Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 81:11
But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
11. But my people hearkened not to my voice. For my people Israel in a similar complaint see Isa 1:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11, 12. Israel’s disobedience and its punishment.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But my people … – See Psa 78:10-11, Psa 78:17-19. And Israel would none of me. Literally, Did not will me; that is, did not incline to me; were not attached to me; were not disposed to worship me, and to find happiness in me. Compare Isa 1:19; Job 39:9; Pro 1:25. They refused or rejected him. See Exo 32:1; Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 81:11-12
My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would none of me: so I gave them up.
Danger of presuming on Gods mercy
It is matter of painful observation, that very often when people enter on wrong courses, they think they shall be able to stop when they please. They dont pretend to be very good, and they dont mean to be very bad. Something between both contents them; and this they think is as much as can be expected of them, especially when vice and wickedness prevail in the degree they do. The root of this error, if we examine, seems to be want of love to God the Author of all good. Because if a person really loved God, or at least really desired to love Him, however he might fall short of accomplishing this his wish; yet at least he would not endure to do anything wilfully, which he might think would be displeasing to his heavenly Father, Redeemer, and Guide the supreme object of his affections. There is nothing about which we ought to be so watchful and suspicious of ourselves as of want of love, true and devoted love, to Almighty God. There are two great reasons why we should be thus watchful of ourselves in this respect. The one, because this Divine charity or love is the very life and soul of true religion: the other, because we are so peculiarly ready to deceive ourselves in our views of this; perhaps more than any other of the obligations of the Gospel. Every Christian is by his profession one of Gods people–of His chosen Israel. If he labours and prays constantly to live up to this his high profession, then the Holy Spirit-leads him as it were by She hand from grace to grace, till mortality be swallowed up of life. In Gods dealings with such an one, the ancient and just rule is eminently fulfilled (Mat 13:12). If, on the other hand, this same Christian, having it in his power to go wrong, does go wrong–neglects duties which he knows are agreeable to his Lords will, and allows himself in thoughts, words, and actions which he knows must displease Him; then does the Holy Spirit after long forbearance withdraw His gracious aid, and leave us to go our own way, as we will not go His. There is not, perhaps, in all Scripture a more awful, startling, alarming passage than this; because it warns us so plainly, that our notion of keeping up a tolerable degree of goodness, and staying at a certain point, not intending to be very good, and resolving at the same time not to be very bad: that these kind of notions are vain and presumptuous, and, as we may with reason fear, will prove at last the ruin of many souls for whom Christ died. Can we then venture to stand trifling upon the edge of such a precipice? Are we to wait till the world grows better before we grow better? Are we sure that because we feel comfortable, therefore we are safe? If not, what are we trusting t,o? Our heavenly Father has in mercy warned us of our danger. He has warned us that even if we are His peculiar people, His chosen Israel, yet if we obey not His voice, He will give us up. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to the Tracts for the Times. )
The day of grace
I. It is matter of just complaint and reproach for any people or person not to hearken to the voice of God.
1. What it is not to hearken to the voice of God (Jer 7:23; Jer 7:28).
(1) His instructing and informing voice. That which discovers the nature of God, and our duty.
(2) His commanding voice, unto the authority whereof we all owe utmost obedience and subjection.
2. How this appears to be such just matter of complaint from God, and reproach unto us, who are guilty of it.
(1) Whose voice it is you refuse to hearken to (Heb 1:2).
(2) What kind of voice it is. How gentle, obliging, beneficent, condescending.
(3) Who they are that are said to refuse to hearken to the voice of God. My people Israel. Christians succeed in their privileges, not only as domestic servants, but as children, visibly related to God, as our Father by the covenant of baptism. And shall not children receive the instruction of a parent?
II. For wilful sinners to be given up to their, own hearts lusts, and to be left of God to walk in their own counsels, is one of the most tremendous judgments that can be threatened or inflicted in this world.
1. What it is for God to give up any to their own hearts lusts.
(1) Such persons are cast out of Gods special protection and care, and so are exposed to wander and go astray, and so are more easily assaulted and overcome by the devil, who seeketh whom he may destroy.
(2) They are left of God under the dominion and power and tyranny of their own lusts.
