better than animals. And yet their numbers kept growing! These verses describe the physical toll on the shoulders of the slaves and on their hands as they carried heavy baskets backwards and forwards.   No wonder they cried out to God, the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who heard and answered and who spoke from the cloud that accompanied the people on their exodus out of Egypt. The God who blew with His breath and turned the Red Sea back with a strong east wind and who later blew again and drowned the Egypt

Psalm 81:5 "I am the God who speaks" History records that the baby son of two Hebrew slaves was spied by an Egyptian princess in the bullrushes of the River Nile and she took the child home and raised him to be a prince. 40 years later the prince, who we know as Moses, unlawfully killed a man and had to run for his life and he became a shepherd in the Sinai desert - another 40 years! God called the 80-year-old Moses to go back to Egypt and to confront Pharaoh until he gave permission for the Hebrew slaves to leave their bondage and to travel, en masse, into the wilderness. Endless acts of miraculous deliverance followed until, 40 years later, the Israelites reached the Promised Land. The power of this verse of Psalm 81 is that it tells us none of the above but simply states that God went out against Egypt. In other words, these events were not Moses’ doing, he didn’t plan it all or make it happen, he was just an obedient servant in his Master’s hands.   When you study the wor

Psalm 81:4 Sing and praise - it's an order! The use of the words “decree” and “ordinance” varies in Scripture. As a general rule, we might say that a decree is a command or a law that has to be obeyed as in,  “There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. ” This is an edict from on high and it carries authority and the full weight of the Roman Emperor. God’s decrees are His laws and His commandments, they are not negotiable, and they do not vary with time and place.   An ordinance is more likely to be a local law or it may be specific to a particular group of people. For instance, a church may have a set of ordinances that applies to its ministers and its people but that have no meaning outside of that specific congregation. Visitors may be expected to obey the ordinances and they remain important and binding subject to their context.   The two words are inter-changeable in that a Court may decree on a certain line of action which does not bind ev

Psalm 81:3 Sound the Shofar! The ram’s horn trumpet is what the Jews call the “shofar”. It is a sacred instrument that was only blown in public by priests and prophets and kings. The blowing of the shofar accompanied many special moments in the calendar year, especially at the festivals. It has its roots in the Covenant made with Abraham in that God used a ram caught by its horns in a thicket to save Isaac from death and bring about the fulfilment of His promises.   The shofar was used to announce the new moon and the Jubilee year. The first day of Tishri, the New Year, (now known as Rosh Hashana) is termed a "memorial of blowing", or "day of blowing", the shofar. It is often referred to as the Feast of Trumpets. I suspect that this is what is called here, “the day of our festival.” The festival does not have a set date but falls at the end of September or the beginning of October on the day of the new moon. (The Jews arranged everything according to a lunar calenda

Psalm 81:2 Strike the timbrel! The word timbrel is used in the Hebrew Bible in both singular and plural form; the singular form referred to a hoop of wood or metal over which was stretched a parchment head; while the plural form was perhaps used to designate the tambourine with bells or jangles fixed at intervals in hoops. What is significant, is that the timbrel was an instrument of joy, it was played at celebrations and victory marches accompanied by harps and lyres. These were stringed instruments that provided the melody and tunes that people danced and sang to. Many of the Psalms we have been studying would have been put to music and sung and played at the appropriate times. There’s no doubt that this Psalm 81 was one of the celebratory numbers in the collection!   Having watched and heard Jewish celebrations I have to say that we do not have western equivalents in our churches, the nearest thing might be an Irish or Celtic jig! It’s the kind of music that gets everyone on their f

Psalm 81:1 Sing for joy to God Many commentators suggest that this Psalm was written to be sung and played at the time of 7th month in Israel which is called Tishri and spans September / October. This was a festival period when large crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. These events could go on for up to 3 weeks and worshippers and participants came from every corner of the land, and beyond, to join in the celebrations around the Temple and its courts. As well as celebrating, the people would join in times or remembrance and recommitment to their faith.   V1        Music was, and is, a huge part of the Jewish festival season and the Levites provided choirs and bands of highly skilled musicians to play and sing for the crowds who ascended to Jerusalem. There was dancing and singing and praising and you can imagine the delight of the families and friends who approached the Temple Courts and caught their first strains of fa

