สดุดี 81:9 วิจารณ์

This psalm was penned, as is supposed, not upon occasion of any particular providence, but for the solemnity of a particular ordinance, either that of the new-moon in general or that of the feast of trumpets on the new moon of the seventh month, Lev 23:24; Num 29:1. When David, by the Spirit, introduced the singing of psalms into the temple-service this psalm was intended for that day, to excite and assist the proper devotions of it. All the psalms are profitable; but, if one psalm be more suitable than another to the day and observances of it, we should choose that. The two great intentions of our religious assemblies, and which we ought to have in our eye in our attendance on them, are answered in this psalm, which are, to give glory to God and to receive instruction from God, to "behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple;" accordingly by this psalm we are assisted on our solemn feast days, I. In praising God for what he is to his people (Psa 81:1-3), and has done for them (Psa 81:4-7). II. In teaching and admonishing one another concerning the obligations we lie under to God (Psa 81:8-10), the danger of revolting from him (Psa 81:11, Psa 81:12), and the happiness we should have if we would but keep close to him (Psa 81:13-16). This, though spoken primarily of Israel of old, is written for our learning, and is therefore to be sung with application. To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm of Asaph.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 81 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. Of "gittith", See Gill on Psa 8:1. The Targum renders it, "upon the harp which came from Gath;'' and so Jarchi says it was a musical instrument that came from Gath. The Septuagint, and the versions which follow that, render it, "for the winepresses". This psalm, according to Kimchi, is said concerning the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt; and was composed in order to be sung at their new moons and solemn feasts, which were typical of Gospel things in Gospel times; see Col 2:16 and so the Syriac version, "a psalm of Asaph, when David by him prepared himself for the solemnities.''.

There shall no strange god be in thee,.... Or in the midst of thee, owned and worshipped as God; or in thine heart, for whatever engrosses the affection, or a man puts his trust and confidence in, that he makes his god, and is a strange one: thus, if any friend or relation, father or mother, wife or children, are loved more than God, they are set up as such in his place; thus the epicure, that seeks the gratification of his carnal lusts, makes his belly his god; and the covetous man his money, in which he trusts, and therefore is called an idolater; and the self-righteous man his righteousness, on which he depends for salvation: hence we read of idols set up in the heart, from which they are disengaged in conversion, and kept from, Eze 14:7. neither shall thou worship any strange god; only the Lord God is to be worshipped, Mat 28:19 and there is but one God; though this is to be understood not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, who are with the Father the one God, and to be worshipped equally with him, and are; see Mat 28:19.

"Israel, if you shall have heard Me, there shall not be in you any new god" [Psalm 81:9]. A "new god" is one made for the time: but our God is not new, but from eternity to eternity. And our Christ is new, perchance, as Man, but eternal God. For what before the beginning? And truly, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." [John 1:1] And our Christ Himself is the Word made flesh, that He might dwell in us. [John 1:14] Far be it, then, that there should be in any one a new god. A new god is either a stone or a phantom. He is not, says one, a stone; I have a silver and a gold one. Justly did he choose to name the very costly things, who said, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold." Great are they, because they are of gold and silver; costly they are, shining they are; but yet, "Eyes they have, and see not!" New are these gods. What newer than a god out of a workshop? Yea, though those now old ones spiders' webs have covered over, they that are not eternal are new. So much for the Pagans.. ..

Who, then, is this one cast down from his divine preeminence and removed from the limitations of creation? The matter is completely inconceivable, and there is no discernible place or manner of speaking of someone in between creator and creation. Although they dislodged him from the throne of divinity, they have arrived at a point in their teaching that they call him the Son and God and think that he is to be adored although the law openly proclaims, “The Lord your God shall you worship and him only shall you serve,” and although God said to the Israelites through the voice of David, “There shall be no new god among you, nor shall you adore a foreign god.”

That it is none other than God the Word, who exists in the form of God the Father, the impress of his very being, who is equal in all things to the one who begot him, who has emptied himself out. And what is this “emptying out”? It is his life in the form of a slave, in the flesh that he assumes, it is the likeness to us of one who is not as we are in his own nature, since he is above all creation. In this way he humbled himself, economically submitting himself to the limitations of humanity. But even so he was God, for he did not have as a gift what pertained to him by nature. This was why he also said to God the Father who is in heaven, “Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before the world was.” I do not think that they would say that it was David’s descendant, born in the last times of this age, who was reclaiming as his own a glory that predated the world, at least if he is a different son and distinct from the true and natural Son? No, surely this is a saying that befits the Godhead? It was necessary, yes necessary, that he should be conformed to us in the limitations of humanity while at the same time he authentically enjoyed transcendent divine status within his own essential being; just as it is with the Father. How can the saying be true: “You must not introduce another god among you,” if according to them a man is deified by a conjunction with the Word and is said to be enthroned with God so as to share the Father’s dignity?

Before the great Judge, the judges of the earth are rebuked, exhorted, and threatened. (Psa 82:1-8) congregation--(Compare Exo 12:3; Exo 16:1). of the mighty--that is, of God, of His appointment. the gods--or, "judges" (Exo 21:6; Exo 22:9), God's representatives.