Our text for this morning's Bible study, as Daryl mentioned in his prayer, is Psalm 81.
So if you'll turn in your Bibles to Psalm 81.
While you're getting there, let me talk to you just a little bit about our plans for our Sunday Bible study
and then when we can meet back together, our Sunday sermons across this next year.
Just in case you didn't see my little video that I posted on Slack this past week.
We are, just yesterday we started in the Bible reading plan that many of us are participating in
and some of us are not, and that's okay.
This is not an obligation. This is the way to read the Bible.
It's just a way, and it's a good way to read the Bible.
But yesterday we started into the New Testament readings in the book of Matthew,
and then there's a reading from a psalm every day, and yesterday's psalm was Psalm 81.
Today it's Psalm 82, and so forth.
So if you're interested in doing that with us, we'd encourage you to do so.
To do that, you can go to the Read Scripture app.
You can download that onto your device.
Set the start date for August 27th, and this is really important, 2019.
It's going to really be confusing if you set it for 2020.
So August 27th, 2019, and that'll show you where you ought to be each day in your Bible reading.
And beyond that, I'm going to post it every day to Slack, the Bible reading moving forward.
And when we can meet again, it'll be on the screen and on your bulletin, etc.
And what we're going to do is we're going to teach from a text from that previous week's reading.
So we're going to be going all throughout the Scripture, teaching, working to tie it together for you,
to kind of present a biblical theology, tracing the main theme of Scripture,
which is God's redemptive work for His glory and the good of His people.
So we're going to be picking selected texts across that time,
which means we'll be working fairly progressively through the Bible.
But from time to time, we'll step off to a psalm from the daily reading,
which is what we're going to be doing today.
And then parents, I'm working on right now.
I'm not, it's taking me a lot of time, as you might imagine,
but selecting a couple of verses from each day's reading that you can read with your children.
So I think I've done between two and four verses per day.
So if you're doing the Bible reading, and then you're sitting down with your children
and doing that briefer Bible reading, hopefully you'll be able to help them,
give them some context, press them along in their understanding of the Bible as well.
If I can get my act together, I'll get that to you this afternoon.
If not, by tomorrow, I'll have that to you, at least for the Gospels.
That's where I'm at so far.
So you can start doing that with your children.
And then on Monday, so starting tomorrow morning at 6.30,
I'm going to host a Zoom meeting before our Devotion Plus Prayer meeting, 6.30 a.m.
And I'm simply going to say a quick prayer, read the text for the day,
say a closing prayer of kind of application, what's coming to my mind as I'm reading.
So if you'd like to join us for that, just pay attention, keep tuned in.
I'll talk a little bit more about the details for that later on.
So that's the hope.
So we've spent a lot of time as a church drilling into books.
So we've just finished the book of Hebrews.
A lot of people who come and are part of our church come for just a number of years
while they're in school or they're living in Dahlonega for a brief period of time.
And it's a wonderful thing that we get to really,
really get into the depths of a book together.
But we thought it'd be nice to kind of step away, get a higher view,
even as we come into particular texts as we walk through the Bible together.
So we'll still be doing expositions.
We just won't be verse by versing it through a single book of the Bible.
But so that said, today's text is Psalm 81.
And I'll begin reading in verse one.
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 of the God of Jacob.
He made a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt.
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.
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.
O 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.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him and their fate would last forever.
But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock.
I would satisfy you.
So in order to set our minds moving in the right direction as we study the psalm, I'd like to begin by reading you a bit from an article on Psalm 81 that I found on Ligonier's website by a man named W. Robert Godfrey.
And I just think this helps kind of set the stage for this particular psalm.
So I try to listen carefully here as I give this a quick read.
What does the church most need today?
In answering this important but rather general question, Psalm 81 is uniquely important and helpful.
This psalm obviously contains beautiful promises and clear directions to help the people of God.
But careful study of this psalm will deepen our appreciation of it, increase its value for us, and show us how distinctive it is for helping the church.
As we study psalms, we soon learn that the central verse of a psalm is often significant as a key to its interpretation.
The central line of Psalm 81 is the heart of that psalm as the plaintive cry of God is heard,
O Israel, if you would but listen to me.
And this is the last half of verse 8.
Perhaps this line will resonate more profoundly with the readers of this article if we translate it,
O Israel, if you would but hear me.
The center of Psalm 81, indeed the whole psalm, is a reflection on the Shema.
And the Shema is from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9.
