Fathers

Psalms 81

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Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob! Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant 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, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know. “I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket. You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me! There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god. I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels. Oh 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 adversaries. The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 81:4

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Because it is a commandment for Israel, and a judgment for the God of Jacob" [Psalm 81:4]. Where a commandment, there judgment. For, "They that have sinned in the Law, by the Law shall be judged." [Romans 2:12] And the very Giver of the commandment, the Lord Christ, the Word made flesh, says, "For judgment I have come into the world, that they that see not may see, and they that see may be made blind." [John 9:39] What is, "That they that see not may see, they that see be made blind," but that the lowly be exalted, the proud thrown …

Exposition on Psalm 81 ↗

Jerome

For it is a commandment for Israel, and a judgment of the God of Jacob. What is the commandment of God? To sing to God in victory: not to think it one's own, but the Lord's.

Homily 13, on Psalm 80 ↗