2. The severity and terror of this judgment (Pro 1:23; Heb 10:26; Luk 19:41-42).
(1) Take heed not to pass a definitive sentence against yourselves concerning the state of your own souls as to this judgment.
(2) Apprehend the danger of approaching to it if you are under any ill symptoms of that kind, and beware of those things that have a tendency to so sad a doom.
(3) Diligently improve the means you are yet under by the warnings of the Word, convictions of conscience, and the motions of the Divine Spirit, that you may effectually prevent it. That as it is not your case for the present it never may be so.
3. By what steps or degrees God doth usually proceed in inflicting such a judgment as this.
(1) When God forbears to afflict, and to restrain men from sin, by the rod of correction and the rebukes of His providence; or doth not sanctify such rebukes for their reformation.
(2) By taking away the external means of knowledge and grace, or otherwise disposing of persons so as they cannot enjoy such seasons (Act 19:9).
(3) God is said to pour upon men a spirit of slumber and deep sleep, to suffer them to harden their hearts, and stupefy their own consciences the more by everything they enjoy; so that though the external means be continued, yet none of the Divine messages will be received, nor the most useful ministry do them any good: nor the providential goodness of God lead them to repentance. Inferences:–
1. How much to be pitied is the ignorance and folly of sinners that are afraid of any other calamity more than this.
2. How unreasonable is the displeasure and anger of men at the sharpest methods of Divine grace that would bring them to repentance.
3. How wretched and dangerous is their mistake who think their case good because their consciences now trouble them no more. (John Shower.)
The groundless doubts and mistaken apprehensions of some as to their being finally forsaken and left of God
1.To be under very great darkness, doubts, and fears, so as to create much trouble and torment to yourselves, will not of itself conclude your case desperate, and your souls finally forsaken. There are many reasons for soul trouble. Your own doubts and fears will not prove that you are given over, but rather the contrary. For–
2. If you are given up to your own hearts lust, how is it that you thus mourn and grieve at the apprehension and fear of it?
3. Are you not resolved to hold on your fight and warfare against sin? To continue and maintain your conflict, notwithstanding all your doubts and all your complaints? You may sometimes take being tempted for being overcome.
4. You say you cannot weep and mourn and express your repentance as formerly, and as some others you know do; yet consider that it is the hatred of sin, and watchfulness against it, that is the truest sign of repentance and godly sorrow.
5. You may be sure that if you find your hearts penitent, and willing to return to Him, that it doth not reach you: it is not your case.
6. You that thus complain and fear, have you not many of the fruits of the Spirit visible and manifest in you? Therefore the Spirit of Christ hath not left you; God hath not given you over.
7. As to the complaint of a hard heart, remember it is the impenitent and the unpersuadable heart that is the only hard heart you need to fear.
8. That sight of sin, and sense of the burthen of corruption, which you complain of, as the ground of your fear, will argue the direct contrary to what you allege it for.
9. Though you cannot say so much as to present sense of your hatred of sin and loathing of it as you desire, yet examine yourselves as to the sins of others, and what sense you have of the dishonour of God by them.
10. But I do not grow, I rather wax worse, will some say. The promises of growth and faithfulness are not absolute, but depend on the improvement of grace received, and the performance of many duties, with great watchfulness and diligence in our whole Christian course.
11. Moreover, consider there may be much more of blaine and faultiness, of guilt and sin, in your unbelieving objections and despondency than you are aware of. Therefore while you complain of sin, take heed you do not increase and add to your sin by disobeying the command of God to believe and hope.
12. Lay this as a foundation truth and keep it, That you can never be more willing to come to Christ than He is to receive you.
13. As to the doubt concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost, I think such as make that objection do not well understand wherein it lies. Read Mat 12:1-50. throughout, and Mar 3:28; Mar 3:30. Be sure none who own the Gospel to be true, and Christ to be the Saviour of fallen sinners, are guilty of that sin, though they may make dangerous approaches to it. Much less are they guilty of it who fear the guilt of this sin.
14. I do now tender you the grace and salvation purchased by Christ in His name. If now you are heartily willing to accept it, the case is determined and determined in the best manner that can be. (John Shower.)
