Psalm 81 – If My People Would Listen…

It all began so triumphantly, so jubilantly. It began with a call to worship. “Come, now is the time to worship. Now is the time to shout for joy. Shout to the God of our strength, our power, our defender. Shout to the God of our strong shelter. Start the music. Play the harp and the zither. Beat the tambourine in time. Blow the new moon trumpets. This is festival time. This is a celebration.”

Imagine the swell of celebratory singing and the brassy trumpet blasts, the whole congregation gathered to sing the songs with the Levites and the priests. Imagine the ringing as their shouts echoed from the walls.

They had come together to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles – one of the three biblically required annual festivals. The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot celebrated both, the harvest of the land and recalled the Israelites forty years in the wilderness when they had lived in tents.

“You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” (Lev. 23:42-43).

It was laid out in the Torah, the law, that they should celebrate these annual festivals. So they celebrated. They came from all across the country, in caravans of devoted pilgrims, making their way up to Jerusalem. And there, in the city of Zion, they celebrated this feast of the Lord. There was music and dancing and feasting. There was laughter and bright colored garments. They celebrated with much enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is an interesting word. Literally it means: “having [a] god within.”

But when God speaks they do not recognize his voice. “I heard a voice I did not recognize.” (Psalm 81: 8) Imagine the awkward silence, now, as the trumpets falter and the singers are quieted. The voice of God interrupts the festivities and brings them to a staggering halt.

“I remember, even if you don’t,” he said. “I remember how you cried out for me. I heard you and I came to you in your time of distress. I felt your pain as if it was my own. And what is more, I took the burdens off your back and the heavy baskets off your shoulders. I relieved you of those weights which were crushing you into the ground. I rescued you from slavery and death. You cried out in distress and I rescued you.”

This was the history behind Sukkot, the reason for their tabernacles in the wilderness. Had there been no liberation from the slavery in Egypt, there would have been no time in the wilderness, and no reason to celebrate this annual feast of the Lord.

"From the hiding place of thunder I answered you, even though you provoked me at Meribah’s waters.”(Psalm 81: 7)

There is a long silent pause and the people reflect. (Selah)

They remember how Yahweh had spoken their ancestors who stood at the base of Mt. Sinai, his voice resounding in the dark and impenetrable clouds above that volcanic mountain. Above them, the sky burned red and there were heavy ashy clouds. There was thunder and the flashing of lighting and they were terrified. They pleaded with Moses to speak to God for them so that they would not have to stand in the awful presence of God themselves.

They remember, also, how their ancestors had provoked God with their grumblings. At Meribah they complained because of the bitter waters. “What are we to drink?” Three days out from their miraculous escape through the Sea of Reeds – the sea that had crushed their pursuing slave masters, the people of Israel had begun to complain. They were thirsty. They were thirsty and they were tired, tired of the desert. They were tired of travel and tired of the monotony of their diet. They longed for the rich and varied diet they’d enjoyed in Egypt. There they had eaten cucumbers, and melons, and leeks, and onions, and garlic, and fish! Oh the fish! “Why have you brought us out into this desert? To die? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!” (Numbers 20: 1 – 5) Things were so much better back in Egypt… Weren’t there graves enough back in Egypt that you brought us out to this wretched place to die?

Not once, but repeatedly and again they grumbled and they complained. They sneered at God and tried to overthrow his servant, Moses. But God continued to provide, nonetheless. He gave them food, and he gave them water, and he brought them through the wilderness to the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey.

After the Selah silence, when finally God speaks again, he invites them to listen.

“Listen, my people, while I give you warning;
Israel, if only you would listen to me!” (Psalm 81:8)

This is a sort of refrain that he will repeat two more times, if my people would only listen, my people Israel… Three times he gives voice to his hope that they will listen, his warning if they will not.

“You shall have no strange gods,
shall worship no alien god.
I, Yahweh, am your God,
who brought you here from Egypt.”
(Psalm 81: 8 – 9)

This was the first commandment given to them at Mt. Sinai; you shall have no other Gods before me. This one they should have remembered. Even if the other nine commandments had somehow slipped their mind, this one they should have remembered. Israel was the only monotheistic nation.  The were different in this regard from everyone around them.  They should have been able to remember this particular command.  But remembering and keeping are different things, aren't they?  Surrounded as they were by polytheistic nations, Israel often succumbed to the worship of these strange gods and goddesses. They imported the worship of idols and mixed their ceremonies at the temple in Jerusalem with pagan elements.

They forgot the promise that they had made, the promise that their ancestors had made and that they had repeatedly reaffirmed – that they would worship only the one true God, the living God, the God of heaven and earth, Yahweh. Instead, they had put him aside in favor of Ba’al and Asherah, and Tammuz and Moloch and others pagan deities.

But it wasn’t Ba’al who had rescued them from slavery. It wasn’t Tammuz who had rushed the Egyptians. It wasn’t Moloch or any of the others. It was Yahweh, the great I Am That I AM. When they cried out from under the Egyptians lash and from under the weights piled on their shoulders as they carried bricks for the construction of Egyptian cities it was Yahweh who heard them from his dwelling place in heaven, and it was Yahweh who came down from heaven to rescue them.

“I, Yahweh, am your God,
who have brought you here from Egypt;
you have only to open your mouth for me to fill it.”
(Psalm 81: 9 – 10)

But his people, Israel, wouldn’t listen. They refused to recognize his voice and instead they continued to stubbornly persist in their vain worship of pagan idols. They offered sacrifices to storm gods and gave offerings to fertility goddesses. And all the while Yahweh left them to it. He allowed them to continue in their own mistakes, watching and waiting for them to return to him, waiting for them to hear his voice and to listen to him.

“If only my people would listen to me,
if only Israel would walk in my ways,
at one stroke I would subdue their enemies;
turn my hand against their opponents.”
(Psalm 81: 13 – 14)

If only my people would listen to me.  God wasn't upset that the pagan nations weren't listening to him.  Why should they?  They hadn't entered into a covenant relation with him.  He hadn't given his laws to them.  Yahweh wasn't concerned that the pagan nations ignored him.  But when his own people, the ones called by his name - when they ignored him, that hurt.

If they would only listen… If they would listen, and not just hear his words but truly listen, and then walk in his ways, then Yahweh said he would provide for them. He would sweep away their oppressors. He would brush aside their opponents. And he would fill them will good things. “You have only to open your mouth for me to fill it.” He would fill them with the finest of grains and with “wild honey from the rock.”

If they would only listen; if his people, which were called by his name, would only listen…