Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Psalms
Book: Psalms
Chapter: 81
Overview:
God is praised for what he has done for his people.
(1-7)
Their obligations to him.
(8-16)
1-7 All the
Worship we can render to the
Lord is beneath his
excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our
Redemption from
Sin and wrath. What
God had done
On Israel's
behalf, was kept in remembrance
By public solemnities. To make a
deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to
observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear
more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous
drudgery to which
Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in
distress of
Conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the
Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of
Sin, and trials
By affliction, prove his regard to his people.
If the Jews,
On their solemn
Feast-days, were thus to
Call to
mind their
Redemption out of
Egypt, much more ought we,
On the
Christian Sabbath, to
Call to mind a more glorious
Redemption,
wrought out for us
By our
Lord Jesus Christ, from worse
Bondage.
8-16 We cannot look for too little from the
Creature, nor too
much from the Creator. We may have enough from
God, if we pray
for it in
Faith. All the wickedness of the world is owing to
Man's wilfulness. People are not religious, because they will
not be
So.
God is not the Author of their
Sin, he leaves them to
the lusts of their own hearts, and the counsels of their own
heads; if they do not
Well, the blame must be upon themselves.
The
Lord is unwilling that any should perish. What enemies
sinners are to themselves! It is
Sin that makes our troubles
long, and our
Salvation slow. Upon the same conditions of
Faith
and obedience, do Christians
Hold those spiritual and eternal
good things, which the pleasant fields and fertile hills of
Canaan showed forth.
Christ is the
Bread of
Life; he is the
Rock
of
Salvation, and his promises are as
Honey to pious minds. But
those who reject him as their
Lord and Master, must also lose
him as their
Saviour and their reward.