So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Deliverance to a mans own lust involves the greatest ruin
I. Man abandoned by his Maker.
1. This abandonment must be very painful to the loving Father. Can there be a greater sorrow in the world than that of the human father who feels bound to shut his door against his own son and give him up? But what is a fathers love to the love of God?
2. This abandonment must be very terrible to man. If the mother abandons her helpless infant, its condition is sad indeed; but a thousand times indeed sadder is the condition of a man whom God has abandoned. He is in a worse condition than the man in the furious and unabating tempest without a rudder or a chart, destined to sink into the fathomless abyss of ruin.
II. Man abandoned by his Maker to his own lusts.
1. Such an abandonment mans conscience must approve of. He has always said, Self is everything to me, nearer than the universe or God. Very well, says God, you have yourself; I leave you with yourself.
2. Such an abandonment is inexpressibly terrible. Unto their own hearts lust. Let a man be given up to any lust–say avarice, drunkenness, sensuality, revenge, envy–and he is given up to the worst hell you can conceive of. (Homilist.)
Man Divinely abandoned to his lusts
I. It is an abandonment to a life most degrading. In it the man sinks into a brute. The brutal appetites govern him; the brutal pleasures engross his power and absorb his time.
II. It is an abandonment to a life morally abhorrent. Is there a more loathsome spectacle in the universe to the rational eye of moral purity than that of a being having the moral attributes, relations, and form of a man living the mere life of a brute?
III. It is an abandonment to a life of ruin.
1. The law of its enjoyments is decrease. The animal pleasures of men, unlike their intellectual and spiritual, decrease in their power of delectation by repetition. Age deadens the nerves, and desire faileth, and gradually the once delicious palls on the soul. It gradually brings on the awful, crushing ennui.
2. The continuation of its enjoyments is necessarily short. Disease and death terminate them.
3. The memory of its enjoyments must become morally painful–Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime, etc. (Homilist.)
The case of those who are given up to their own hearts lusts
1. The first dangerous symptom is security, or a false, ungrounded peace of conscience. This is frequently the prologue and forerunner of judicial hardening. It is often a part of it and an evidence of it.
2. Another symptom of this judgment or dangerous approach unto it, is when the ministry of the Word and Gospel of Christ becomes a tasteless, insipid, ineffectual thing; not attended with any such spiritual impressions as formerly.
3. When the Spirit of Grace gives over striving with the souls of men. This is a most dangerous case: for, except He return, they are irrecoverably lost.
4. Though the Spirit have not done striving; yet when the preaching of the Word, though you cannot resist the light of Divine truth, but somewhat of it shines into the mind and conscience; if yet your hearts stand out and will not yield, this is a dangerous case.
5. There are others, whose case is exceedingly dangerous, who, after some trial in the ways of God, for want of that sensible joy and comfort which they expected, grow weary of them and leave them off.
6. When men continue in sin, and put off their repentance and turning to God, with this thought and intention that they will some time or other repent and turn to God, but not yet. One can hardly tell whether the provoking guilt and danger of such a case be greater than the horrid absurdity of it. And yet this is a delusion that has ruined thousands, and made ample harvests for the devil.
7. There is another sort, whose case is exceeding dangerous, viz. who often fall into the same sins which they repent of and are sorry for (Jam 4:7; Luk 12:49).
8. When, notwithstanding the profession of religion, and outward attendance on the duties of it, yet sin has the dominion and mastery in the soul; and sensual inclinations are indulged without restraint, even as to gross and notorious sins (Heb 6:4-5). Their ease is next to hopeless and desperate.
And what reason have all backsliders to fear lest they sin themselves into such a dismal state? Use–
1. To awaken apostates and backsliders to consider their danger.
2. See that your hopes be of a right kind, grounded on Scripture evidence, purifying the heart, conquering the world, exciting thy desires after Christ and heaven, making thee to sin less, and to please and glorify God more. Such a hope you may hold fast, it will not make you ashamed. (John Shower.)
