Show Bible Commentary For A Bible Verse

Click here to show/hide instructions.

Selected Verse: Psalms 81:1 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ps 81:1	Strong Concordance	To the chief Musician [05329] upon Gittith [01665], A Psalm of Asaph [0623]. Sing aloud [07442] unto God [0430] our strength [05797]: make a joyful noise [07321] unto the God [0430] of Jacob [03290].
	King James	To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

Open All | Close All Open All | Close All

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Gittith--(See on Psa 8:1, title). A festal Psalm, probably for the passover (compare Mat 26:30), in which, after an exhortation to praise God, He is introduced, reminding Israel of their obligations, chiding their neglect, and depicting the happy results of obedience. (Psa. 81:1-16) our strength-- (Psa 38:7).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Gittith--(See on Psa 8:1, title). A festal Psalm, probably for the passover (compare Mat 26:30), in which, after an exhortation to praise God, He is introduced, reminding Israel of their obligations, chiding their neglect, and depicting the happy results of obedience. (Psa. 81:1-16)

our strength-- (Psa 38:7).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Sing aloud unto God our strength - The strength and support of the nation; he from whom the nation has derived all its power. The word rendered sing aloud means to rejoice; and then, to make or cause to rejoice. It would be appropriate to a high festal occasion, where music constituted an important part of the public service. And it would be a proper word to employ in reference to any of the great feasts of the Hebrews. Make a joyful noise - A noise indicating joy, as distinguished from a noise of mourning or lamentation. Unto the God of Jacob - Not here particularly the God of the patriarch himself, but of the people who bore his name - his descendants.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
The summons in Psa 81:2 is addressed to the whole congregation, inasmuch as הריעוּ is not intended of the clanging of the trumpets, but as in Ezr 3:11, and frequently. The summons in Psa 81:3 is addressed to the Levites, the appointed singers and musicians in connection with the divine services, Ch2 5:12, and frequently. The summons in Psa 81:4 is addressed to the priests, to whom was committed not only the blowing of the two (later on a hundred and twenty, vid., Ch2 5:12) silver trumpets, but who appear also in Jos 6:4 and elsewhere (cf. Psa 47:6 with Ch2 20:28) as the blowers of the shophar. The Talmud observes that since the destruction of the Temple the names of instruments שׁופרא and חצוצרתּא are wont to be confounded one for the other (B. Sabbath 36a, Succa 34a), and, itself confounding them, infers from Num 10:10 the duty and significance of the blowing of the shophar (B. Erachin 3b). The lxx also renders both by σάλπιγξ; but the Biblical language mentions שׁופר and חצצרה, a horn (more especially a ram's horn) and a (metal) trumpet, side by side in Psa 98:6; Ch1 15:28, and is therefore conscious of a difference between them. The Tפra says nothing of the employment of the shophar in connection with divine service, except that the commencement of every fiftieth year, which on this very account is called שׁנת היּבל, annus buccinae, is to be made known by the horn signal throughout all the land (Lev 25:9). But just as tradition by means of an inference from analogy derives the blowing of the shophar on the first of Tishri, the beginning of the common year, from this precept, so on the ground of the passage of the Psalm before us, assuming that בּחרשׁ, lxx ἐν νεομηνίᾳ, refers not to the first of Tishri but to the first of Nisan, we may suppose that the beginning of every month, but, in particular, the beginning of the month which was at the same time the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was celebrated by a blowing of the shophar, as, according to Josephus, Bell. iv. 9, 12, the beginning and close of the Sabbath was announced from the top of the Temple by a priest with the salpinx. The poet means to say