2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre.
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.
2 Anthems from the choir, music from the band, sweet sounds from lute and harp,
2 Raise a song and strike the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the lute.
2 Sing! Beat the tambourine. Play the sweet lyre and the harp.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 81:2
Commentary on Psalm 81:1-7
(Read Psalm 81:1-7)
All the worship we can render to the Lord is beneath his excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our redemption from sin and wrath. What God had done on Israel's behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous drudgery to which Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of sin, and trials by affliction, prove his regard to his people. If the Jews, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious redemption, wrought out for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, from worse bondage.