Abandoned
There is always something very pathetic about anything that is abandoned; an abandoned farm, where the field used to be filled with busy activity in the springtime, and where later the waving billows of grain rose and fell before the wind; the orchard that once was kept neatly pruned, and where the children played and the birds built their nests, and all watched for the first ripe apples of summer; the garden near by, that once was the object of so much care, now desolate; the front yard that used to have its long rows of hollyhocks and sweet-williams; the porch where once hung fragrant roses; the house that was the abode of love and joy, where dwelt hearts full of all the hopes and fears, the plans and purposes, that animate men and women and little children, a house made sacred by births and marriages and deaths–all now desolate and despoiled. An abandoned ship is also a sad picture. It started out from port with laughter and joy and hope. It had a precious cargo. It carried passengers full of courage for the voyage. But the storm came up, the ship was driven out of its course, the captain lost his reckoning, his chart was swept overboard, and in the blackness of the night and the tempest the ship swung aground on a ledge of rocks; every effort was made to get her afloat again, but she only settled the more solidly into her rough bed. The priceless cargo was thrown overboard in order to save the ship, but even that failed. But all these are cheerful subjects for contemplation compared to the thought of an abandoned man or an abandoned woman–the soul made in the image of God; fitted for a high and lofty destiny; that might hold communion with heaven; that might live a life so sweet and pure, so brave and splendid, that the angels would look upon it with admiration and delight, and yet drifted from its course, with compass gone, with reckoning lost, stranded and broken, abandoned at last by God and man; given up to its own lusts, to perish in its own evil ways. Dont be deceived in thinking that it is a small thing when God says that He will turn you over to your own hearts lust. I can imagine that in folly some reckless soul might say, What do I want better than that? Just let me have my hearts desire. Surely that wont be very bad. Ah, do you think not? To let the man who is getting fond of strong drink just go on getting more and more drunken, more and more like a beast, the hellish thirst for strong drink ever increasing in his parched and bloated body, his veins running with the fire of the insatiable longing until he cries out as others have done that even the fires of hell would be a refuge if it could quench this horrible and awful thirst–do you think that means nothing? To let the man or woman with impure thoughts and imaginations just go on thinking impure things, and meditating on wicked and evil pictures, until good thoughts come no longer; until the mind is full to overflowing with unholy and bestial imaginations; until after a while the soul loathes itself as a dirty thing; until the man or woman wallows in moral filth–do you think that means nothing? To let the greedy man go on with his greed, becoming more and more avaricious, until at last honour and love and faith and truth and goodness are idle words to him unless they bring him in money; until the soul is withered and dried up so that the one cry of the mans nature is for gain; and grim and miserly, unloving and unloved, the man gets old in a hard and bitter and greedy spirit–does that mean nothing? To let anger and hate have their own way; to let them brood in the heart and hatch their young; to let them seek for vengeance until a man watches on the path of his enemies that he may make life harder for every one who has offended him; until all love and generosity and forgiveness and gentleness are crushed down under the heel, and a gruff, rough, brutal-hearted man hides in ambush waiting for revenge–does that mean nothing? Some of you, it may be, are quaffing the first draughts of sin, and the intoxication of it is in your blood, and you think the preacher maligns and slanders sin. May God save you from the biter dregs at the bottom of the cup! (L. A. Banks, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Israel would none of me.] lo abah li, They willed me not, they would not have me for their God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Or, did not assent to me, or acquiesce in me, or obey me, or my commands.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11, 12. They failed, and He gavethem up to their own desires and hardness of heart (Deu 29:18;Pro 1:30; Rom 11:25).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But my people would not hearken to my voice,…. Neither as exhorting them to the above duties, nor as promising the above favours; would neither hearken to the voice of the law, nor to the voice of the Gospel; but were like the deaf adder, which stops its ear to the voice of the charmer, charming never so wisely:
