Psalm 81 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

Psalm 81 begins like a psalm of praise. However, it then presents a direct address from Yahweh. He recalls that he delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, but they nevertheless disobeyed him. He then describes how he would bless the Israelites if they did obey him. Many interpreters believe that this psalm was written for the occasion of one of the annual festivals, when many Israelites would be at the temple in Jerusalem and hear its message of warning and promise. See the discussion of the types of psalms in the Introduction to Psalms. 1. Call to worship (1–3) 2. Reason to worship (4–5) 3. Yahweh testifies against the Israelites (6–12) 4. Yahweh says how he would bless the Israelites (13–16)

Translation Issues in This Psalm

Parallelisms

Parallelisms arise when two phrases occur together which mean about the same thing. The second phrase emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea using different words. Hebrew poetry was based on this kind of repetition. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could combine the phrases and express the emphasis in another way. Another approach would be to connect the phrases with a word that shows that the second phrase is repeating the first one and not saying something additional. See how your translation team has decided to represent pairs of phrases in Hebrew poetry that mean basically the same thing. For more information, see the Introduction to the Psalms.

Imperatives

The ULT uses the imperative to show that a speaker is expressing a desire that something happen or that someone do something. When Asaph says in verse 1, “Shout joyfully to God”, he means that it is his desire that the people should do this. Translate this form in the most natural way in your language to indicate that the speaker is expressing what he wants someone to do or what he wishes someone would do.

Note 1 topic: translate-unknown

לַ⁠מְנַצֵּ֬חַ

(la⁠mənaʦʦēaḩ)

The word translated as chief musician likely refers to the person in charge of music for worship. Some languages may have a term for a music leader. Alternate translation: [For the music director] or [For the leader of worship music]

Note 2 topic: translate-names

הַ⁠גִּתִּ֬ית

(ha⁠ggittit)

See how you translated the term Gittith in the superscription to Psalm 8.