MAIN POINT: Jesus is the God who speaks in Psalm 81, and He offers to save you and to take your burden, or you will face His justice and judgement.
“...I heard an unknown voice say,
“Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.”
“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
The burden of work is a result of the fall. We were made for work but we also need rest and we need to work together. Jesus offers to put His shoulder to the burden of work with us.
It is as if Jesus sees us struggling with the never-ending burden of work, the discouragement of thorns and thistles, the lack of progress, the lack of fulfilment and the ‘one step forward and three steps back’ scenario of life. We struggle to get the work/rest balance right. And Jesus says, come on, strap in. I’m going to do this with you. In fact, leave your unproductive, lonely, unsure, burdensome work and get with me. We’ll do it together. And Jesus could say this as God but also as man. He became our size; our situation became His situation. Our task of dominion and multiplication became His task of ruling over all things and multiplying followers in His kingdom.
In Psalm 81 from verses 5-16 we have God talking to His people. It is Asaph’s continuance of the shepherding plan of God we have seen since chapter 77, and now the Shepherd God speaks. And He offers to get stuck in.
Think of it a bit as a conversation. Asaph says in Psalm 77:1
“Oh, that God would listen to me!”
And God replies,
“Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
O Israel, if you would only listen to me!”
Jesus is the mediator between God and Man and even more. It is really amazing. Because Jesus takes the place of Asaph, Israel and you and me, and He listens to the Father.
In John 5 Jesus tells us about His relationship to the Father. Jesus is the perfect Son of God. And He does what the Father requires and askes.
“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”
But Jesus isn’t just a perfect man taking the place of the man crying out for help. He is more. He is the perfect God Shepherd.
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
So Jesus has become a representative of all parties involved. When you look at Jesus you see God and you also see man in relationship with God. And it is not sinful to be human, to be limited, to be dependent, to be needy. We are not the source of our own life.
“I, the Lord your God, who rescued you”
Psalm 81:10 (Jeremiah 31:31-33, Jeremiah 11:4)
And then I hear Paul’s explanation of what happens when we are prideful and we ignore what God’s plan is through His Son Jesus the God Man King. And I urge you to read Romans chapters 1 and 2 and compare them with Psalm 81.
“And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.”
“So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.”
“That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires.”
Most people point to John 3:16 and think of the love as personal but of the perishing as just a separate consequence of sin. But it is not so. Jesus is the loving saviour but He is also the judge. In my life I have heard messages on John 3:16 often, but I have also heard preachers fail to carry on and miss the warning that Jesus is also the judge.
“For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.
The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands.
And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
I think maybe people got confused at the old KJV language or they cherry picked what they wanted to hear.
“17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
And so we see the same contrast in Psalm 81.
15 “Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him; they would be doomed forever.”
16 “But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.””
Conclusion:
Isn't it great? You have a choice, cringe before Jesus or be fed and satisfied by Jesus. The choice is yours.
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