and Israel would none of me; would not attend to his word, acquiesce in his will, nor delight themselves in him, and in his worship and service; would have none of his salutary doctrines, or wholesome reproofs, nor of his laws and government; would not have him to reign over them, nor to be their Saviour, though the only one, and there is none beside him; though the chiefest good, and from whom all good things come, and is the portion and exceeding great reward of his people: see Pr 1:25.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Passover discourse now takes a sorrowful and awful turn: Israel’s disobedience and self-will frustrated the gracious purpose of the commandments and promises of its God. “My people” and “Israel” alternate as in the complaint in Isa 1:3. followed by the dative, as in Deu 13:9 ([8], ). Then God made their sin their punishment, by giving them over judicially ( as in Job 8:4) into the obduracy of their heart, which rudely shuts itself up against His mercy (from , Aramaic , Arabic sarra , to make firm = to cheer, make glad), so that they went on (cf. on the sequence of tense, Psa 61:8) in their, i.e., their own, egotistical, God-estranged determinations; the suffix is thus accented, as e.g., in Isa 65:2, cf. the borrowed passage Jer 7:24, and the same phrase in Mic 6:16. And now, because this state of unfaithfulness in comparison with God’s faithfulness has remained essentially the same even to to-day, the exalted Orator of the festival passes over forthwith to the generation of the present, and that, as is in accordance with the cheerful character of the feast, in a charmingly alluring manner. Whether we take in the signification of si (followed by the participle, as in 2Sa 18:12), or like above in Psa 81:9 as expressing a wish, o si (if but!), Psa 81:15. at any rate have the relation of the apodosis to it. From (for a little, easily) it may be conjectured that the relation of Israel at that time to the nations did not correspond to the dignity of the nation of God which is called to subdue and rule the world in the strength of God. signifies in this passage only to turn, not: to again lay upon. The meaning is, that He would turn the hand which is now chastening His people against those by whom He is chastening them (cf. on the usual meaning of the phrase, Isa 1:25; Amo 1:8; Jer 6:9; Eze 38:12). The promise in Psa 81:16 relates to Israel and all the members of the nation. The haters of Jahve would be compelled reluctantly to submit themselves to Him, and their time would endure for ever. “Time” is equivalent to duration, and in this instance with the collateral notion of Prosperity, as elsewhere (Isa 13:22) of the term of punishment. One now expects that it should continue with , in the tone of a promise. The Psalm, however, closes with an historical statement. For cannot signify et cibaret eum ; it ought to be pronounced . The pointing, like the lxx, Syriac, and Vulgate, takes v. 17 a (cf. Deu 32:13.) as a retrospect, and apparently rightly so. For even the Asaphic Ps 77 and 78 break off with historical pictures. V. 17 b is, accordingly, also to be taken as retrospective. The words of the poet in conclusion once more change into the words of God. The closing word runs , as in Psa 50:8, Deu 4:31, and (with the exception of the futt. Hiph. of Lamed He verbs ending with ekka ) usually. The Babylonian system of pointing nowhere recognises the suffix-form ekka . If the Israel of the present would hearken to the Lawgiver of Sinai, says v. 17, then would He renew to it the miraculous gifts of the time of the redemption under Moses.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
11. But my people hearkened not to my voice. God now complains, that the Israelites, whom he endeavored gently to allure to him, despised his friendly invitation; yea, that although he had for a long time continued to exhort them, they always shut their ears against his voice. It is not a rebellion of one day which he deplores: he complains, that from the very beginning they were always a stupid and hardened people, and that they continued to persevere in the same obstinacy. It is assuredly monstrous perverseness to exclude God from obtaining access to us, and to refuse to give him a hearing, when he is ready to enter into covenant with us, making the terms almost equal on both sides. To leave them no room for extenuating their guilt under the pretense of ignorance, he adds, that he was rejected with avowed and deliberate contempt: Israel would none of me. From this it is evident, that their minds were bewitched by the god of this world.
