The psalm closes with a vow of grateful adhesion to God as the result of His renewed mercy. They who have learned how bitter a thing it is to turn away from God, and how blessed when He turns again to them, and turns back their miseries and their sins, have good reason for not again departing from Him. But if they are wise to remember their own weakness, they will not only humbly vow future faithfulness, but earnestly implore continual help; since only the constant communication of a Divine quickening will open their lips to call upon God's name.
The refrain in its most expanded form closes the psalm. Growing intensity of desire and of realisation of the pleas and pledges hived in the name are expressed by its successive forms,--God; God of Hosts; Jehovah, God of Hosts. The faith that grasps all that is contained in that full-toned name already feels the light of God's face shining upon it, and is sure that its prayer for salvation is not in vain.
1 Shout for joy to God our strength, Shout aloud to the God of Jacob. 2 Lift up the song, and sound the timbrel, The pleasant lyre with the harp. 3 Blow the trumpet on the new moon, On the full moon, for the day of our feast. 4 For this is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5 For a testimony in Joseph He appointed it, When He went forth over the land of Egypt. --A language which I know not I hear.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden, His hands were freed from the basket. 7 In straits thou didst call and I delivered thee, I answered thee in the secret place of thunder, I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. 8 Hear, My people, and I will witness to thee; O Israel, would that thou wouldest hearken to Me! 9 There shall be no strange god in thee, And thou shalt not bow down to an alien god. 10 I, I am Jehovah thy God, Who brought thee up from the land of Egypt. Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it.
11 But My people hearkened not to My voice, And Israel did not yield to Me. 12 Then I let them go in the stubbornness of their heart, That they might walk in their own counsels.
13 Would that My people would hearken to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! 14 Easily would I humble their enemies, And against their adversaries turn My hand. 15 The haters of Jehovah would come feigning to Him, But their time should endure for ever. 16 And He would feed thee with the fat of wheat, And with honey from the rock would I satisfy thee.
The psalmist summons priests and people to a solemn festival, commemorative of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, and sets forth the lessons which that deliverance teaches, the learning of which is the true way of keeping the feast. There has been much discussion as to which feast is in the psalmist's mind. That of Tabernacles has been widely accepted as intended, chiefly on the ground that the first day of the month in which it occurred was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets, as the beginning of the civil year. This practice is supposed to account for the language of ver. 3, which seems to imply trumpet-blowing both at new and full moon. But, on other grounds, the Passover is more likely to be intended, as the psalm deals with the manifestations of Divine power attending the beginning of the Exodus, which followed the first Passover, as well as with those during the desert sojourn, which alone were commemorated by the feast of Tabernacles. True, we have no independent knowledge of any trumpet-blowing on the first day of the Passover month (Nisan); but Delitzsch and others suggest that from this psalm it may be inferred "that the commencement of each month, and more especially the commencement of the month (Nisan), which was at the same time the commencement of the ecclesiastical year, was signalised by the blowing of horns." On the whole, the Passover is most probably the feast in question.