And so I'm just going to read that to you real quick before going back to the article.
And it says this,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.
Again, Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
So back to the article.
The centrality of this line and its importance are underscored when we recognize that Psalm 81
is the central psalm of Book 3 of Psalter.
Book 3, Psalms 73 through 89, principally concerns the crisis in Israel caused by the destruction of the temple
and the apparent failure of God's promises that David's sons would forever sit on the throne.
Something of the cause and character of this crisis is contained in this central line of the central psalm.
Since Book 3 is the central book of the five books of the Psalter,
Psalm 81 and verse 8 actually is the central line of the whole book of Psalms.
It stands at the very heart of Israel's songbook.
It calls Israel to deep reflection on her relationship to her God.
This psalm also appears to be central to Israel's liturgical calendar.
The praise at new moon and full moon can refer only to the seventh month of the year,
the Feast of Trumpets in Leviticus 23-24, which happened every year.
We know this as Rosh Hashanah, it's the harvest festival of Israel,
and the Feast of Tabernacles, which is every seven years.
Between these two feasts occurred the Day of Atonement.
As God called Israel to celebrate his great provisions as creator and deliverer,
so he called his people to hear him.
As the Shema was crucial to the Torah,
so it is central to the Psalter and the Christian life.
God's people must hear his word,
particularly to reject false gods and to walk in his ways.
They must not follow their own wisdom.
How sad to contemplate that God might give us what we think is good for us.
So that sets the stage for what I want to point out today in the text,
and that is that Psalm 81 contains within it three calls or summons.
First, in verses 1-5, there's a call to rejoice.
Second, verses 6-10, a call to remember.
And third, in verses 11-16, a call to repentance.
Let's look first at a call to rejoice, excuse me, verses 1-5.
So a call to rejoice, or quite literally, a call to worship.
This opening of this psalm was a specific call to worship,
and it was used for, we know, historically, for the Feast of Tabernacles.
For this festival, the Israelites would make temporary shelters
and would live in them for seven days as a reminder of their time in the wilderness
and God's faithful provision for them there.
This was to be a celebration of God's goodness,
and it was to be full of joy, right?
This is a call to rejoice.
Listen again to the first three verses.
So Israel was called to worship their God with gladness of heart.
They were to shout for joy, raise a song, and play instruments,
the tambourine, the lyre, the harp, and the trumpet.
They were to worship their God with the wholeness of their being.
The psalmist is calling us to the very same thing,
to not just work through the motions of our worship,
but to worship God in our waking and in our going about
or in this strange time in our staying in
and to worship God in our lying down.
Every moment in all of our actions and all of our thoughts
and all of our emotions,
we are to give ourselves to the worship of our God.
Worship is not just narrowed down to special planned times,
although it is that, but it is so much more.
We're meant to live lives of worship for our God.
We are to worship with all that we have for all that he is.
Listen to what our God said to the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah,
and this is Isaiah chapter 1, beginning in verse 11.
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord?
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings.
Incense is an abomination to me.
New moon, note the new moon there,
and Sabbath and the calling of convocations,
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons again and appointed feasts,
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me.
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you.
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood.
The Israelites were worshiping God by his prescribed means.
These were the things that God had commanded that they would do,
but not with their whole selves.
They were going through the motions.
Verse 13 and then verse 15 shows us this.
I cannot endure iniquity,
and your hands are full of blood.
They were going through the motions of worshiping God,
but they were guilty of egregious sin,
and as such were not worshiping with their whole being.
God continues in Isaiah 1 to be instructive,
and this should be helpful to us.
In verse 16 and 17,
he says,
wash yourselves,
make yourselves clean,
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes,
cease to do evil,
learn to do good,
seek justice,
correct oppression,
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause.
means for lives to be given to him in worship.
Beloved,
it is altogether possible to worship the right God,
but to worship him wrongly,
in an unacceptable manner.
J.I. Packer,
in his most wonderful work,
which I strongly commend to you this morning,
some of you may have some time to do some reading right now,
called Knowing God,
posits the following two points.
Listen carefully.
One can know a great deal about God
without much knowledge of him.
He makes this distinction between knowing about God
and actually knowing God,
being in relationship with God,
understanding his heart and his concern for his people.
And secondly,
one can know a great deal about godliness
without much knowledge of God.
So we can know the rules,
we can go through the motions
without much relationship with our Lord God.
