The Psalms

Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

81 Sing aloud to God our strength;
    shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
² Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
    the sweet lyre with the harp.
³ Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
    at the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴ For it is a statute for Israel,
    a rule of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He made it a decree in Joseph
    when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
⁶ “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
    your hands were freed from the basket.
⁷ 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. Selah
⁸ Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ “But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would not submit to me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.
¹³ Oh, that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!
¹⁴ I would soon subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
    and their fate would last forever.
¹⁶ But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

In reading through the Psalms, one thing becomes clear to a dispensationalist such as I am. The Psalms were written and sung to, for and about Israel, the Jewish Nation. Their history, their faith and failings, their courage and fears; from their beginning all the way through their restoration at the 2nd advent and the millennial reign of their Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're familiar with the Old Testament, you know Israel.

The praises and laments, even though expressed as of an individual, are those of the nation herself, and of the human experience of the incarnate Christ. Others, such as Psalm 81, copied above, give us God's own testimony and warnings concerning His people, Israel.

Nevertheless, in almost every Psalm, there are one or more verses that can be applicable to the Church Age believer. They give glory and honor to the creator of all things and to the redeemer of mankind. Those are the parts I have shared with friends on my personal Facebook page. I gave almost no analysis, but just shared them as beautiful scripture for us and our time. Very few of the Psalms were not quoted from. Those few were just so totally beseeching for the destruction of the enemy that they could only be read from the perspective of a persecuted King David or Israel, or Jesus Christ Himself. It is scripture the Church needs to know, but it is not our story.

We are Body Of Christ. The redeemed vessel of the Holy Spirit, dispensing God's grace to all we encounter. God's perfect plan is fulfilled in us. We extend the character of Jesus Christ through all our experience of Earthly life. Rivers of living water flow from our innermost being as we go about our daily routines.

I hope some friends have read each entire Psalm for themselves, though, and realized the great experience of Israel in her struggles against the cosmic system of Satan. This is information we Christians need to know, as we advance in our own faith and wait for the fulfillment of all God's promises to all God's people.

I've learned a lot from just reading through this wonderful portion of scripture, and I've taken great pleasure in sharing some of the parts that we Christians can relate to in life.