Psalm 80:18-19 The face of God The final two verses of this beautiful Psalm are a plea to the Lord God which sounds initially like an attempt to bargain with Him.  “If you revive and restore us, we will call on Your name and we won’t turn away from you.” Perhaps we need to remember that Israel were God’s only representatives on the earth, if He did not have them, He had no one. Their privileged position gave them some bargaining power!  However, we need to read the last two verses together, these people hated the loss of their land and their heritage, they hated the brutal Babylonians and the poverty of their circumstances, and the plea was much more than a bargaining tool. They knew that only God could restore them and that He alone could save them from their predicament.   Numbers 6:22-27 sets out the High Priestly blessing that was pronounced daily in the Temple, after the sacrifices had been made. As He prayed the Priest would lift up his hands over the people and everyone looked d

Psalm 80:17 The son of man This is a curious verse until we remember what we learned from verse 15 of this Psalm, where  Israel as a nation, is given the earthly title of God’s firstborn – His son. Israel, as we saw, are the planted vine, planted by the right hand of God. We also discovered that the words “son” and “branch” are sometimes used interchangeably in Scripture in that a fruitful branch was an allegory for a fruitful son. In this context the psalmist is asking God to place His right hand on the man, or the son, at His side. That is Jacob, or Israel. Israel is the son of man that God has raised up for Himself.  As we have seen from past studies, the right hand symbolises favour, authority and power. Thus, God took Israel with His right hand and planted the nation in the land that He prepared for them. God tended the planted vine and prospered it so that it reached ripe fulfilment and became a fruitful vine. It is no coincidence that Jesus often took the title “Son of Man” upon

Psalm 80:16 God's Rebuke “Rebuke” is a quite a gentle word in our language. By that I mean that it is a verbal telling off but that’s all. If you rebuke someone you put them straight and reprimand them but usually that’s it, the admonition does not include action. This is not true with God, He is the Word and the Word is living and active. If God says - He does, as we see when He created the universe. He spoke, it happened. It follows that a rebuke from the Lord is not to be treated lightly. In Scripture it usually means that He exercises His sovereign control and repulses His enemies. The prophet Isaiah puts it like this,  “Your children have fainted; they lie at every street corner, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the Lord, with the rebuke of your God.”  Isaiah 51:20. Here in the Psalm a similar picture is painted, the vine is chopped down, the dead plant is put on a fire to be burned. Israel is finished, the transplanted nation is destroyed and r

Psalm 80:15 The root, the branch and the Son When Moses first received instructions from the Lord to go and confront Pharaoh and ask for the release of the Hebrew slaves, the Lord gave him a specific command. “ Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the   Lord   says: Israel is my firstborn son,   and I told you, “Let my son go,   so he may worship   me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”  Exodus 4:22-23. This is in an interesting concept in that just as Christ is described as the heavenly or spiritual “ firstborn of the dead”  and the  “firstborn over all creation”,  so Israel is given the earthly title of God’s firstborn – His son. Into that wonderful scenario we may now add those who are  “born again”  and who are also entitled to call themselves sons and daughters of the living God.  Israel, as we have seen, are the planted vine, planted by the right hand of God. It’s fascinating to discover that the words “son” and “branch” are sometimes used intercha

Psalm 80:14 Watch over this vine! What a plea this is! As we noted at the beginning, this Psalm was written when the Israelites were being held captive. Some suggest that it was the Assyrian capture of the 10 northern tribes that prompted a descendant of Asaph to write these words. However, if the Temple and the Priesthood were involved, it may be set against the background of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. Whatever the circumstances the plea is very real,  “Return to us, God Almighty!”  These people felt abandoned and whilst history records their plight as political, and part of the empire-building ambitions of their enemy, the root cause was seen by the Jews to be abandonment by God. If, by faith, you see the hand of God in everything that happens, then circumstances, both good and bad, must be under His control and according to His will.  The writer pleads with God Almighty to look down from heaven and see the plight of His people, just as He had done when they cried out to H

Psalm 80:13 Wild boars and insects! Oh dear, the vineyard has really fallen into disrepair! The perimeter walls have been broken down and foreigners and passers-by are encroaching on the land and helping themselves to the grapes. Now we learn that wild boars have also entered the vineyard and are destroying the plants! Wild boars are still roaming the Middle East today, they will feed on roots, bulbs, seeds, nuts and green plants. They are opportunistic feeders and will scavenge and eat anything they find on the ground. In a well-run vineyard they would be regarded as unwelcome pests and kept out. This picture of the land of Israel shows us that the nation had become easy pickings, anyone could enter and take what they wanted; the people were defenceless. Not only so, but insects from the field had stripped the crops. Presumably the Psalm is describing locusts or maybe the grapevine moth and leafhoppers. There are plenty of pests that would enjoy unlimited access to an unkempt vineyard