I believe that we can all be guilty of this
from time to time, right?
Having sound doctrine
that doesn't lead to sound practice.
We can believe the right things,
but we can hold them wrongly
that doesn't lead to holy living.
of merely reading the Bible or some good book,
of listening to good teaching,
of singing gospel songs,
of gathering all sorts of data about God
without knowing him.
Packer goes on in his work
to give some helpful thoughts
on evidences of knowing God,
wherein he employs the following four points.
And I just want you to think about these things
for a moment as I read them.
How well could you say,
yes,
that is true of me,
of someone who gives evidence
of knowing God,
being in relationship with him?
Number one,
those who know God
have a great energy for God.
Number two,
those who know God
have great thoughts of God.
Number three,
those who know God
show great boldness for God.
And number four,
those who know God
have great contentment in God.
So you can see what he is saying,
right,
is it encapsulates all of us,
right,
all of us given to the worship
of our God.
Verses one through five of Psalm 81
are a call to rejoice
in the God of our salvation.
And I just wonder,
on this day,
will you heed this call to rejoice?
Secondly,
we see in verses six through ten,
a call to remember.
First,
a call to remember
what God had done.
Verses six and seven.
First,
we see in verse six
and the first part
of verse seven,
I relieved your shoulder
of the burden.
Your hands were freed
from the basket.
In distress,
you called
and I delivered you.
They were to remember
that God had delivered them
from their bondage
in Egypt.
We can read in Exodus chapter two,
verse 23 and following.
During those many days,
the king of Egypt died
and the people of Israel
groaned because of their slavery
and cried out for help.
Their cry for rescue
from slavery came up to God
and God heard their groaning
and God remembered his covenant
with Abraham,
with Isaac,
and with Jacob.
God saw the people of Israel
and God knew.
the Exodus
from Egypt
was a foreshadowing
of the deliverance
of God's people
from sin
and death.
We look back
to the Exodus
and should remember
the greater deliverance
that we have
in Christ.
We are meant
to remember
the Exodus
and so Psalm 81
speaks to us as well
although we understand it
more fully.
Paul wrote in Romans chapter six,
verse six and seven,
we know that our old self
was crucified with him
in order that the body of sin
might be brought to nothing
so that we would no longer
be enslaved to sin
for one who has died
has been set free from sin.
So we're meant
to remember what God has done
and the highest thing
of most important order
is that God has set us free
from the bondage of sin.
Second, we see in the rest
of verse seven
that they were to remember
that God had relationship
with them.
God says,
I answered you
in the secret place
of thunder.
This phrase most likely refers
to God meeting with Moses
and therefore his people
on Mount Sinai.
God listened
and he spoke
so that he would be known,
trusted,
and obeyed.
In the same way,
God has spoken to us,
not only on a mountain
in the secret place
of thunder,
but in these last days
he has spoken to us
by his son,
Hebrews chapter one
and verse two.
And we can read
of all God's working
on behalf of his people
by his son
in the totality
of the scripture.
Last part of verse seven
says,
I tested you
at the waters
of Meribah.
Here God is most definitely
referring to the episode
recorded at the beginning
of Exodus 17
where the people
quarreled against Moses
and God showed himself
faithful
by providing water
from a stone.
And although God
showed himself faithful
at Meribah
and many other times,
many of the Israelites
did not trust him
and were punished
for their faithlessness.
In the same way,
God has shown himself
faithful in provision
to us
and tests
our faithfulness.
We have
much of God's
kindness toward us,
much of God's
provision toward us.
He has relationship
with us
and because he has that,
he asks of us
faithfulness.
This is why Paul
instructs us
in first Corinthians
chapter 10
verse one
and following.
For I do not want you
to be unaware,
brothers,
that our fathers
were all under the cloud
and all passed
through the sea
and all were baptized
into Moses in the cloud
and in the sea
and all ate the same
spiritual food
and all drank the same
spiritual drink
for they drank
from the spiritual rock
that followed them
and the rock
was Christ.
This is their
wilderness
traveling,
right?
And this was meant
to teach us
something.
Verse five,
nevertheless,
with most of them,
God was not pleased
for they were overthrown
in the wilderness.
Now these things
took place
as examples
for us
that we might
not desire evil
as they did.
So we are supposed
to remember
what God
has done
and be found
faithful.
Secondly,
we're called
to remember
who God
is.
And here we find
verse eight.
Hear,
O my people,
while I admonish you,
strongly warn you,
O Israel,
if you would
but listen
to me.
