Psalm 81 - A Call to Worship

Psalm 81 gives several instructions for worship. It doesn't come right out and say, "this is how you should worship" but it is all in there.

Sing and shout

"Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!" v.1

Play instruments

"Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre." v.2

Celebrate special feasts 

"Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;" v.3

It's a command, not a suggestion

"this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob." v.4

Remember what God has done in the past

vs. 5-7

Don't worship any other gods

"You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me." v.9 (8-10)

There is condemnation for those who do not listen to God and reward for those who do.

vs.11-16

The choice is yours.

Will you answer God's call to worship Him?

Will you listen to Him?

Will you be satisfied with the blessings He gives?

150 Days of Psalms - Psalm 81

It looks like today's Psalm is an answer to yesterday's Psalm. If you missed yesterday, the psalmist was asking "how long" God would take to answer and restore Israel. The answer is found today. They were waiting on God, but He was waiting on them.
"If only My people would listen to Me and Israel would follow My ways,
I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes." vs. 13-14

Seems rather self-explanatory to me.

On another note ♪ ♫

I always look for pictures or music videos to add to my posts here. That's for a few of my friends who say they don't really read, they just look at pictures. Haha.

So looking today I ran across a rather - hmmm, how do I describe it - a picture of an ancient wine or water jar made of clay and decorated with erotic pictures. The post that went with it was from a man of another denomination that thinks using instruments in worship is one of the most wicked things you can do. He used the picture to prove his point that music of that time was very ungodly. Bless his heart. He said Psalm 81 cannot be used as a text to prove that instruments should be used in worship, but rather that since they used instruments in worship they were therefore punished by God and needed to repent.

Bless his heart.

I'll write more about instruments in worship when we get to the grand conclusion of the Psalms - Psalm 150. I wonder how that guy explains that chapter away. Nasty pictures of satyrs playing instruments on a Greek urn should not be the basis of the theology of worship. Just sayin'. Bless his heart.

Today is Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday. The sheer beauty of his music written for worship and for God's glory - using organ and all instruments of the orchestra as accompaniment - are a great testimony to instrumental music's ability to enhance a text and to bring praise and worship to God.

♫ ♪ ♫ Happy Birthday to Bach. ♪ ♫ I thank God for the incredible gift of music and for the musical genius of men like J.S. Bach whose music has been used for God's glory for hundreds of years.