Psalm 80:12 Is it God's fault? Remember that these verses are addressed to God, the writer of the Psalm is speaking on behalf of his people, Israel, and describing what the Lord God has done for them. He is obviously now in a state of perplexity because something has gone very wrong! The prosperous vine that embraced every corner of the land has been infiltrated by all and sundry, the walls of the vineyard have been broached and its grapes are no longer the property of just the Israelites.  The psalmist cannot understand what has happened, obviously God has abandoned His people, they are no longer protected and enemy nations and neighbours have access to the crops. But why? Why has God allowed this?  Human nature never changes when things go wrong, God always gets the blame. Why does He allow this? How can God not step in? Where is He when you need Him? Before pointing the finger, we all have to look hard at ourselves and ask what we have done to cause the Lord’s withdrawal? He nev

Psalm 80:11 The boundaries of the vine It is good to remind ourselves of the borders set by God for the land of Israel.  “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.”  Exodus 23:31. Let’s just revisit these instructions, shall we? The south-eastern border of Israel was to be the Red Sea, today we would call it the Gulf of Aqaba, which is in Jordan. The south-western border was the Sinai Desert. The Western border was the Mediterranean Sea. To the north and the east, the border was the River Euphrates. The Euphrates is the longest river in western Asia and it marks the boundary between Israel and her historic enemies, Assyria and Babylon. This is a lot of land, these boundaries embrace Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and the whole area has never been completely under Israel’s control. Yet!  Some may wonder why these

Psalm 80:10 The vine that spreads It doesn’t need much imagination to work out that it was Israel in Egypt that was the vine that was transplanted and replanted in Canaan. What we are now being shown is that this vine didn’t just grow quietly in an unpretentious and barely noticeable way – it took over! The branches of this vine pushed their way up the mountains and hills until they were covered with its shade, and its boughs were like the cedars of God. Cedars were used metaphorically to describe might and power and were the “skyscrapers” of their day, this verse is telling us that the vine that God transplanted became like the mighty cedars. All other nations and powers were eclipsed by the strength and forceful presence of God’s vine – Israel. Having just returned home from a trip to Jordan it has been humbling to compare the two countries to the east and west of the River Jordan. The country of Jordan is, on the whole, a barren, desolate wasteland with hundreds of square miles of s

Psalm 80:9 A suitable plot for a vine Some people just see the Bible as a collection of disjointed, unconnected writings by a motley crew of disparate authors. Those of us privileged to spend a lifetime in study have discovered a seamless, network of interrelated scripts, penned over many centuries, but so consistently interdependent that they could only have one, over-all author! Listen to what the great prophet says about vineyards in Isaiah 5:1-2. Don’t tell me the Bible is a collection of unconnected writings!  I will sing for the one I love      a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard      on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones      and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it      and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good  grapes,      but it yielded only bad fruit.   It's worth reading the whole of Isaiah 5:1-8 to see how it runs parallel to this Psalm. How hard the Lord worked to provide a

Psalm 80:8 Transplanting a vine The remainder of this Psalm is a beautiful metaphor using the vine and a vineyard to describe the ups and downs of Israel and her relationship with the Lord God. Once again, it has to be emphasised that the colourful history of this nation is a fulfilment of the Covenant relationship they had with God. If they were obedient and had faith to believe in Him, God would richly bless them. If they ventured into unbelief and ignored His commands, God would curse them.  The metaphor begins with striking imagery, a picture of the Lord working in a garden. He has his eyes on a vine that is growing in the wrong place. So, He transplants it. The process involves freeing the vine from its unsuitable habitat and moving it some distance away to a new site. Before it can be replanted, the new location has to be cleared of all unwelcome weeds and competing vegetation, and these are destroyed. When everything is ready, God takes the vine that is to be transplanted and ca

Psalm 80:6-7 God's world view These two verses are self-explanatory, and we have already meditated upon the recurring truth we find here in verse 7 because it is a repeat of verse 3.  We talk a lot about faith and that without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith first opened our eyes to the truth about the Creator, the Gospel, the Bible, the Church, the future of this world and many, many more matters that are vital to our spiritual existence. However, modern, western Christians can tend to be pickie about where God is involved and what He is involved with. Ask yourself these questions: - ·       Was God involved in my conception, the timing of my arrival and the choice of my parents? ·        Did God have a say about where I grew up and went to school? ·        Did God choose the subjects that I studied and is He responsible for the talents and gifts that I have? ·        Did God choose my marriage partner and my job or career? ·        Is God running this country? Did He