And I hope
here and before
you've seen
the connection
to the Shema
found in Deuteronomy
chapter six.
Verse nine
then says,
there should 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.
the whole
of the law
of God
was read
at the Feast
of Tabernacles
every seven
years.
So more
than just
the Decalogue,
the Ten Commandments,
the whole law
would have been
read.
But here in
verses nine
and ten,
we see the
preface
of the Ten
Commandments
and the first
two commandments
in summary.
First,
we see the
first two
commandments
summarized
in verse nine.
Commandments
for the proper
worship
of the
proper
God.
These are
found originally
in Exodus
chapter 20
verses
three
through six.
And there
is so much
to unpack
out of these
two verses.
Now remember,
this would have
been a call
to worship.
Psalm 81
would have been
read at this
particular feast,
but also
the rest
of the law
would have
been read.
And so
when we think
of these
two commandments,
we often think,
well,
I have never
carved a
wooden idol
and bowed
down to it,
but it means
so very much
more than that.
And the
Westminster
Larger Catechism
is helpful
to us in this
way.
They did a
very careful
work to
summarize all
of the
scripture's
teaching that
feeds into
and out of
these commandments.
So I'm just
going to read
some of it
to you until
I feel like
I've read
too much
and then
I'll stop
to give you
some idea
of what the
scripture says
about these
commandments.
This particularly
about the
first commandment.
Question 104,
what are the
duties required
in the first
commandment?
And the
answer,
the duties
required in
the first
commandment
are the
knowing and
acknowledging
of God
to be the
only true
God and
our God
and to
worship and
glorify him
accordingly
by thinking,
meditating,
remembering,
highly esteeming,
honoring,
adoring,
choosing,
loving,
desiring,
fearing of
him,
believing him,
trusting,
hoping,
delighting,
rejoicing in
him,
being zealous
for him,
calling upon
him,
giving all
praises and
thanks,
and yielding
all obedience
and submission
to him with
the whole man,
being careful
in all things
to please him
and sorrowful
when in
anything he
is offended
and walking
humbly
with him.
This is the
summary of
what the
scripture
teaches about
what it
means to
obey,
but then
question 105,
what are the
sins forbidden
in the first
commandment?
Here's where I'll
stop short
because it goes
on and on.
The answer,
the sins forbidden
in the first
commandment are
atheism,
in denying or
not having a
God,
idolatry,
in having or
worshiping more
gods than
one,
or any with
or instead
of the true
God,
the not
having and
avouching him
for God
and our
God,
the omission
or neglect
of anything
due to him
required in
this commandment,
ignorance,
forgetfulness,
misapprehensions,
false opinions,
unworthy and
wicked thoughts
of him,
bold and
curious,
searching into
his secrets,
all profaneness,
hatred of God,
self-love,
self-seeking,
and all other
inordinate and
immoderate setting
our mind,
will,
affections upon
other things
and taking them
off from him
in whole or
in part,
vain credulity,
unbelief,
heresy,
misbelief,
distrust,
despair,
incorrigibleness,
and insensibleness
under judgment,
hardness of heart,
pride,
presumption,
and it goes on
for about another
paragraph,
listing off
those things
forbidden
in that very
first commandment.
The reason I read
all of that,
you think,
why in the world,
right,
is that I think
we find all of us
breaking
this command,
just the very
first one
about how we
think,
and therefore
how we act
toward our God.
Secondly,
we see the
preface found
in Exodus
chapter 20
and verse 2
with a small
but very
significant
addition,
and this is in
verse 10
of Psalm 81.
I am the Lord
your God
who brought you
up out of the
land of Egypt.
This is found
at the beginning
of Exodus
chapter 20
and verse 2.
But then Psalm 81
says,
open your mouth
wide
and I
will fill it.
John Calvin
speaks to this
in his commentary
on Psalm 81.
He writes,
he not only
bids them
open their mouth,
but he magnifies
the abundance
of his grace
still more
highly
by intimating
that however
enlarged
our desires
may be,
there will be
nothing wanting
which is necessary
to afford us
full
satisfaction.
So,
our God,
this God
that we are being
called to listen
to and to
know,
says to us,
open your mouth
wide and I will
give you
full
satisfaction.
Now,
if we have a good
and proper view
of the scripture,
we'll understand
that we'll have
full satisfaction
in him.
So,
I wonder
on this day
if you will heed
this call
to remember
and to be
satisfied.
