My People Did Not Listen to My Voice – Psalm 81

We are hosting an international exchange student in our home who is finishing his senior year of high school.  He’s a great kid.  But I noticed early on that he was having some difficulty getting up in time to go to school.  I asked him if he’s like me to rehearse again how to set the alarm clock we had gotten him.  “No, I will wake up on time.”  He didn’t listen to me.  So I let him sleep until it was just last minute time to get up and get ready for school.  He decided he ought to set his phone alarm to wake him.  Sometimes letting someone experience their failure helps them change course.

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

Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!  Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet 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, a rule of the God of Jacob.  He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt.  I hear a language I had not known:  “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.  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   Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!  O Israel, if you would but listen to me!  There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.  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.

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.  So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow 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 foes.  Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever.  But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”  (Psalm 81 ESV)

When God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage He led them through the wilderness despite their rebellious spirit and gave them the law at Sinai commanding them to have no other gods before Him.  But they kept failing to listen to Him.  Nevertheless He invites them to listen and submit to Him and let Him fill them with bounty.  When we turn away from God He yet pursues us with an invitation to come back to Him.  Have you felt the Lord drawing you back to Him.  O, if you would but listen to Him!