This is the reason why, as is stated in the following verse, he gave them up to the hardness of their own heart, or, as others translate it, to the thoughts of their own heart. The root שרר, shorer, from which the word rendered thoughts is derived, signifies properly the navel Accordingly, the translation is very appropriate, which takes this word either for the thoughts which are wrapped up in the hearts of men, or for the hardness which possesses the heart. It being, however, as is well known, a usual thing in the Psalms for the same thing to be twice repeated, I have preferred the word thoughts, because it follows immediately after, They shall walk in their own counsels. Besides, by these words, God testifies, that he justly punished his people, when he deprived them of good and wholesome doctrine, and gave them over to a reprobate mind. As in governing us by means of his word, he restrains us, as it were, with a bridle, and thereby prevents us from going astray after our own perverse imaginations, so, by removing his prophets from the Jews, he gave loose reins to their froward and corrupt counsels, by which they were led into devious paths. It is assuredly the most dreadful kind of punishment which can be inflicted upon us, and an evidence of the utter hopelessness of our condition, when God, holding his peace, and conniving at our perverseness, applies no remedy for bringing us to repentance and amendment. So long as he administers reproof to us, alarms us with the dread of judgment, and summons us before his tribunal, he, at the same time, calls upon us to repent. But when he sees that it is altogether lost labor to reason any longer with us, and that his admonitions have no effect, he holds his peace, and by this teaches us that he has ceased to make our salvation the object of his care. Nothing, therefore, is more to be dreaded, than for men to be so set free from the divine guidance, as recklessly to follow their own counsels, and to be dragged by Satan wherever he pleases. The words, however may be viewed in a more extensive sense, as implying that the patience of God being worn out, he left his people, who, by their desperate perverseness, had cut off all hope of their ever becoming better, to act without restraint as they chose. It is a very absurd inference which some draw from this passage, that the grace of God is bestowed equally upon all men until it is rejected. Even at that time, God, while he passed by all the rest of the world, was graciously pleased to bring the posterity of Abraham, by peculiar and exclusive privilege, into a special relation to himself. At the present day, this distinction, I admit, has been abolished, and the message of the gospel, by which God reconciles the world to himself, is common to all men. Yet we see how God stirs up godly teachers in one place rather than in another. Still the external call alone would be insufficient, did not God effectually draw to himself those whom he has called. Further, as this passage teaches us, that there is no plague more deadly than for men to be left to the guidance of their own counsels, the only thing which remains for us to do is to renounce the dictates of carnal wisdom, and to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
11. But my people would not hearken The doubt of Psa 81:8 has become a reality.
Would none of me Were not inclined to me; had not a willing mind toward me. How affecting to trace the earnest workings of the divine Mind in his testimony concerning and against (for the Hebrew word may signify either) Israel. 1. The command, “Hear, O my people.” 2. The doubt, “If thou wilt hearken to me.” 3. The testimony against them, “But my people would not hearken.” 4. The lament, “Oh that my people had hearkened.” The first lays the ground of man’s obligation; the second recognises his free agency; the third testifies to his perverseness; the fourth is a twofold witness of the pitying love of God and the certain loss and suffering incurred by disobedience.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 638
GOD GIVING UP OBSTINATE TRANSGRESSORS
Psa 81:11-12. My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me: so I gave them up.
THE history of the Jews is not a mere record of times and persons far distant from us, but a display of the Divine procedure towards others, as a pledge of a similar procedure towards us. The Jews were intended as examples to the Church of God in all ages: their prosperity whilst serving God, and their adversity when they had departed from him, were designed to shew us what blessings we may expect at Gods hands, if we serve him acceptably; and what judgments, if we rebel against him [Note: See 1Co 10:1-11 and Heb 3:16-19; Heb 4:1.]. In this view it will be profitable to consider the words before us; and,
I.
The perverseness complained of
Nothing could exceed the kindness of God towards his people of old
[How tender and affectionate is his address to them [Note: ver. 8.]! He entreats them not to look to any strange god, since he alone has an exclusive right to their regard [Note: ver. 9, 10.] He assures them also, that whatsoever they shall ask at his hands, he will do it for them [Note: ver. 10. with Deu 4:7.]
And is it not precisely in the same way that he addresses us? He invites us to look to him [Note: Isa 45:22; Isa 55:1-3.], and to come unto him [Note: Mat 11:28.], and to ask of him whatsoever we will, with an assurance that we shall not be disappointed of our hope [Note: Joh 14:13-14; Joh 15:7.]. There is no limitation or exception, provided only the things we desire be agreeable to his holy will. If we plead with him in earnest, there is no sin that shall not be forgiven [Note: Isa 1:18.], no corruption that shall not be mortified [Note: Mic 7:19.], no want that shall not be supplied [Note: Php 4:19.]. He engages, that, to whatever temptation we may be exposed, his grace shall be sufficient for us [Note: 2Co 12:8-9.].]
