Thoughts for the Day

God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel.
To the leader. 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 festal day.
For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
He made it a decree in Joseph,
when he went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:
‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
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.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

This festal psalm would likely have been sung with all pomp and ceremony for the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as the Festival of Booths) which commemorated Israel's 40 year journey in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, and which included a public reading of the Law every seventh year (Deuteronomy 31.10-11). The leader of a Temple choir, Asaph, starts his work with all his resources to hand - trumpets (or perhaps ram's horns), lyres, harps, tambourines and singers.

So it is a song of joy but like the Venite (Psalm 95) this praise of God is not to continue throughout the psalm for God Himself interrupts, speaking to His people through the psalmist. He doesn't introduce great national themes instead He reminds the people what He has done for them as individuals. He helped "shoulder" a burden from someone by lifting a heavy basket out of their "hands"; He "rescued" another from some danger; He "answered" their pleas at the "place of thunder" (likely Mount Sinai); and He "tested" them at Meribah when they failed to find water and did not trust Him to provide for them. God is reminding His people how He has nurtured and taught them over the years.

As descendants of these promises we too are included in the appeal to "listen to me". We are to open our hearts to Him; we are to listen for His voice in whatever way it comes; we are to have no other gods (perhaps those of technology, money, or something else). Instead we are to worship and put all our trust in the one God whose name is Yahweh.

Lord God,
may we continue to praise and thank You
for Your blessings to us throughout our life.
Help us not to take for granted the times
You have supported us when we were in need,
but ever continue to put our trust in You.
Keep our senses attuned to listen for Your voice
amid the clamour of noise from the world
or in the stillness of the night,
an help us to respond as best we can.
Amen.