Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 81:12
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: [and] they walked in their own counsels.
12. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart,
That they might walk in their own counsels. (R.V.).
God punishes men by leaving them to their own self-willed courses of action, which prove their ruin. Cp. Job 8:4; Pro 1:30 ff.; Rom 1:24 ff.; 2Th 2:10 ff. ‘Stubbornness’ is a favourite word with Jeremiah (Jer 7:24, &c.), occurring elsewhere only in Deu 29:19.
Most editions both of the Bible and of the Prayer Book wrongly print hearts’ for heart’s. See Scrivener, Auth. Ed. of Engl. Bible, p. 152, and Earle, Psalter of 1539, p. 313.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust – Margin, as in Hebrew, to the hardness of their own hearts. Literally, I sent them, or I dismissed them, to the hardness of their hearts. I suffered them to have what, in the hardness of their hearts they desired, or what their hard and rebellious hearts prompted them to desire: I indulged them in their wishes. I gave them what they asked, and left them to themselves to work out the problem about success and happiness in their own way – to let them see what must be the result of forsaking the true God. The world – and the church too – has been often suffered to make this experiment.
And they walked in their own counsels – As they thought wise and best. Compare Act 7:42; Act 14:16; Rom 1:24; Psa 78:26-37.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. Unto their own hearts’ lust] To the obstinate wickedness of their heart.
In their own counsels.] God withdrew his restraining grace, which they had abused; and then they fulfilled the inventions of their wicked hearts.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Upon their obstinate and oft-repeated rebellions and rejections of my grace and mercy offered to them, I withdrew all the restraints of my providence, and my Holy Spirit, and grace from them, and wholly left them to follow their own vain and foolish imaginations and wicked lusts.
They walked in their own counsels; they practised those things, both in common conversation and in religious worship, which were most agreeable, not to my commands or counsels, but to their own fancies and inclinations, as appeared in the golden calf and many other things.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust,…. Sometimes God gave them up, when they sinned, into the hands of the Moabites, or Ammonites, or Philistines, or other neighbouring nations, for their chastisement; but to be delivered up unto their own hearts’ lust is worse than that; nay, than to be delivered to Satan: salvation may be the consequence of that, but damnation of this; and yet it is a righteous judgment; for as men like not to retain God in their knowledge, it is but just with him to give them up to vile affections, to a reprobate mind, to do things not convenient, Ro 1:24 there is nothing men are more desirous of than to have their hearts’ lusts; and there is no greater judgment can befall them than to be left to the power of them, which must unavoidably issue in their ruin here and hereafter: and they walked in their own counsels; which were bad; after the imagination of their own evil hearts, and not after the counsels and directions of God in his word, and by his servants.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(12) Lust.Rather, stubbornness, or perversity, from root meaning to twist.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. So I gave them up The testimony against his people being given by God, the language takes a tone of deeper sorrow as it passes to the consequences. “I gave them up,” is the form of the judicial sentence. He punishes and laments at one breath. His sorrow cannot avert the sentence. He cannot govern them by precept; he will, therefore, do it by penalty. So he gives “them up” to the hardness of their hearts. Their sins become the instruments of their punishment, as in Job 8:4, where read, “And he have delivered them over to the power of their transgression.”
Their own hearts’ lust Literally, to the stubbornness of their heart.
Psa 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: [and] they walked in their own counsels.
Ver. 12. So I gave them up ] I left them as a ship without a rudder; as a horse without reins, to go whither they would, and do what they would. This is a fearful judgment ( poena rebellionis maxima ), Hos 4:14 Rom 1:28 2Th 2:11-12 .
And they walked in their own counsels gave them up = let him (Israel) go on. The greatest judgment God could have given them; or give us.
lust = stubbornness.
So I gave
See, Act 7:42; Act 14:16; Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26.
I gave: Gen 6:3, Act 7:42, Act 14:16, Rom 1:24, Rom 1:26, Rom 1:27, 2Th 2:9-11
their own hearts’ lust: or, the hardness of their hearts, or imaginations
they walked: Exo 11:9, Isa 30:1, Jer 7:24, Jer 44:16, Jer 44:17
Reciprocal: Gen 20:6 – sinning Exo 9:12 – General Lev 26:3 – General Num 22:20 – If the men Num 22:35 – Go Deu 32:28 – General 1Sa 8:7 – Hearken 1Sa 12:14 – If ye will 1Ki 14:16 – he shall give Israel 2Ch 25:20 – it came of God Psa 1:1 – walketh Psa 69:27 – Add Psa 106:43 – with their Pro 2:19 – None Pro 5:23 – in the Pro 8:33 – refuse Pro 22:14 – abhorred Ecc 11:9 – walk Isa 44:18 – for he hath Isa 65:2 – after Isa 66:4 – will choose Jer 16:13 – and Eze 14:9 – if the Eze 20:25 – I gave Eze 20:39 – Go ye Hos 4:17 – let Hos 9:10 – and their Amo 4:5 – for Mal 2:2 – ye will not hear Mat 12:44 – he findeth Mat 21:32 – repented Mar 8:13 – General Luk 11:25 – he findeth Luk 11:34 – but Act 28:26 – Hearing Rom 1:21 – but became 2Th 2:11 – for Rev 22:11 – that is unjust
ABANDONED OF GOD
So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust: and they walked in their own counsels, etc.
Psa 81:12-13
I. God showed His love to the Israelites by giving them a law more strict than any which had gone before it; He revealed Himself as a jealous God, Who would be obeyed; He curbed all their actions, and He punished them severely for all transgressions of His law.It was only as a last step, when the people were determined to rebel, that He granted to them that prime blessing, as a worldly mind would consider it, namely, leisure to follow their own hearts lust and to do according to their own imaginations.
II. Gods principles of government are ever the same; He changes not: and if it was only in being governed by Him, in wearing His yoke, in carrying His burdens, that the people of Israel could escape bondage, and be lifted up, and be noble and free, then beyond doubt the same is true of ourselves, and we too shall be slaves as long as we are free, and shall only be free when we become in heart and soul the servants of God.
III. The man who wears Christs yoke feels that he must keep a watch over his life and over his thoughts.(1) He bridles his tongue; (2) he is particular in the choice of his company; (3) he puts a curb upon his appetite; (4) he thinks it right to be particular about his devotions and his attendance on ordinances.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin.
Illustration
The tender affection of God in pleading with men to avoid sin is very impressive; but more impressive still are His exclamations of grief when the final step has been taken, and when, for many, recovery is impossible. Thus when Jesus looked down from Olivet upon the guilty metropolis, and knew that the die was cast, He nevertheless wept and said, How often would I have gathered your children, as a hen her brood; but ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate! So God here speaks: O that My people had hearkened unto Me! that Israel had walked in My ways! The measure of Gods love transcends all known limits; its forms are infinite in their variety! When every re edial measure has been tried in vain love can only weep.
Psa 81:12. So I gave them up, &c. Upon their obstinate and oft-repeated acts of disobedience, and their rejection of my grace and mercy offered to them, I withdrew all the restraints of my providence, and my Holy Spirit and grace from them, and wholly left them to follow their own vain and foolish imaginations, and wicked lusts. And they walked in their own counsels The consequence of my thus giving them up to their own depraved inclinations was, that they practised all those things, both in common conversation and in religious worship, which were most agreeable, not to my commands or counsels, but to their own fancies and lusts, as appeared in the affair of the golden calf, and many other things.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments