Our scripture reading this evening comes from Psalm 81. Please turn with me there in your Bibles, Psalm 81. Psalm 81. Let us hear God's own word. Sing for joy to God our strength. Shout aloud to the God of Jacob. Begin the music. Strike the tambourine. Play the melodious harp and lyre. Sound the ram's horn at the new moon, and when the moon is full on the day of our feast. This is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He established it as a statute for Joseph when he went out against Egypt, where we heard a language we did not understand. He says, I removed the burden from their shoulders. Their hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called, and I rescued you. I answered you out of a thundercloud. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, O my people, and I will warn you. If you would but listen to me, O Israel, You shall have no foreign god among you. You shall not bow down to an alien god. I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me. Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would but listen to me, If Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes? Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat. With honey from the rock I would satisfy you. So far the reading of God's Word. What kind of a listener are you? Have you ever thought about that? I suppose we are different kinds of listeners in different kinds of settings. Sometimes we probably listen the way I do. I've been accused at home when some member of the family is talking to me. And as they talk, I go, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then at the end of the talk, they ask me a question. And I go, oh, what did you say? I was present and I was vaguely aware of some sound hitting my ear, but I wasn't listening. Are you that kind of a listener? Is that the way you listen to sermons sometimes? Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. So we can be listeners who are only present, but really not hearing at all. Or we can be listeners who hear, but don't understand. We may even be making an effort. Maybe you've had that experience once in a while in a college course, as an example. I remember I took biology for three semesters as a freshman in college, and I listened rather attentively at the lectures. I don't think I ever understood much of anything the lecturer had to say. I was trying. I was more than present. Word wasn't just hitting my ear, but I wasn't understanding. That's another kind of listener. Third kind of listener is one who is attentive and is understanding, knows what's been said, but then chooses not to do it. And then there's a fourth kind of listener. one who hears, one who understands, and one who is committed to living out what has been heard. Psalm 81 is, perhaps above all else, an appeal to the people of God to be listeners. Oh, my people, if you would but listen. Four times in this psalm, in this rather short psalm, the Lord says to his people, listen, listen to me. If my people would but listen. And that appeal here in the 81st Psalm is particularly intriguing because this is the central psalm, the middle psalm of the third book, the middle book of the Psalter. In some ways, at least, this psalm stands at the middle of the Psalter. It certainly stands at the middle of the third book of the Psalter, which is a book, you remember, that is filled with crisis. Things are not going well with the people of God. Many of the Psalms in this book, this third book, from Psalm 73 to Psalm 89, talk about failure and difficulty and suffering and calamity, both on a personal level and on a corporate level for the people of God. It's a book that raises to the highest point in the whole Psalter the questions of what is God doing to us and why is he doing it? And in a sense, at least part of the answer is here in this 81st Psalm, if my people would but listen. The crisis that has come upon Israel as a nation is a crisis that has been brought about by the people not listening. to their God. And so God is appealing in this psalm in a way of remarkable passion to the people of God. Oh, my people. Four times, at least in this psalm, He addresses them as my people for all of their deafness, for all of their indifference. They are still His people. We hear in this psalm a profound expression of the passion of our God for His people. We hear in these words the sorrow of our God and the love of our God for us. Oh, my people! Why aren't you listening? This is a call from the heart of God. You who are my people, you who have been brought with a price, you who have been led by me and fed by me day after day after day, why won't you listen, asks the psalmist. speaking for God. And we mustn't think that this is just an Old Testament problem. We are reminded several times in the New Testament that we, as Christians, need to be careful listeners. You remember what God the Father says to the disciples of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the glory of the Savior is displayed before them, The Father's voice is heard saying, This is my Son whom I love. With Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him. And Peter, in one of the earliest sermons preached in the Christian church, recorded for us in Acts chapter 3, quoted Moses and said, For Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people. You must listen to everything He tells you. Anyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among His people. The call to listening to God and to His Word is insistent throughout the Scripture. And this psalm, in a particular way, lifts that call up before us and encourages us to think carefully about what kind of listeners we are, individually, but especially corporately as a congregation. How are we listening? How are we doing? And it seems to me that this psalm helps us to see what good listening is really all about. It's a little test you can take as to how you're doing as a listener. The first thing we see, I think, in this text about what good listening is all about is that it leads to a people who walk faithfully before their God. Who walk faithfully before their God. This psalm, like so much of the Scripture, focuses faithfulness, faithful Christian living, on one particular command of the Lord. You know, I've often said that frequently a key to the meaning of a psalm can be found at the center of the psalm. That's a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. The summary meaning is often to be found at the heart, at the center. And the center of this psalm is the second half of verse 9 in our text. What would the Lord have of us as we walk faithfully before Him? You shall not bow down to an alien God. This is the call for faithfulness from our God. This is the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. And this is the great commandment as our Lord summarized it for us. What is at the very heart and core of faithful listening to our God? It's hearing His appeal to us that we would be a faithful, dedicated, consecrated people to Him and to Him alone. All of verse 9 reads, You shall have no foreign God among you. You shall not bow down to an alien God. Here is God's appeal to us that we would be loyal in the way in which we live, in the way in which we think, in the way in which we act. That we would be loving to Him as He has been loving to us. You know, for the Jews, one of the most precious and often quoted parts of Scripture was the prayer from Deuteronomy chapter 6, known as the Shema. And Shema is the Hebrew word for listen. And Psalm 81 in many ways is a kind of poetic meditation on Deuteronomy chapter 6. Listen to some verses as I read them from Deuteronomy 6. Maybe don't turn there, just listen. Just listen for a moment to these verses from Deuteronomy 6 and see how the themes of Deuteronomy 6 and 7 are picked up in Psalm 81. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. For the Lord your God who is among you is a jealous God, and His anger will burn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massa. Do not intermarry with the foreigners. Do not give them your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. And the anger of the Lord will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. You see, throughout the Scripture, the faithfulness of God's people to Him, the exclusive commitment of God's people to Him is absolutely essential and central. And that's good to hear, isn't it? Because that's easy to do. Right? Are we tempted to foreign gods? Nah. This is an easy one to check off. When the minister reads the first commandment Sunday morning, you know, when it gets further down the list, some of those things may get a little harder. Not to steal, not to hate, not to covet, to honor our father and mother. To be chaste in our living and thinking. But loving the Lord our God, that's easy, right? No foreign gods. We would never have a foreign god, would we? Well, we live in a society where increasingly the exclusivity of our allegiance to the Lord our God is being challenged. I was back in Virginia for the graduation of my younger son from college, and they had a baccalaureate service. So we attended, and I got the program. And I said to Mary Ellen, well, I don't know. It's obvious from looking at this program that we cannot in any way participate in this service. The only question is, should we just walk out? We stayed to observe. But there on the platform was a Muslim praying to Allah and a Hindu praying to any number of their millions of gods, a Christian scientist. My son William said it's all right that he's there because he's not really there. And on the platform with these other religions was a Presbyterian minister, a Roman Catholic minister and a Baptist minister. The Roman Catholic was asked to preach. Not one word said in that sermon that anyone else on that platform could not have preached. In order to be inoffensive, one who claims to be a representative for Jesus Christ speaks not a word for Christ or His exclusive claims. We are indeed increasingly in a society where we are being asked to compromise the exclusive character of our allegiance to Jesus Christ. I said to the family that was there, we can in no way participate in this service. We cannot pray with them. We cannot sing with them because there is no unity of faith as an act of worship here. The experience of Israel, you see, is increasingly our experience and our temptation. God doesn't call us to hate other people, to be nasty to other people, to oppress other people. He says, don't bow the knee, either externally by your actions or internally in your heart to other gods. I ask of you, exclusive commitment. And you know He has a right to ask. He alone created us. He alone sustains us. He alone has redeemed us. And so when he says to us, be my people, be a