Fathers

Psalms 81

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Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 81:10

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

For if there be error in you, You will not worship a strange god. If you think not of a false god, you will not worship a manufactured god: for "there will not" be in you any strange god. "For I am." Why would you adore what is not? "For I am the Lord your God" [Psalm 81:10]. Because "I am I that Am," and indeed "I Am" He says, I that Am, over every creature: yet to you what good have I afforded in time? "Who brought you out of the land of Egypt." Not to that people alone is it said. …

Exposition on Psalm 81 ↗

Jerome

For I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. It is we who have been brought out of the land of Egypt — if indeed we have gone out, if we are in the wilderness, if we long to see the land of promise. If we have left Sodom, let us not look back to Sodom: we have been saved on the mountain. Let us not desire the flesh-pots of Egypt, let us not say: How well off we were in Egypt, when we ate flesh in the cauldrons, and the rest, and the cucumbers. Do you wish to receive the Lord's foods? …

Homily 13, on Psalm 80 ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

And indeed I do not see that I am sufficient for this work; but nevertheless the strength that inexperience denies, charity supplies. For I know Him who said: "Open your mouth, and I will fill it." Therefore let the good work be in our will, for from divine assistance it will be in its completion.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 21 ↗