Psalms 81:7

Psa 81:7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

Ver. 7. Thou calledst in trouble] Their trouble called, though themselves had been silent. I have seen, I have seen the afflictions of my people, &c., but they cried to the Lord at the Red Sea, Exo 14:10; Exo 14:15, and were delivered.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder] i.e. In the pillar of cloud that stood between the two armies, and thundered against the Egyptians, Exo 14:24; confer Lam 3:44.

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah] When thou hadst but newly foot out of snare, and yet there and then thou showedst thyself. O thine ungratefulness, &c. This hath been thy manner from thy youth.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_81:7

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.

Answers to prayer often come mysteriously

God has a thousand secret ways of granting our requests.

I. He may do it by a wave of air. A man is the subject of a painful disease, that seems progressing to the utter extinction of his life; for the sake of others depending on him, he implores his Maker to restore him. A fresh breeze from heaven is let into his chamber, it not only sweeps his foul room, but heaves his lungs with a new force, oxygenizes his blood, and quickens his pulses with a new vitality. Wave after wave continues to play around him until he is able to rise from his couch and go into the open fields. God has answered him from the secret place of thunder.

II. He may do it by the birth of a thought, The good man may be enfolded in darkness, wrapped in perplexities, so utterly embarrassed by his circumstances that he knows not what step to take next. He cries to Heaven for guidance; all worldly resources have failed. A new thought springs up in his mind, solves his problems, scatters his darkness, removes his embarrassments, reveals a path to enter, safe and sunny, full of promise. He pursues it, and all is right. His prayer is answered from the secret place of thunder.

III. He may do it by the visit of a friend. As he talks, the burden of sorrow falls from his heart, and he breathes once more the free air of hope. His prayer has been answered from the secret place of thunder.

IV. He may do it by a verse of scripture. (Homilist.)

The place of thunder

As there is a secret place of natural thunder, there is a secret place of moral thunder. In other words, the religious power that you see abroad in the Church and in the world has a hiding-place, and in many cases it is never discovered at all. I will use a similitude. Many years ago there was a large church. It was characterized by strange and unaccountable conversions. There were no great revivals, but individual cases of spiritual arrest and transformation. A young man sat in one of the front pews. He was a graduate of Yale, brilliant and dissolute. Everybody knew him and liked him for his geniality, but deplored his moral errantry. To please his parents he was every Sabbath morning in church. One day there was a ringing of the door-bell of the pastor of that church, and that young man, overwhelmed with repentance, implored prayer and advice, and passed into complete reformation of heart and life. All the neighbourhood was astonished, and asked, Why was this? His father and mother had said nothing to him about his souls welfare. In the course of two years, though there was no general awakening in that church, many such isolated cases of unexpected and unaccountable conversions took place. The very people whom no one thought would be affected by such considerations were converted. The pastor and the officers of the church were on the look-out for the solution of this religious phenomenon. Where is it, they said, and who is it, and what is it? At last the discovery was made and all was explained. A poor old Christian woman standing in the vestibule of the church one Sunday morning, trying to get her breath again before she went up-stairs to the gallery, heard the inquiry and told the secret. For years she had been in the habit of concentrating all her prayers for particular persons in that church. She would see some man or some woman present, and, though she might not know the persons name, she would pray for that person until he or she was converted to God. All her prayers were for that one person--just that one. She waited and waited for communion days to see when the candidates for membership stood up whether her prayers had been effectual. It turned out that these marvellous instances of conversion were the result of that old womans prayers as she sat in the gallery Sabbath by Sabbath, bent and wizened and poor and unnoticed. That was the secret place of the thunder. The day will come--God hasten it-when people wilt find out the velocity, the majesty, the multipotence of prayer. O ye who are wasting your breath and wasting your brains and wasting your nerves and wasting your lungs wishing for this good and that good for the Church and the world, why do you not go into the secret place of thunder? But, says some one, that is a beautiful theory, yet it does not work in my case, for I am in a cloud of trouble or a cloud of sickness or a cloud of persecution or a cloud of poverty or a cloud of bereavement or a cloud of perplexity. How glad I am that you told me that. That is exactly the place to which my text refers. It was from a cloud that God answered Israel--the cloud over the chasm cut through the Red Sea--the cloud that was light to the Israelites and darkness to the Egyptians. It was from a cloud, a tremendous cloud, that God made reply. It was a cloud that was the secret place of thunder. So you cannot get away from the consolation of my text by talking that way. Let all the people under a cloud hear it. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. (Psa 81:7) In distress thou hast called and I have delivered thee; I will (yet) answer thee in the secret place of thunder; I will try thee at the waters of Strife. The secret or hiding place of thunder is the dark cloud charged with tempest which overhung mount Sinai at the giving of the law (Exo 20:18). This is here anticipated or predicted, as well as the murmuring of the people at Meribah (Exodus 17, Numbers 20.) as a signal instance of their unbelief and disobedience. Thus understood, the verse continues the words of God himself, at the crisis of the exodus. According to the other exegeti-cal hypothesis already mentioned, there is here a sudden change of speaker, and the future verbs in this verse are to be explained as historical presents.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By a strange and wonderful fashion.

Or, contention, Exod. 17:7.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 7. Thou calledst in trouble] They had cried by reason of their burdens, and the cruelty of their task-masters; and God heard that cry, and delivered them. See Ex 3:7, c.

In the secret place of thunder] On Mount Sinai where God was heard, but not seen. They heard a voice, but they saw no shape.

At the waters of Meribah.] See this transaction, Ex 17:1, &c.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7 Thou didst cry in trouble, and I delivered thee. Here the same subject is prosecuted. By their crying when they were in distress, I understand the prayers which they then offered to God. It sometimes happens that those who are reduced to extremity bewail their calamities with confused crying; but as this afflicted people still had in them some remains of godliness, and as they had not forgotten the promise made to their fathers, I have no doubt that they directed their prayers to God. Even men without religion, who never think of calling upon God, when they are under the pressure of any great calamity, are moved by a secret instinct of nature to have recourse to Him. This renders it the more probable that the promise was, as it were, a schoolmaster to the Israelites, leading them to look to God. As no man sincerely calls upon Him but he who trusts in him for help; this crying ought the more effectually to have convinced them that it was their duty to ascribe to Him alone the deliverance which was offered them. By the secret place of thunder some, in my opinion, with too much refinement of interpretation, understand that God by thundering rendered the groanings of the people inaudible to the Egyptians, that by hearing them the Egyptians might not become the more exasperated. But the meaning simply is, that the people were heard in a secret and wonderful manner, while, at the same time, manifest tokens were given by which the Israelites might be satisfied that they were succoured by the Divine hand. God, it is true, was not seen by them face to face; but the thunder was an evident indication of his secret presence among them. To make them prize more highly this benefit, God upbraidingly tells them that they were unworthy of it, having given such a manifest proof at the waters of Meribah, that they were of a wicked and perverse disposition, Exodus 17:7. Your wickedness, as if he had said, having at that time so openly shown itself, surely it must from this be incontrovertible that my favor to you did not proceed from any regard to your good desert. This rebuke is not less applicable to us than to the Israelites; for God not only heard our groanings when we were afflicted under the tyranny of Satan, but before we were born appointed his only begotten Son to be the price of our redemption; and afterwards, when we were his enemies, he called us to be partakers of his grace, illuminating our minds by his gospel and his Holy Spirit; while we, notwithstanding, continue to indulge in murmuring, yea, even proudly rebel against Him.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(7) Thou calledst.—The recital of God’s past dealings with the people usual at the Feast of the Tabernacles (Deu_31:10-13; Neh_8:18) appears to follow here as if the feast were actually in progress and the crowd were listening to the psalmist.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.—Mr. Burgess is undoubtedly right in taking the verb as from ânan, “to cover,” instead of ânah, “to answer.” I sheltered thee in the thundercloud, with plain allusion to the “cloudy pillar.” The same verb is used in Psa_105:39, “He spread out the cloud for a covering.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. From the divine decree for Israel’s liberation the transition to an address to Israel is easy. Israel of the present is regarded as one with Israel of the past.

Thou calledst &c.] For the phrase cp. Psa_50:15; and for the fact, Exo_2:23 ff.

in the secret place of thunder] In the covert of the thunder-cloud God conceals and reveals Himself (Psa_18:11; Psa_18:13; Psa_77:17 ff.). At the passage of the Red Sea, when Israel was sore afraid and cried out unto Jehovah, He “looked forth upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians” (Exo_14:10; Exo_14:24).

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah] Testing thy faith and obedience. The name Meribah or Strife was a reminder of repeated unbelief and ingratitude (Exo_17:7; Num_20:13; Psa_78:20); of the long ‘controversy’ (Mic_6:2) of a long-suffering God with an obstinate people. It is possible that the reference to this miracle in particular was suggested by the libations of water at the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated the supply of water in the wilderness.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee,.... That is, when Israel were in trouble in Egypt, as the Targum adds, and they cried unto the Lord in their distress, he heard them, and answered them, and sent them a deliverer, and brought them out of all their troubles, Exo 3:7.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; by bringing the plague of thunder and lightnings upon the Egyptians, when the Israelites were hidden from them; a sense given by some, as Kimchi observes: or rather this was done when the Lord looked out of the pillar of cloud at the Red sea upon the Egyptian host, and troubled them; at which time the voice of his thunder was heard in heaven, Psa 77:16. Some think this has reference to the thunder at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; but the sense before given is best:

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah; by withholding water from them to try them, and see whether they would behave patiently, and put their trust and confidence in the Lord, or not; see Exo 17:4.

Selah. See Gill on Psa 3:2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou calledst in trouble - The people of Israel. Exo 2:23; Exo 3:9; Exo 14:10.

And I delivered thee - I brought the people out of Egypt.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder - That is, in the lonely, retired, solemn place where the thunder rolled; the solitudes where there was no voice but the voice of thunder, and where that seemed to come from the deep recesses of the mountain gorges. The allusion is doubtless to Sinai. Compare Exo 19:17-19. The meaning is, that he gave a response - a real reply - to their prayer - amid the solemn scenes of Sinai, when he gave them his law; when he recognized them as his people; when he entered into covenant with them.

I proved thee - I tried you; I tested your fidelity.

At the waters of Meribah - Margin, as in Hebrew, strife. This was at Mount Horeb. Exo 17:5-7. The trial - the proof - consisted in his bringing water from the rock, showing that he was God - that he was their God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou calledst in trouble; at the Red Sea, Exo 14:10-12.

In the secret place of thunder; from the dark and cloudy pillar, whence I thundered and fought against the Egyptians. See Exo 13:21; 14:19,24. Others refer this to the thunder at Sinai. But at that time they were

not in trouble, but in a safe and glorious condition.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 7. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee. God heard his people's cries in Egypt, and at the Red Sea: this ought to have bound them to him. Since God does not forsake us in our need, we ought never to forsake him at any time. When our hearts wander from God, our answered prayers cry "shame" upon us.

I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. Out of the cloud the Lord sent forth tempest upon the foes of his chosen. That cloud was his secret pavilion, within it he hung up his weapons of war, his javelins of lightning his trumpet of thunder; forth from that pavilion he came and overthrew the foe that his own elect might be secure.

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. They had proved him and found him faithful, he afterwards proved them in return. Precious things are tested, therefore Israel's loyalty to her King was put to trial, and, alas, it failed lamentably. The God who was adored one day for his goodness was reviled the next, when the people for a moment felt the pangs of hunger and thirst. The story of Israel is only our own history in another shape. God has heard us, delivered us, liberated us, and too often our unbelief makes the wretched return of mistrust, murmuring, and rebellion. Great is our sin; great is the mercy of our God: let us reflect upon both, and pause a while.

Selah. Hurried reading is of little benefit; to sit down a while and meditate is very profitable.

Ver. 7. To answer in the secret place of thunder, refers us to the pillar of cloud and fire, the habitation of the awful Majesty of God, whence God glanced with angry eyes upon the Egyptians, filled them with consternation and overthrew them. Venema.

Ver. 7.

1. Answered prayers, bonds of gratitude.

2. Former testing times, warning memories.

3. The present a time for new answers as it is also for fresh tests.

Ver. 7. Waters of Meribah. The various test points of the believer's life.

Psalms 81:8*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Secret place of thunder—That is, the recesses of Sinai, at this time the mysterious seat of divinity. See the fundamental passage, Exo_19:19. In other theophanies the pavilion of God is located “in darkness,” “dark waters and thick clouds of the sky.” Psa_18:11; Psa_68:7-8. The unwonted terror of thunderstorms on Mount Sinai is attested by travellers, but at this time the “thunder” and earthquake were supernatural. God is represented as thus speaking from the clouds and the storm, to teach us that the answer of prayer is not from earth, but from Heaven; from the same great Power that rules the forces of created nature. The physical scenery and awful phenomena of Sinai were adapted to impress the people with the majesty and power of God.

Waters of Meribah—Both Meribah-Kadesh (Num_20:13) and Rephidim, called “Massah and Meribah, [temptation and strife,] because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?” Exo_17:7. See on Psa_78:15-16. This latter was the scene of the most signal temptation and miracle since the passage of the Red Sea. See on Psa_78:15-16; Psa_106:32. This last clause forms the link between the joyful retrospections of the previous section of the psalm and the admonitory address of God to his people which follows.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee. (see Exo_2:23 Exo_3:7 Exo_14:10, etc.) I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. The pillar of the cloud seems to be meant. In this, and from this, God answered the cry of his people. (Exo_14:24) I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. (Exo_17:7) The "selah" after these words marks a pause, during which the people addressed might reflect on the manifold mercies which God had vouchsafed to them in Egypt, in the wilderness, and elsewhere.

"The secret place of thunder.

"Thunder covert;" literally "hiding place of thunder;" i.e. the dark thunderclouds, from behind which God spoke to the Israelites. Some writers find a reference to the pillar of cloud and fire, in which God appeared for the guiding of Israel"s journey. But there is no special reason for calling the pillar of cloud a "thundercloud." The poet is, in a very general way, reviewing the Divine dealings with Israel; and here the troubles connected with the time at Sinai are clearly referred to. The "hiding place of thunder" is surely the "thick darkness where God was" (Exo_20:21) when the Law was given from the "smoking mountain," amid "thunderings and lightnings." The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews rhetorically contrasts the revelations from Sinai and from Zion. (Heb_12:18-24) His description of the revelation given from Sinai may help us to understand this poetical figure, "the secret place of thunder." "Ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard in, reared that the words should not be spoken to them any more." Thunder, then, may be taken, poetically, as the characteristic of the Old Testament dispensation. We must keep in mind two things:

(1) the intensity of the thunder noise in mountain districts; and

(2) the peculiar Eastern sentiments about thunder. In illustration of (1), Dr. Stewart gives the following experience of a thunderstorm at Mount Sinai. "Every ball; as it burst, with the roar of a cannon, seemed to awaken a series of distinct echoes on every side; ... they swept like a whirlwind among the higher mountains, becoming faint as some mighty peak intervened, and bursting with undiminished volume through some yawning cleft, till the very ground trembled with the concussion ...It seemed as if the mountains of the whole peninsula were answering one another in a chorus of the deepest bass. Ever and anon a flash of lightning dispelled the pitchy darkness, and lit up the mount as if it had been day; then, after the interval of a few seconds, came the peal of thunder, bursting like a shell, to scatter its echoes to the four quarters of the heavens, and overpowering for a moment the loud howlings of the wind." In illustration of (2), the fear produced by thunderings now may be shown, though superstitious ideas are checked by some measures of scientific knowledge. The fear of thunder is shared by the animals in the fields. Thunder, then, is the fitting illustration of the old dispensation; but unsuitable to the new dispensation. It fits the old because it impresses on man the sense of mystery; it gives man an idea of force; and it fills man"s mind with fear.

I THUNDER BRINGS A SENSE OF MYSTERY. In those days, how it comes was not known. Always, when it comes is not known. It was, and it still is, something over which men can only wonder. Show that this character is preserved in the God of the Old Testament. He hides himself. "Clouds and darkness are round about him." His voice is to man but as the inarticulate thunder. In some ages of the world, and in some Conditions of the race, mystery in God is the best education; it awakens the spiritual faculties in child ages, as it does in children.

II THUNDER GIVES MAN AN IDEA OF FORCE. When he hears it, man feels there is something wholly beyond his control. And force must be felt by the Israelites to lie behind law. He who gives the Law must be felt able to enforce its sanctions. Joubert tells us that the absolute rule of moral training is "force till right is ready." The thunderings and lightnings of Sinai impressed the force of the Divine authority.

III THUNDER FILLS MEN"S MINDS WITH FEAR. If fear is not the highest motive inspiring obedience, it is the necessary motive for many people, and the first motive for all. Fear is not lost, as the inspiration of obedience, in Christianity, it is only glorified in love. "Perfect love casteth out fear." Storm and tempest clear the atmosphere, and prepare for the warmth and quickening of the steady sunshine; and so the thunder of the Old Testament prepares for the life giving sunshine of the New. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Calledst - At the Red Sea. Secret place - From the dark and cloudy pillar, whence I thundered against the Egyptians.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

from the cauldron From slave labor to cook the pots in the manner of other slaves.

from the cauldron Heb. מדוד, a pot, as (I Sam. 2:14): “And he would thrust into the fire-pot or into the pot (הדוד).”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.