John Gill Commentary Psalms 81

Sing aloud unto God our strength
The strength of Israel, who, by strength of hand, and a mighty arm, brought Israel out of Egypt, protected and upheld them in the wilderness, and brought them to, and settled and established them in the land of Canaan; and who is the strength of every true Israelite, from whom they have both their natural and spiritual strength; so that they can exercise grace, perform duty, bear afflictions, withstand temptations, fight with and conquer enemies, and hold on and out unto the end; and therefore have reason to sing the praises of God with great fervour, zeal, and affection:

make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob ;
or Israel, being the God that had made a covenant with them, had chosen them for his peculiar people, and had redeemed them out of the house of bondage, and bestowed peculiar favours upon them; and therefore were under obligation to show forth his praise vocally and audibly, and with strong expressions of joy; and the spiritual Israel of God much more so, who have an interest in the covenant of grace, and share in electing, redeeming, and calling grace, by all which he appears to be their God and Father, in a special sense.

Take a psalm
Or "lift one up" ^F25 ; hold up the book, and read and sing it; or rather, lift up the voice in singing a psalm:

and bring hither the timbrel ;
or "give one" ^F26 , put the hand to one:

the pleasant harp with the psaltery ;
make use of all these musical instruments in singing, and so make an agreeable melody: these were used in the times of the Old Testament, and were typical of the spiritual joy and melody in the heart, expressed by vocal singing, under the New Testament; see (Revelation 5:8) (Revelation 14:2Revelation 14:3) (15:2) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (Nav) "attollite", Piscator; "tollite", Cocceius, Amama, Gejerus.
• F26: (wnt) "date", Pagninus, Montanus

Blow up the trumpet in the new moon
Either in every new moon, or first day of the month, which was religiously observed by the Jews, (2 Kings 4:23) or rather the new moon, or first day of the seventh month, the month Tisri, which day was a memorial of blowing of trumpets, (Leviticus 23:34) , and so the Targum, ``blow the trumpet in the month of Tisri,'' when their new year began, and was typical of the year of the redeemed of the Lord, of the acceptable year of our God, of the famous new year, the Gospel dispensation, when old things passed away, and all things became new.

The Jews say this blowing of trumpets was in commemoration of Isaac's deliverance, a ram being sacrificed for him, and therefore they sounded with trumpets made of rams' horns; or in remembrance of the trumpet blown at the giving of the law; though it rather was an emblem of the Gospel, and the ministry of it, by which sinners are aroused, awakened and quickened, and souls are charmed and allured, and filled with spiritual joy and gladness:

in the time appointed ;
so Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret the word of a set fixed time; see (Proverbs 7:20) , the word ^F1 used has the signification of covering; and the former of these understand it of the time just before the change of the moon, when it is covered, which falls in with the former phrase; and so the Targum, ``in the moon that is covered;'' though the Latin interpreter renders it, ``in the month which is covered with the days of our solemnities,'' there being many festivals in the month of Tisri; the blowing of trumpets on the first day of it, the atonement on the tenth, and the feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth.

But De Dieu has made it appear, from the use of the word in the Syriac language, that it should be rendered "in the full moon", and so directs to the right understanding of the feast next mentioned;

on our solemn feast day ,
which must design a feast which was at the full of the moon; and so must be either the feast of the passover, which was on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, and was a type of Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us, on which account we should keep the feast, (Exodus 12:6) (1 Corinthians 5:7 1 Corinthians 5:8) ,

or else the feast of tabernacles, which was on the fifteenth of the month Tisri, kept in commemoration of the Israelites dwelling in booths, (Leviticus 23:34Leviticus 23:42Leviticus 23:43) and which is called the feast, and the solemn feast, emphatically; see (1 Kings 8:2) (Hosea 12:9) , and was typical of the state of God's people in this world, who dwell in the earthly houses of their tabernacles, and have no continuing city; and of the churches of Christ, which are the tabernacles in which God and his people dwell, and will abide in this form but for a time, and are moveable; and also of Christ's tabernacling in human nature, (John 1:14) (Hebrews 8:2) (9:11) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (hokb) "quum tegitur luna", Piscator; "ad verbum in obtectione", i. e. "eum obtegatur luna a sole", Amama.

For this was a statute for Israel
It was not a piece of will worship, or device of the children of Israel, but was of divine institution; that the passover should be kept at the time it was; and that the trumpets should be blown on the new moon, or first of Tisri; and that the feast of tabernacles should be kept on the fifteenth of the same month:

and a law of the God of Jacob ;
and therefore to be observed by Jacob's posterity: the law for the one is in (Exodus 12:18Exodus 12:19) and for the other is in (Leviticus 23:24Leviticus 23:34) and so all the ordinances of Christ, and of the Gospel dispensation, are to be regarded on the same account, because they are the statutes and appointments of God; and the feast of tabernacles is particularly put for them all, (Zechariah 14:16) .

This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony
That is, this law concerning the blowing of trumpets on the new moon, and the keeping the solemn feast at the full of the moon, was made to be observed by all Israel, who are meant by Joseph, for a testimony of God's good will to them, and of their duty and obedience to him:

when he went out through the land of Egypt ,
or "over it" ^F2 ; which some understand of Joseph, who is said to go over all the land of Egypt, to gather in provision against the seven years of famine, (Genesis 41:45Genesis 41:46) and Jarchi says that his deliverance from prison was at the beginning of the year, and was advanced in Pharaoh's court:

and the meaning is, either "when he", the Lord, "went out against the land of Egypt", so Arama, in order to slay their firstborn; and when he passed over Israel, and saved them; marched through the land in his indignation, and went forth for the salvation of his people, (Exodus 11:4) (Habakkuk 3:12Habakkuk 3:13) then was the ordinance of the passover appointed: or when Israel went out of Egypt, designed by Joseph, some little time after, while in the wilderness, and dwelling in tents, the feast of tabernacles was instituted; but rather this shows that the feast of passover is before meant, which was instituted at the time of Israel's going out of Egypt, and was the solemn feast day ordained for a statute, law and testimony in Israel; and that the new moon, or month rather, on which the trumpet was to be blown, was the month Abib, the beginning of months, by an ordinance of God, (Exodus 12:2) (Exodus 13:3Exodus 13:4)

where I heard a language that I understood not ;
here the prophet represents the people of Israel in Egypt; though the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read,

he heard, and he understood not
and the language is either the voice of God out of the fire, which before was never heard in this unusual manner, nor understood, (Deuteronomy 5:24Deuteronomy 5:26) or the speech of Moses, who had Aaron for his mouth and spokesman; or rather the Egyptian language, which was not understood by the Israelites without an interpreter, (Genesis 42:23) which sense is confirmed by (Psalms 114:1) , and this is mentioned as an aggravation of their affliction in Egypt; see (Jeremiah 5:15) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: (Ura le wtaub) "in ipsum exeundo", Montanus; "cum exiret ipse super terram", Pagninus.