faithful people, do not be a whoring people, he has a right to ask that of us. And that's at the heart, that's at the core of what it means to walk faithfully before our God, to honor him, to love him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. But it's not only the gods of the peoples that can lead us astray. It can be the idols of our own hearts. Paul, you remember, reminds us in Colossians 3 verse 5 that greed can become an idol for us. There he's talking about a worldliness, a worldliness that isn't thinking maybe about gods at all, but is thinking only about the good things of this world and putting all of our concern, all of our interest, all of our attention in those things and thereby leading our hearts away from the Lord. and against that worldliness, too, the Lord says to us, walk in my ways, honor me, love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So we are called to be a listening people that walk faithfully before our God. And to underscore this, God says to us in this psalm, Faithful listeners are also those who watch seriously their lives. That is, watch lest they fall into that temptation. Lest they stumble into that judgment. The Lord reminds us that there are times in the history of God's people when they have failed to do that. Verse 11, But my people would not listen to me. Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts. to follow their own devices. Now, this is important for us to meditate on because it reminds us that in the history of God's people, there have been times when the people betrayed the Lord. We know that over and over again in the Old Testament and we know how God judged it, particularly with the exile. But again, it's not an experience exclusively of the old covenant people. already in the first century, Jesus, speaking through John, had to warn congregations that if they were faithless, their candlestick would be removed from the heavenly temple. And the history of the church, and I know this because I have to teach it, the history of the church shows over and over and over again how people have wandered away from the truth. That's why the church in the 4th century had to call the Council of Nicaea to try to rescue itself from abandoning a belief in the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Reformation had to take place in the 16th century. And what was the great issue of the Reformation? At least in one sense we can say the great issue of the Reformation is the reformers stood up and said, the church has not been listening to the Word of God. The church has been stubbornly following the devices and desires of its own heart. And we need a reform in the life of the church so that we might go back to the Scriptures. That's why Protestantism over the centuries has seen again and again And secessions in churches where there was a need to stand up again and say, we must listen to the Word of God. We must walk according to the Word of God. We do not want to experience the judgment that comes upon those who will not listen. And you notice how Psalm 81, verse 11 talks, or verse 12, talks about that judgment. What did God give them in judgment? He gave them what they wanted. The verse made me think of the famous words of Teresa of Avila in the 16th century. Well, maybe not all that famous, but the words of Teresa of Avila in the 16th century, who said, more tears have been shed over answered prayer than over unanswered prayer. And what she meant by that is, sometimes God gives us what we ask for, and it's not what we need. Sometimes God gives us what we ask for, and it's not what we really want. Because we have asked to satisfy the desires of stubborn and rebellious hearts. We haven't listened to his word. And one of the worst things that can happen to rebels, to stubborn and blind folk, is to be given what they want. It is a mercy, sometimes, when God denies us what we think would be good for us and gives us instead what is really good for us, his word, his truth. We must watch seriously over our walk as we seek to serve him. But this psalm is not at all simply a serious and dour word of warning. There are wonderful promises in this psalm because God would have us not only walk faithfully and watch seriously, He would have us always wonder joyfully at what He has done. He wants our lives to be filled with a sense of wonder at what He has done. And you know one of the things He has done that this psalm makes so clear? God listens. God listens. Look at verse 7 of our text. In your distress you called and I rescued you. I answered out of the thundercloud. God says to us, in effect, you need to listen because I've listened to you. When you've cried out to me for deliverance from your sin, I listened. When you suffered in the house of bondage in Egypt and cried out for deliverance, I listened. And if I have come to deliver you, if I listened to you, is it so great a thing that you should listen to me? The last part of verse 5, I think, says the same thing. Not that you all really care, but I spent a lot of time this week looking at the Hebrew text of this psalm, trying to figure out what the last part of verse 5 actually says. I think the NIV translates it wrong. What is clear in the Hebrew is the last part of verse 5 does not say, we heard a language we did not understand. The Hebrew clearly says, I heard a language I did not understand. Now, who's the I in this