But their obstinacy was incorrigible
[The Jews, with but few exceptions, would not hearken to his voice. His precepts, his promises, his threatenings, were alike disregarded by them. They would none of him; but said to his messengers whom he sent to reclaim them, Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us
And is it not thus with us? Is not his authority trampled on by us? and are not both his mercies and judgments almost universally despised? We will have other objects of our affections in preference to him We will not open our mouths in prayer, though we know that nothing is to be obtained without it The language of our hearts and actions is, We will not have this man to reign over us [Note: Luk 19:14.] Notwithstanding all that he has done to redeem us from death and hell, we will not take upon ourselves his light and easy yoke.]
While we thus imitate the perverseness of the Jews, let us tremble for fear of,
II.
The judgments inflicted on account of it
Consider,
1.
What a loss they sustained
[He would have preserved them in Canaan, and loaded them with all imaginable blessings, even as he had done in former times [Note: Deu 32:29.]
But this was a very faint shadow of what he would do for us. What victory would he have given us over all our spiritual enemies! What a fulness of consolation and joy also would he have bestowed upon us, in the communications of his grace, and the manifestations of his love! Surely his Spirit, as a Spirit of adoption, should have witnessed with our spirits that we were his, and should have sealed us unto the day of redemption ]
2.
What misery they incurred
[God gave them up to idolatry, and to their own hearts lusts; and left them to walk in their own counsels [Note: See Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28. So I gave them up.]
And this is the curse which he denounces against us also. His spirit will not always strive with us. If he see that we are bent upon our evil ways, he will abandon us to our own delusions [Note: 2Th 2:10-12.], and will say, He is joined to idols, let him alone [Note: Hos 4:17.] A greater curse than this God cannot inflict, because our remaining days will be occupied only in augmenting our guilt and aggravating our condemnation [Note: Rom 2:5.] Were the judgment only to deliver our bodies to Satan now, that might load to our final salvation: but to give us over to the uncontrolled influence of self, is a certain prelude to our everlasting damnation. It is, in fact, the very beginning of hell, where it will be said to the unhappy souls, He that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is unjust, let him be unjust still [Note: Rev 22:11.].]
Hence it appears,
1.
Whose will be the fault, if any be lost
[None can lay it to the charge of God that he is unwilling to save them. He has sworn with an oath that he willeth not the death of any sinner [Note: Eze 33:11. 1Ti 2:4.]. And in the psalm before us he takes up a lamentation over those who obstinately compel him to give them up [Note: ver. 13.]. Thus did our blessed Lord over the murderous Jerusalem [Note: Luk 19:40-41.]: and thus does he over all impenitent transgressors; Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life [Note: Joh 5:40.]. Often would I have gathered you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; but ye would not [Note: Mat 23:37.]. And what a bitter source of self-condemnation will this be to us, that God would have saved us, but we would not be saved by him! The language which God now uses over us, we shall then use in reference to ourselves: O that I had hearkened to his voice! O that I had walked in his ways! How should I have been at this instant triumphing over my cruel adversary, and feasting on all the richest fruits of paradise, instead of dwelling with everlasting burnings, without one drop of water to cool my tongue! Surely this reflection will bo the bitterest ingredient in that bitter cup, which they who perish will be drinking of to all eternity.]
2.
Whose will be the glory, if any be saved
[We never come to Christ, till the Father, by the mighty working of his power, draws us to him. Such is the pride of the human heart, that no man will submit to be saved by grace alone, till God has made him willing in the day of his power. If therefore we have been brought to hearken to his voice, let us remember Who it is that has unstopped our ears.
If it be said, We prayed for these blessings; and therefore we at least may glory that the blessings do not come to us unsolicited; we would ask, Who inclined or enabled us to pray? We should never have been inclined to pray, if God had not given us a spirit of grace and of supplication; nor should we have known what to pray for as we ought, if He by his Spirit had not helped our infirmities. If still it be said, Yet we prayed; Be it so: but how long were you before you prayed at all? And what have been your prayers since ever you began to pray? Are you not amazed when you review your prayers, and see how cold, and dead, and formal they have been? What if a beggar had asked of you in the way that you have but too often asked of God? Would you have granted his request? or, if you had granted his request, and not only relieved his present necessities, but conferred upon him one half of your fortune, would you not be surprised, if he, instead of admiring your unequalled generosity, were taking credit to himself for asking relief from you? Know then, that if you are partaking of Gods mercy, you are no other than beggars, who have been taken from the dunghill, and set among the princes. Know, that ye are altogether debtors to the grace of God, and must ascribe to him the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Reader! what saith thy heart to these charges? What saith thy experience to this awful giving up? Oh! Lord! do thou still keep, still preserve, and abide in thy love, for thou hatest putting away. Reader! do not overlook, in the midst of the solemn things of this verse, that the Lord still calls Israel his people. Precious thought! They are his by creation, his by redemption, his by new creation, and the conquests of his Spirit, in Christ Jesus. Pray read that blessed scripture, Isa 43:1 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 81:11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
Ver. 11. But my people would not hearken ] Here beginneth the second part of the psalm, which is objurgatory, and very suitable to the season of the year at that feast, that if it were a fruitful year the Israelites might see and acknowledge God’s goodness therein; as, if otherwise, they might accuse themselves, and not the Lord.
