Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

81:8-10 God Calls His People to Worship Only Him. This section follows closely on the previous one, especially evoking the covenant-making at Sinai. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt (v. 10) is very close to the preface to the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:2), and the basic admonition, there shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god (Ps. 81:9), is an effective summary of the first two commandments (Ex. 20:3-6). The Lord wants his people to listen to him (Ps. 81:8): to receive the covenant as an expression of his grace, believe in him, and live as he directs. (Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it is an indication of God's boundless generosity toward those he has rescued.) The expression if you would (v. 8) indicates that it is God's desire; the song moves to "they did not listen" (v. 11), and back again to, "Oh, that my people would listen" (v. 13).