psalm? Well, everywhere else in this psalm, the I is God. And I think this part of this verse is saying, God is saying to His people, you know, for a long time you had not called out to me. And then I heard. I heard an appeal from you that I hadn't heard before, that I hadn't known because you hadn't been praying. But I heard it. I heard you in your need. And I answered you. We always need to remember that. Our God is a God who listens to us. Our God is a God who in His love knows who we are and where we're hurting and what we need. He may not come to deliver us as soon as we would like. We may not be able to understand His timing. We may not be able to understand why we are left as Israel was for years and years and years in bondage. But God is a God who hears and knows and cares and in the end delivers. See how he speaks. I removed the burden from their shoulders. Their hands were set free from the basket. This is the only place in all the Old Testament where this particular image is lifted up. Their hands were set free from the basket. It must have been that they carried clay or bricks or heavy burdens in baskets. And their backs would have ached and their hands would have become deformed over time. And this image is held up. He came to us in our bondage and slavery and he set us free. He came to us in our need and took our burden away. And that image, of course, is pointing forward to Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ who came and said to his people, all you who are weary and heavy laden, all of you who are bowed down by sin and the misery of this fallen world, come unto me and I will give you rest. That's the character of our God. That's the wonder of his deliverance. those who were slaves are made as children. Do you wonder at that? That out of the bondage and slavery of this fallen world, you have been rescued? You have been rescued when so many are left in their bondage and slavery? Does your heart thrill at that? Are you filled with amazement and wonder at such a God? And that's why this psalm begins with worship. we wonder joyfully in our worship. Sing for joy to God who is our strength. Shout aloud to the God of Jacob. Begin the music. Strike the tambourine. Play the melodious harp and lyre. Sound the ram's horn at new moon when the moon is full, the day of our feast. This is a decree for Israel. Those who wonder joyfully at the work of God in Jesus Christ to set their hearts and lives free, then come to worship Him with that joy, with that delight. They worship, and they worship according to the law of God. Duty and joy are not necessarily to be set at odds with each other. Law-keeping and joy are not opposed to each other. God would not have been impressed if people had said, well, you know, we're joyful, we sing aloud to the Lord, but we're not going to do it on the first day of the month or in the middle of the month. We'll choose the day when we want to do it. No, God has given direction to our worship. That's part of the obligation of our listening, that we listen to His direction in worship, and as we listen, we keep His holy days. Probably the feast in mind in verse 3 of Psalm 81 is the Passover. That feast that particularly celebrated God's deliverance of His people from Egypt. And in a sense, our Sabbath is a weekly Passover that celebrates our deliverance from sin in the work of Jesus Christ. God has set a decree. There is a Lord's Day in the New Covenant. We are to keep it. It's a feast day. That's what our catechism says. It's a feast day unto the Lord. I feasted this afternoon on wonderful lunch. but even more importantly is the feasting on the Word of God that is ours as we worship, as we listen, as we fulfill not a painful duty, but a joyful, blessed duty. And look how gloriously God speaks to us of the blessing that will be ours. Open your mouths, and I will fill them, says the Lord. We read that in verse 10. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it. Our God is not a stingy God. When He puts on a feast, it's a glorious feast. Open your mouth in praise, and I will fill it. Open your ears for hearing, and I will fill them. Verse 16. You who will listen will be fed with the finest of wheat, With honey from the rock, I would satisfy you. Is it too much to think that here we hear an echo of the wedding feast of the Lamb? That last great day when Christ will take away every tear and every sorrow and every burden and we will enter into that eternal blessedness of life with him. That's what's in store for good listeners. That's the promise. We are called to listen to the word of God, to hear his law, our duty, and his gospel, his promise, a blessing. Open your mouths wide and God will fill them. Amen. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we live in a world where there are so many voices, so many sounds, that sometimes your voice is drowned out. Let us not be a people who are too busy for you or too good for You. But by the blessing of Your Holy Spirit, let us be a people who, especially as we gather together, come to meet with You and to listen for Your Word. We do thank You for that Word, O Lord. It is the light that shines in our lives. It is the light that shows us Jesus Christ. And so, O Lord, our prayer is that we might be good listeners, that we might be ever better listeners, and so might know your blessing upon us. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.