that the Feast of the Passover is to be saluted by the congregation with shouts of joy, by the Levites with music, and even beginning from the new moon (neomenia) of the Passover month with blowing of shophars, and that this is to be continued at the Feast of the Passover itself. The Feast of the Passover, for which Hupfeld devises a gloomy physiognomy, (Note: In the first of his Commentationes de primitiva et vera festorum apud Hebraeos ratione, 1851, 4to.) was a joyous festival, the Old Testament Christmas. Ch2 30:21 testifies to the exultation of the people and the boisterous music of the Levite priests, with which it was celebrated. According to Num 10:10, the trumpeting of the priests was connected with the sacrifices; and that the slaying of the paschal lambs took place amidst the Tantaratan of the priests (long-drawn notes interspersed with sharp shrill ones, תקיעה תרועה וקיעה), is expressly related of the post-exilic service at least. (Note: Vid., my essay on the Passover rites during the time of the second Temple in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1855; and cf. Armknecht, Die heilige Psalmidoe (1855), S. 5.) The phrase נתן תּף proceeds from the phrase נתן קול, according to which נתן directly means: to attune, strike up, cause to be heard. Concerning כּסה (Pro 7:20 כּסא) tradition is uncertain. The Talmudic interpretation (B. Rosh ha-Shana 8b, Betza 16a, and the Targum which is taken from it), according to which it is the day of the new moon (the first of the month), on which the moon hides itself, i.e., is not to be seen at all in the morning, and in the evening only for a short time immediately after sunset, and the interpretation that is adopted by a still more imposing array of authorities (lxx, Vulgate, Menahem, Rashi, Jacob Tam, Aben-Ezra, Parchon, and others), according to which a time fixed by computation (from כּסה = כּסס, computare) is so named in general, are outweighed by the usage of the Syriac, in which Keso denotes the full moon as the moon with covered, i.e., filled-up orb, and therefore the fifteenth of the month, but also the time from that point onwards, perhaps because then the moon covers itself, inasmuch as its shining surface appears each day less large (cf. the Peshto, Kg1 12:32 of the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Ch2 7:10 of the twenty-third day of the seventh month, in both instances of the Feast of Tabernacles), after which, too, in the passage before us it is rendered wa-b-kese, which a Syro-Arabic glossary (in Rosenmller) explains festa quae sunt in medio mensis. The Peshto here, like the Targum, proceeds from the reading חגּינוּ, which, following the lxx and the best texts, is to be rejected in comparison with the singular חגּנוּ. If, however, it is to be read chgnw, and כּסה (according to Kimchi with Segol not merely in the second syllable, but with double Segol כּסה, after the form טנא = טנא) signifies not interlunium, but plenilunium (instead of which also Jerome has in medio mense, and in Pro 7:20, in die plenae lunae, Aquila ἡμέρᾳ πανσελήνου), then what is meant is either the Feast of Tabernacles, which is called absolutely החג in Kg1 8:2 (Ch2 5:3) and elsewhere, or the Passover, which is also so called in Isa 30:29 and elsewhere. Here, as Psa 81:5 will convince us, the latter is intended, the Feast of unleavened bread, the porch of which, so to speak, is ערב פּסח together with the ליל שׁמּרים (Exo 12:42), the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of Nisan. In Psa 81:2, Psa 81:3 they are called upon to give a welcome to this feast. The blowing of the shophar is to announce the commencement of the Passover month, and at the commencement of the Passover day which opens the Feast of unleavened bread it is to be renewed. The ל of ליום is not meant temporally, as perhaps in Job 21:30 : at the day = on the day; for why was it not ביום? It is rather: towards the day, but בכסה assumes that the day has already arrived; it is the same Lamed as in Psa 81:2, the blowing of the shophar is to concern this feast-day, it is to sound in honour of it.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

