When God Gives Up His People
Psalm 81 contains one of the most sobering statements found anywhere in Scripture. God speaks concerning Israel and says, “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.” Those words ought to arrest our attention. We readily understand that God may give the wicked over to their sins, as Romans 1 teaches, but Psalm 81 confronts us with an even more troubling possibility: God may also give up a professing people who continually refuse to hear and obey Him.
We must understand that there is a difference between a people who merely profess to belong to God and those who truly possess the life of God. There have always been those who outwardly identify themselves with the people of God while inwardly remaining rebellious. Israel enjoyed tremendous privileges. They had God’s law, God’s ordinances, God’s prophets, God’s covenant, and God’s mighty acts of deliverance. Yet all those privileges did not excuse disobedience. In fact, greater privilege brought greater responsibility.
Scripture shows us that God’s judgment may fall upon individuals, families, churches, and even nations. Romans 1 speaks of individuals whom God gave over to their own lusts and a reprobate mind. Jeremiah records judgment upon a family line. Revelation 2 warns the church at Ephesus that unless it repented, Christ would remove its candlestick. First Samuel 4 records the tragic declaration concerning Israel: “The glory is departed from Israel.” We should therefore never presume that a church, family, or nation is somehow beyond the reach of divine judgment simply because God has blessed it in the past.
Remember What God Has Done
Psalm 81 begins not with judgment, but with praise. Israel is commanded to sing unto God, to make a joyful noise, and to remember His great deliverance. God had brought His people out of Egypt. He removed the burden from their shoulders. When they called upon Him in trouble, He answered them.
That history mattered.
God wanted His people to remember that their liberty had come from Him. They had not freed themselves from Pharaoh. They had not broken the chains of bondage by their own strength. God sovereignly, graciously, and mercifully delivered them.
The same principle applies to us. We must never become so accustomed to God’s blessings that we forget the One who gave them. Every good thing we possess ultimately comes from His hand. Our salvation, our families, our churches, our daily bread, our freedoms, our opportunities, and every measure of peace we enjoy are gifts of divine mercy.
Israel was commanded to worship because God had authority to command worship. Their observances were not merely human customs or cultural traditions. God had established them.
That principle should govern our worship today. We should always ask: What has God commanded? What authority from His Word do we have for what we practice? A tradition does not become binding merely because it is old, familiar, or widely accepted. Our consciences belong to God, and therefore our worship must be governed by divine authority.
“My People Would Not Hearken”
After reminding Israel of His goodness, God testifies against them.
“There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.”
Their problem was not that God had failed them. Their problem was that they refused Him.
God had delivered them from Egypt, provided for them, protected them, and given them His law. He even invited them to depend completely upon Him: “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
What a picture of God’s sufficiency! God was telling Israel that He was both willing and able to provide everything necessary for them. He had not rescued them from Egypt only to abandon them in the wilderness. The God who brought them out was able to bring them in.
Yet verse 11 says, “My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me.”
Notice those two charges.
First, they would not listen.
Israel had heard God’s voice. They possessed His commandments. Their difficulty was not a lack of revelation. They simply refused obedience.
There is an enormous difference between hearing the Word of God with our ears and receiving it with our hearts. We may sit under preaching, read the Bible, memorize verses, discuss doctrine, and defend Christianity while still refusing to submit ourselves to what God has said.
Second, Israel “would none” of God.
They did not want Him on His terms.
That is the heart of rebellion. Men often want God’s blessings without God’s authority. They want His protection without His commandments, His provision without His government, and His mercy without repentance.
But we cannot despise God’s Word without despising God Himself. When David committed adultery and arranged the death of Uriah, God asked him why he had despised the commandment of the Lord. Then God said that David had despised Him. To reject God’s command is to reject the God who gave the command.
The Most Fearful Judgment
What happened when Israel repeatedly refused to hear?
God said, “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.”