Psalm 80:5 Why suffering? More often than not, the travails and sufferings of this world are attributed to circumstances and to causes that are outside of our control. As we have commented before, there are those who feel entitled to ask, “Why does God allow this suffering?” We tend to scoff at their naivety but maybe their questions are closer to home that we think? Israel could have answered, with some conviction, “He does allow it and we are the victims.”  “We have been fed with the bread of tears and we have been made to drink tears by the bowlful.”  They didn’t have to ask where the suffering came from and why it had been allowed! They knew, yes, it was God! They also knew that their behaviour and their unbelief had been the cause. They knew that their imprisonment in Babylon was down to the actions of an angry God, and He wasn’t being unjust. Because He was the cause, He could also be the solution. The suffering need not go on forever, that is why they cried,  “How long?” If we b

Psalm 80:4 How long? We have reflected before on those two little words, “How long?” At first sight they seem to suggest impatience at God’s tardiness and be part of an attitude of complaint that He just keeps people waiting interminably when He should be doing something!  There is another side to it. If you ask, “how long?” you are inferring that relief is going to come, that there will be an end to the suffering, that whatever is going wrong, help is at hand. It’s not a matter of “if” but “when.” The disciples asked Jesus,  “When will these things be?”  On another occasion He told them,  “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.”  Mark 13:4. Acts 1:7. That’s the whole point, there are times and dates and seasons. Times in the history of nations and events that affect the whole world and dates that are particular to you and me. All is in hand; every day is special and marked off on the calendar of the Almighty. He knows what will happen tod

Psalm 80:3 Make Your face shine on us This well-known phrase occurs three times in Psalm 80 (see verses 7,19) and we must assume therefore that it is very significant. “ Restore us, O God: make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” When God hides His face from people, it is time to despair! At such times there is no assistance from heaven, pleas go unheard, provision dries up and enemies prevail. Israel knew only too well what it was like to be alienated from their God and away from His affections.  It follows that the opposite is true, when God’s face is shining upon His people, all requests are heard and acted upon, water and food abound and enemies recoil in terror.  This brings us to the Aaronic Prayer or High Priestly Prayer found in Numbers 6:22-27. It is a prayer of great beauty and depth and it is my prayer for you today. “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” V

Psalm 80:2 Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin Joseph had a younger brother, Benjamin, and he also had two sons – Ephraim and Manasseh. These male heirs of Joseph were adopted by his father, Jacob, to be his sons and thus were inheritors of large areas in the land that God gave the flock of Israel. Later, Ephraim and Manasseh came to represent the 10 northern tribes of Israel.  Why are these four mentioned in this verse? Why is the Shepherd of Israel not requested to shine forth before the other sons of Jacob?  Joseph had a very special place in his father’s heart. Jacob was inconsolably, grief-stricken when he thought he had lost his favourite son who, according to his older brothers, had been brutally killed by a wild animal. Joseph was the one who had induced such jealousy amongst the others and who had proudly worn that coat of many colours. Joseph was a picture of Christ in so many ways and often, when the New Testament calls Jesus a son of Joseph, it is talking about Jacob’s son not M

Psalm 80:1 The Shepherd of Israel Our friend Asaph is writing yet again, or at least a descendant of his family group. The Psalm is set to a beautiful sounding tune – “The Lilies of the Covenant.” I cannot imagine this to be a loud, brassy number, can you? It carries ethereal overtones, a song of wistful sadness for days of long ago and memories fading in the mists of time!  The Psalm was written during a period of captivity, some commentators regard the inclusion of Ephraim and Manasseh as pointers to the Assyrian capture of the northern tribes, others think that this is yet another plea from the hearts of the Jews who were in captivity in Babylon. Either way it is a plaintive cry to the Lord for restoration.   V1         “Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.”  The writer here is reflecting back to the exodus, I’m sure. He recalls the time when God came to His captive people who were in slavery in Egypt, and He beckoned them to follow Him out to the wildernes

Psalm 79:13 We will proclaim Your praise. This final verse of the Psalm does seem a little bit like a bribe, doesn’t it? “If you eliminate our enemies Lord, we will praise Your forever.”  Cause and effect do not work with God, much as He may love the praises of His people. He is not in the relationship just to enjoy our praise, neither does He deliver us from our enemies so that He can bask in the plaudits that may ensue. God is in a war. He has divine strategies that affect the course of every nation and every individual on earth, at any moment in time. He loves to hear our praises but what blesses Him most is when they are offered, not as a consequence of what He has done, but for who He is!  The wonderful thing about our Father is that He will deliver us anyway! The Jews were freed from captivity, and they were allowed to return to their land under extraordinary circumstances. God was in control of their plight from start to finish. But did they then praise Him forever? No, they did