The summons in Psa 81:2 is addressed to the whole congregation, inasmuch as הריעוּ is not intended of the clanging of the trumpets, but as in Ezr 3:11, and frequently. The summons in Psa 81:3 is addressed to the Levites, the appointed singers and musicians in connection with the divine services, Ch2 5:12, and frequently. The summons in Psa 81:4 is addressed to the priests, to whom was committed not only the blowing of the two (later on a hundred and twenty, vid., Ch2 5:12) silver trumpets, but who appear also in Jos 6:4 and elsewhere (cf. Psa 47:6 with Ch2 20:28) as the blowers of the shophar. The Talmud observes that since the destruction of the Temple the names of instruments שׁופרא and חצוצרתּא are wont to be confounded one for the other (B. Sabbath 36a, Succa 34a), and, itself confounding them, infers from Num 10:10 the duty and significance of the blowing of the shophar (B. Erachin 3b). The lxx also renders both by σάλπιγξ; but the Biblical language mentions שׁופר and חצצרה, a horn (more especially a ram's horn) and a (metal) trumpet, side by side in Psa 98:6; Ch1 15:28, and is therefore conscious of a difference between them. The Tפra says nothing of the employment of the shophar in connection with divine service, except that the commencement of every fiftieth year, which on this very account is called שׁנת היּבל, annus buccinae, is to be made known by the horn signal throughout all the land (Lev 25:9). But just as tradition by means of an inference from analogy derives the blowing of the shophar on the first of Tishri, the beginning of the common year, from this precept, so on the ground of the passage of the Psalm before us, assuming that בּחרשׁ, lxx ἐν νεομηνίᾳ, refers not to the first of Tishri but to the first of Nisan, we may suppose that the beginning of every month, but, in particular, the beginning of the month which was at the same time the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was celebrated by a blowing of the shophar, as, according to Josephus, Bell. iv. 9, 12, the beginning and close of the Sabbath was announced from the top of the Temple by a priest with the salpinx. The poet means to say that the Feast of the Passover is to be saluted by the congregation with shouts of joy, by the Levites with music, and even beginning from the new moon (neomenia) of the Passover month with blowing of shophars, and that this is to be continued at the Feast of the Passover itself. The Feast of the Passover, for which Hupfeld devises a gloomy physiognomy,

(Note: In the first of his Commentationes de primitiva et vera festorum apud Hebraeos ratione, 1851, 4to.)

was a joyous festival, the Old Testament Christmas. Ch2 30:21 testifies to the exultation of the people and the boisterous music of the Levite priests, with which it was celebrated. According to Num 10:10, the trumpeting of the priests was connected with the sacrifices; and that the slaying of the paschal lambs took place amidst the Tantaratan of the priests (long-drawn notes interspersed with sharp shrill ones, תקיעה תרועה וקיעה), is expressly related of the post-exilic service at least.

(Note: Vid., my essay on the Passover rites during the time of the second Temple in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1855; and cf. Armknecht, Die heilige Psalmidoe (1855), S. 5.)

The phrase נתן תּף proceeds from the phrase נתן קול, according to which נתן directly means: to attune, strike up, cause to be heard. Concerning כּסה (Pro 7:20 כּסא) tradition is uncertain. The Talmudic interpretation (B. Rosh ha-Shana 8b, Betza 16a, and the Targum which is taken from it), according to which it is the day of the new moon (the first of the month), on which the moon hides itself, i.e., is not to be seen at all in the morning, and in the evening only for a short time immediately after sunset, and the interpretation that is adopted by a still more imposing array of authorities (lxx, Vulgate, Menahem, Rashi, Jacob Tam, Aben-Ezra, Parchon, and others), according to which a time fixed by computation (from כּסה = כּסס, computare) is so named in general, are outweighed by the usage of the Syriac, in which Keso denotes the full moon as the moon with covered, i.e., filled-up orb, and therefore the fifteenth of the month, but also the time from that point onwards, perhaps because then the moon covers itself, inasmuch as its shining surface appears each day less large (cf. the Peshto, Kg1 12:32 of the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Ch2 7:10 of the twenty-third day of the seventh month, in both instances of the Feast of Tabernacles), after which, too, in the passage before us it is rendered wa-b-kese, which a Syro-Arabic glossary (in Rosenmller) explains festa quae sunt in medio mensis. The Peshto here, like the Targum, proceeds from the reading חגּינוּ, which, following the lxx and the best texts, is to be rejected in comparison with the singular חגּנוּ. If, however, it is to be read chgnw, and כּסה (according to Kimchi with Segol not merely in the second syllable, but with double Segol כּסה, after the form טנא = טנא) signifies not interlunium, but plenilunium (instead of which also Jerome has in medio mense, and in Pro 7:20, in die plenae lunae, Aquila ἡμέρᾳ πανσελήνου), then what is meant is either the Feast of Tabernacles, which is called absolutely החג in Kg1 8:2 (Ch2 5:3) and elsewhere, or the Passover, which is also so called in Isa 30:29 and elsewhere. Here, as Psa 81:5 will convince us, the latter is intended, the Feast of unleavened bread, the porch of which, so to speak, is ערב פּסח together with the ליל שׁמּרים (Exo 12:42), the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of Nisan. In Psa 81:2, Psa 81:3 they are called upon to give a welcome to this feast. The blowing of the shophar is to announce the commencement of the Passover month, and at the commencement of the Passover day which opens the Feast of unleavened bread it is to be renewed. The ל of ליום is not meant temporally, as perhaps in Job 21:30 : at the day = on the day; for why was it not ביום? It is rather: towards the day, but בכסה assumes that the day has already arrived; it is the same Lamed as in Psa 81:2, the blowing of the shophar is to concern this feast-day, it is to sound in honour of it.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Sing aloud unto God our strength - There is much meaning here: as God is our strength, let that strength be devoted to his service; therefore, sing aloud! This is principally addressed to the priests and Levites.