Israel would none
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 81:11-16
11But My people did not listen to My voice,
And Israel did not obey Me.
12So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart,
To walk in their own devices.
13Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
14I would quickly subdue their enemies
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
15Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.
16But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
Psa 81:11-16 This strophe contrasts what Israel did with what YHWH wanted to do for them.
1. Israel’s history of rebellion (cf. Psa 78:17; Psa 78:40)
a. did not listen
b. did not obey
c. had stubborn hearts
d. walked in their own devices
2. YHWH’s reaction
a. judgment
(1) gave them over to (cf. Psa 78:29; Isa 6:9-10; Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28) the stubbornness of their hearts, Psa 81:12
(2) gave them over to walk in their own devices, Psa 81:12
(3) those who pretend obedience would suffer eternal loss, Psa 81:15
b. His desire
(1) that they would listen to Him, Psa 81:13
(2) that they would walk in His ways, Psa 81:13
c. His blessings
(1) subdue their enemies, Psa 81:14
(2) turn His hand against their adversaries, Psa 81:14
(3) feed them
(a) the finest of the wheat (cf. Deu 32:14)
(b) honey from the rock (i.e., the best food of the land, cf. Deu 32:13)
(4) satisfy them
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
would none of Me = had no mind for Me.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
people: Psa 106:12, Psa 106:13, Jer 2:11-13, Jer 7:23, Jer 7:24, Zec 7:11
would none: Exo 32:1, Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18, Pro 1:30, Heb 10:29
Reciprocal: Exo 9:12 – General Num 14:25 – turn you 1Sa 8:7 – Hearken 1Sa 8:19 – refused to obey 2Ki 21:8 – only if they 2Ch 25:20 – it came of God Neh 9:16 – hearkened Pro 1:25 – would Pro 8:33 – refuse Pro 17:16 – seeing Isa 28:12 – yet Isa 44:1 – now Jer 2:13 – For my Jer 13:11 – but Jer 44:5 – they Eze 14:9 – if the Hos 8:3 – cast Hos 9:17 – because Hos 11:7 – are bent Mal 2:2 – ye will not hear Mat 11:20 – upbraid Mat 12:44 – he findeth Mat 21:32 – repented Luk 11:25 – he findeth Luk 13:34 – and ye Joh 5:40 – ye will not Act 7:42 – and gave Act 28:26 – Hearing Rom 1:24 – God 2Th 2:11 – for Heb 3:7 – hear Rev 3:15 – I would
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 81:11. My people would not hearken to my voice But turned a deaf ear to all I said. Two things, says Henry, the Lord complains of; 1st, Their disobedience to his commands. They did hear his voice, and that in such a manner as no people ever did; but they would not hearken to it; they would not be governed by it, neither by the law, nor by the reason of it, namely, that he was Jehovah their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. 2d, Their dislike of his covenant-relation to them: They would none of me. They acquiesced not in my word: so the Chaldee. God was willing to be to them a God, but they were not willing to be to him a people. They did not like his terms. I would have gathered them, but they would not. They had none of him; and why had they not? It was not because they might not; they were fairly invited into covenant with God: it was not because they could not; for the word was nigh them, even in their mouth, and in their heart: it was purely because they would not. Note, the reason why people are not religious is because they will not be so.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Israel had not kept God’s law, however. Consequently He let His people go their own way (cf. Romans 1) so they would learn to return to Him.