Lastly,
in verses 11
through 16,
we see a call
to repentance.
First,
we see a description
of their sin
in verse 11.
But my people
did not listen
to my voice.
Israel would not
submit
to me.
Beloved,
we are
often guilty
of the same.
We have
an abundance
of access
to our God
by his holy word
and yet we
often do not
even take it up
and read it.
And when we do,
we often
do not heed
its warnings
or follow
its commands.
We seem
so very
rolled to sleep
by the reality
we have
a God
who has
spoken
to us
and we
have it
everywhere
and I
just think
we take
it for granted
rather than
recognizing
this is a
precious
word
from a
God
who loves
us,
who seeks
our good,
who wants
us to
understand
who he
is
and how
he's
acted
toward us
in Christ
so that
our lives
would be
changed
by that
both for
us,
for our
good,
our deep
joy and
satisfaction,
our peace
in him
but also
for his
glory,
that others
would see
that we
have a
God
worthy
of worship
and I
wonder if
part of
the problem
of our
day,
why we
don't see
more people
coming to
faith in
Christ,
is that
they just
don't see
any need
for it
because they
don't see
us having
any hope
that is
greater than
theirs
and beloved
this should
just not
be so
right,
we should
be a
people who
are never
guilty of
this
but I
think very
often we
are.
Remember
verse 8,
hear oh
my people
while I
admonish
you,
I strongly
warn you,
oh Israel,
if you
would but
listen to
me.
And then
we see
the verdict.
Beloved,
we should
absolutely
shudder when
we read
these words
and we
should want
with every
bit of
our energy
to avoid
this
consequence
found in
verse 12.
So I
gave them
over to
their stubborn
hearts to
follow their
own
counsels.
For God
to say,
find them,
go your
own way,
is the
most horrible
of punishments.
If you
understand
anything about
yourself,
you'll know
that your
way is
the worst
way.
My way
is the
worst
way.
Many of
us live
as though
this is
not the
case.
We think
our way
is the
best way
rather than
God's
way.
God,
in his
loving kindness
for you,
will say,
find them,
go your
own way
in order
to teach
you the
error of
your way.
He'll say,
yeah,
follow that
path and
just see
where it
takes you.
When you
find this
to be
true of
you,
the call
of Psalm
81 is
to repent
because
God is
eager to
forgive.
He's
standing at
the end
of that
road that
you want
to go
down,
that you
think is
the right
way,
and he
is so
very
willing to
forgive,
to put
you back
on the
proper
path.
Listen to
verse 13
and 14,
God
longs to
forgive the
repentant
sinner.
I am
reminded
here of
Jesus'
words concerning
Jerusalem in
Matthew chapter
23 and
verse 37,
where he
said,
Oh,
Jerusalem,
the city that
kills the
prophets and
stones those
who are sent
to it,
how often
would I have
gathered your
children together
as a hen
gathers her
brood under
her wings,
and you
were not
willing.
Notice the
heart of
Jesus there.
He wants to
gather them,
but they're
unwilling to
be gathered.
You may be
thinking this
morning,
if I repent,
can I really
expect God
to forgive me?
Even me,
considering all
that I have
done?
And the
answer is
an unequivocable
yes.
It's yes.
God is
abounding in
mercy,
and he's
ready to
grant it.
We should
listen to his
word and what
his word has
to say about
repentance,
right?
Note the
warnings of
God,
but moreover,
note his
great kindness
towards those
who will
repent.
Turn and
repent.
This is
available to
all of us
this morning,
but we
must
repent.
Verse 15
shows us
this,
that those
who hate
the Lord
would cringe
toward him
and their
fate
would last
forever.
Don't be
those people.
Be a person
who recognizes
that you've
not heeded
the word of
God.
Repent of
that,
that he
would forgive
you,
draw you
back into
his way.
This is the
most wonderful
way in which
we can go.
And so I
wonder on
this day
if you
will heed
this call
to repent.
We've been
given three
calls,
a call to
rejoice,
a call to
remember,
and a call
to repent.
And so I
want to close
with verse
16,
and I just
want you to
notice the
abundance
of the
blessing,
not just a
blessing,
but an
abundant
blessing
from an
abundantly
loving,
gracious,
merciful God.
but he
would feed
you with
the finest
of the
wheat,
and with
honey from
the rock,
I would
satisfy you.
Will you
be satisfied
in God
this morning?