Top

⁷ For my loins [03689] are filled [04390] with a loathsome [07033] disease: and there is no soundness [04974] in my flesh [01320].

³⁰ And [2532] when they had sung an hymn [5214], they went out [1831] into [1519] the mount [3735] of Olives [1636].

¹ To the chief Musician [05329] upon Gittith [01665], A Psalm [04210] of David [01732]. O LORD [03068] our Lord [0113], how excellent [0117] is thy name [08034] in all the earth [0776]! who hast set [05414] thy glory [01935] above the heavens [08064].

² Take [05375] a psalm [02172], and bring [05414] hither the timbrel [08596], the pleasant [05273] harp [03658] with the psaltery [05035].

³⁰ That the wicked [07451] is reserved [02820] to the day [03117] of destruction [0343]? they shall be brought forth [02986] to the day [03117] of wrath [05678].

³ Blow up [08628] the trumpet [07782] in the new moon [02320], in the time appointed [03677], on our solemn feast [02282] day [03117].

² Take [05375] a psalm [02172], and bring [05414] hither the timbrel [08596], the pleasant [05273] harp [03658] with the psaltery [05035].

⁴² It is a night [03915] to be much observed [08107] unto the LORD [03068] for bringing [03318] them out from the land [0776] of Egypt [04714]: this is that night [03915] of the LORD [03068] to be observed [08107] of all the children [01121] of Israel [03478] in their generations [01755].

⁵ This he ordained [07760] in Joseph [03084] for a testimony [05715], when he went out [03318] through the land [0776] of Egypt [04714]: where I heard [08085] a language [08193] that I understood [03045] not.

²⁹ Ye shall have a song [07892], as in the night [03915] when a holy [06942] solemnity [02282] is kept [06942]; and gladness [08057] of heart [03824], as when one goeth [01980] with a pipe [02485] to come [0935] into the mountain [02022] of the LORD [03068], to the mighty One [06697] of Israel [03478].

³ Wherefore all the men [0376] of Israel [03478] assembled [06950] themselves unto the king [04428] in the feast [02282] which was in the seventh [07637] month [02320].

² And all the men [0376] of Israel [03478] assembled [06950] themselves unto king [04428] Solomon [08010] at the feast [02282] in the month [03391] Ethanim [0388], which is the seventh [07637] month [02320].

²⁰ He hath taken [03947] a bag [06872] of money [03701] with him [03027], and will come [0935] home [01004] at the day [03117] appointed [03677].

¹⁰ And on the three [07969] and twentieth [06242] day [03117] of the seventh [07637] month [02320] he sent [07971] the people [05971] away [07971] into their tents [0168], glad [08056] and merry [02896] in heart [03820] for the goodness [02896] that the LORD [03068] had shewed [06213] unto David [01732], and to Solomon [08010], and to Israel [03478] his people [05971].