We commonly think of judgment as something God sends upon men—war, famine, disease, economic distress, defeat, or calamity. Yet Psalm 81 describes something even more terrifying.
Sometimes God’s judgment is simply to let men have what they insist upon having.
He removes restraint and allows them to follow their own desires.
We may imagine that complete freedom to follow our hearts would be a blessing. Scripture describes it as judgment. The human heart, apart from God’s grace, is not a trustworthy guide. When a people reject God’s counsel, they inevitably begin walking according to their own counsel. Their desires become their authority. Their imagination becomes their guide. They no longer ask, “What has God said?” They ask, “What do we want?”
That is a frightening condition for an individual, and it is equally frightening for a society.
There may come a point at which God says, in effect, “You refuse My law. You refuse My warnings. You refuse My mercy. You insist upon your own way. Then have your own way.”
Hosea 4:17 contains those terrible words concerning Ephraim: “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.”
Do not imagine that being left alone by God is liberty. It is judgment.
The greatest curse upon a rebellious people may not be that God immediately destroys them. It may be that He permits them to continue down the road they have chosen until the natural consequences of their rebellion overwhelm them.
What Might Have Been
The tragedy of Psalm 81 becomes even greater when we read the final verses.
God says, “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!”
There is grief in those words. God reveals what He was willing to do for them had they obeyed.
First, He would have subdued their enemies.
“I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.”
Israel did not need to depend upon its own strength. God could have defeated its enemies. The God who delivered them from Pharaoh was fully capable of protecting them from every adversary they would later face.
Second, the enemies of God would have been made to submit.
“The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him.”
God is sovereign even over kings and rulers. Proverbs tells us that the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord and that He turns it wherever He wills. God’s people often worry about powerful enemies while forgetting that no enemy is beyond God’s authority.
Third, their prosperity and security would have endured.
God said that “their time should have endured for ever.” Their security did not ultimately depend upon military strength, political wisdom, or human alliances. Safety is of the Lord. Unless the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain.
Fourth, God would have abundantly provided for them.
“He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”
What blessings they forfeited through disobedience!
We spend much of our time praying for protection, peace, provision, security, and victory over our enemies. Yet Psalm 81 forces us to ask whether we have ignored the very thing God requires of us: obedience.
Repentance Must Begin Somewhere
The lesson is not merely historical. Romans 15 tells us that the things written aforetime were written for our learning. First Corinthians 10 says that what happened to Israel was written for our admonition. We therefore have no right to read Psalm 81 merely to condemn ancient Israel.
We must examine ourselves.
Are we hearing God?
Are we obeying His Word?
Are we walking in His ways, or have we become determined to follow our own counsel?
The question is not simply whether God can give up a nation. Scripture has already demonstrated that He can. The question we ought to ask is whether we are displaying the characteristics of a people who have refused Him.
If we desire national repentance, it cannot remain an abstract idea. A nation consists of individuals and families. National repentance must begin with individual repentance. When individuals turn to God, families can be changed. When families are changed, churches can be strengthened. When churches humble themselves before God, their influence can spread throughout a people.
But repentance must begin somewhere.
Each of us should be willing to say, “Lord, let it begin with me.”
If we want an awakening, we must first seek to be awakened ourselves. If we desire obedience in others, we must obey. If we want our families to walk with God, we must walk with God. If we pray for our churches to be holy, we must pursue holiness ourselves.
Few words in Scripture are more terrifying than these: “So I gave them up.”
May God never leave us to our own lusts, our own wisdom, and our own counsels. May He grant us grace to hear His voice while He is calling, to repent while mercy is offered, and to walk faithfully in His ways.
God’s blessings rest upon obedience, and His warnings against rebellion are real. Let us therefore hear Him, obey Him, and seek His mercy while He may be found. Rather than demanding our own way, may our prayer be that His will would govern our lives, our homes, our churches, and our people.
May God give us grace to hearken unto His Word.