³² And Jeroboam [03379] ordained [06213] a feast [02282] in the eighth [08066] month [02320], on the fifteenth [02568] [06240] day [03117] of the month [02320], like unto the feast [02282] that is in Judah [03063], and he offered [05927] upon the altar [04196]. So did [06213] he in Bethel [01008], sacrificing [02076] unto the calves [05695] that he had made [06213]: and he placed [05975] in Bethel [01008] the priests [03548] of the high places [01116] which he had made [06213].

²⁰ He hath taken [03947] a bag [06872] of money [03701] with him [03027], and will come [0935] home [01004] at the day [03117] appointed [03677].

¹⁰ Also in the day [03117] of your gladness [08057], and in your solemn days [04150], and in the beginnings [07218] of your months [02320], ye shall blow [08628] with the trumpets [02689] over your burnt offerings [05930], and over the sacrifices [02077] of your peace offerings [08002]; that they may be to you for a memorial [02146] before [06440] your God [0430]: I am the LORD [03068] your God [0430].

²¹ And the children [01121] of Israel [03478] that were present [04672] at Jerusalem [03389] kept [06213] the feast [02282] of unleavened bread [04682] seven [07651] days [03117] with great [01419] gladness [08057]: and the Levites [03881] and the priests [03548] praised [01984] the LORD [03068] day [03117] by day [03117], singing with loud [05797] instruments [03627] unto the LORD [03068].

⁹ Then shalt thou cause the trumpet [07782] of the jubile [08643] to sound [05674] on the tenth [06218] day of the seventh [07637] month [02320], in the day [03117] of atonement [03725] shall ye make the trumpet [07782] sound [05674] throughout all your land [0776].

²⁸ Thus all Israel [03478] brought up [05927] the ark [0727] of the covenant [01285] of the LORD [03068] with shouting [08643], and with sound [06963] of the cornet [07782], and with trumpets [02689], and with cymbals [04700], making a noise [08085] with psalteries [05035] and harps [03658].

⁶ With trumpets [02689] and sound [06963] of cornet [07782] make a joyful noise [07321] before [06440] the LORD [03068], the King [04428].

²⁸ And they came [0935] to Jerusalem [03389] with psalteries [05035] and harps [03658] and trumpets [02689] unto the house [01004] of the LORD [03068].

⁶ Sing praises [02167] to God [0430], sing praises [02167]: sing praises [02167] unto our King [04428], sing praises [02167].

⁴ And seven [07651] priests [03548] shall bear [05375] before [06440] the ark [0727] seven [07651] trumpets [07782] of rams' horns [03104]: and the seventh [07637] day [03117] ye shall compass [05437] the city [05892] seven [07651] times [06471], and the priests [03548] shall blow [08628] with the trumpets [07782].

¹² Also the Levites [03881] which were the singers [07891], all of them of Asaph [0623], of Heman [01968], of Jeduthun [03038], with their sons [01121] and their brethren [0251], being arrayed [03847] in white linen [0948], having cymbals [04700] and psalteries [05035] and harps [03658], stood [05975] at the east end [04217] of the altar [04196], and with them an hundred [03967] and twenty [06242] priests [03548] sounding [02690] with trumpets [02689]:)

⁴ For this was a statute [02706] for Israel [03478], and a law [04941] of the God [0430] of Jacob [03290].

³ Blow up [08628] the trumpet [07782] in the new moon [02320], in the time appointed [03677], on our solemn feast [02282] day [03117].

¹¹ And they sang together by course [06030] in praising [01984] and giving thanks [03034] unto the LORD [03068]; because he is good [02896], for his mercy [02617] endureth for ever [05769] toward Israel [03478]. And all the people [05971] shouted [07321] with a great [01419] shout [08643], when they praised [01984] the LORD [03068], because the foundation [03245] of the house [01004] of the LORD [03068] was laid [03245].

² Take [05375] a psalm [02172], and bring [05414] hither the timbrel [08596], the pleasant [05273] harp [03658] with the psaltery [05035].