Psalms 81:9

Psa 81:9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

Ver. 9. There shall no strange god] This is the first and chief commandment, wherein all the rest are contained, saith Luther.

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.

10. (Psa 81:9) There shall not be in thee a strange god, and thou shalt not worship a foreign god. The divine name here used is the one denoting power. "Thou shalt acknowledge no Almighty but the true one." The prohibitory futures have a stronger sense than that expressed in some translations, let there be no strange god in thee, i. e. in the midst of thee, among you. A strange god, a god who is an alien to Jehovah and to Israel. Worship, literally bow down or prostrate thyself. A foreign god, a god of strangeness, or belonging to foreign parts, in other words, a heathen deity. See above, on Ps. 18:44, 45. The specific reason here implied is that expressed in Deut. xxxii. 12. The general principle is the same that is propounded in the first commandment (Exo 20:3, Deu 5:7).

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

9 Let there be no strange god in thee. Here there is propounded the leading article of the covenant, and almost the whole sum of it, which is, that God alone must have the pre-eminence. Some may prefer this explanation: O Israel! if thou wilt hearken to me, there is nothing which I more strictly require or demand from thee than that thou shouldst be contented with me alone, and that thou shouldst not seek after strange gods: and of this opinion I am far from disapproving. God by this language undoubtedly confirms the truth which he so frequently inculcates elsewhere in the law and the prophets, that he is so jealous a God as not to allow another to be a partaker of the honor to which he alone is entitled. But at the same time he teaches us that true religious worship begins with obedience. The order which Moses observes is different, Exodus 20:2, 4, and Deuteronomy 5:6, 8. In these passages God sets out with declaring that he is the God of Israel; and then he forbids them to make for themselves any new gods. But here the prohibition is put first, and then the reason of it is subjoined, which is, that the people ought to be abundantly satisfied with the God who had purchased them to be his people. Perhaps also he sets this in the front to prepare the way for his obtaining the throne of their hearts. He would first withdraw the people from superstitions, as these must necessarily be plucked up and cleared away before true religion can take root in our hearts.

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.

(9) Open . . .—A condensed statement of God’s gracious promise (Deu_7:12-13; Deu_8:7; Deu_8:9; Deu_11:13; Deu_11:16, &c). It is said to have been a custom in Persia, that when the king wishes to do a visitor especial honour he desires him to open his mouth wide, and the king then-crams it full of sweetmeats, and sometimes even with jewels. And to this day it is a mark of politeness in Orientals to tear off the daintiest bits of meat for a guest, and either lay them before him, or put them in his mouth. (See Thomson, Land and Book, p. 127.)

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

9. no strange god] Cp. Psa_44:20; Deu_32:16.

any strange god] Any alien god. Cp. Deu_32:12. Absolute frdelity to Jehovah was the fundamental principle of the Sinaitic covenant, embodied in the first ‘word’ of the Decalogue.

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.

There shall no strange god be in thee,.... Or in the midst of thee, owned and worshipped as God; or in thine heart, for whatever engrosses the affection, or a man puts his trust and confidence in, that he makes his god, and is a strange one: thus, if any friend or relation, father or mother, wife or children, are loved more than God, they are set up as such in his place; thus the epicure, that seeks the gratification of his carnal lusts, makes his belly his god; and the covetous man his money, in which he trusts, and therefore is called an idolater; and the self-righteous man his righteousness, on which he depends for salvation: hence we read of idols set up in the heart, from which they are disengaged in conversion, and kept from, Eze 14:7.

neither shall thou worship any strange god; only the Lord God is to be worshipped, Mat 28:19 and there is but one God; though this is to be understood not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, who are with the Father the one God, and to be worshipped equally with him, and are; see Mat 28:19.

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

There shall no strange god be in thee - Worshipped by thee; or recognized and regarded as a god. This was a condition of his favor and friendship. Compare Deu 32:12; Isa 43:12. The word here rendered “strange” - זר zār - has reference to one of a foreign nation; and the meaning is, that they were not to worship or adore the gods that were worshipped by foreigners. This was a fundamental law of the Hebrew commonwealth.

Neither shalt thou worship any strange god - The Hebrew word here is different - נכר nêkâr - but means substantially the same thing. The allusion is to gods worshipped by foreign nations.

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

Thou shalt renounce all false gods and worship, and worship me only.

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

Ver. 9. There shall no strange god be in thee. No alien god is to be tolerated in Israel's tents.

Neither shalt thou worship any strange god. Where false gods are, their worship is sure to follow. Man is so desperate an idolater that the image is always a strong temptation: while the nests are there the birds will be eager to return. No other god had done anything for the Jews, and therefore they had no reason for paying homage to any other. To us the same argument will apply. We owe all to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: the world, the flesh, the devil, none of these have been of any service to us; they are aliens, foreigners, enemies, and it is not for us to bow down before them. "Little children keep yourselves from idols, "is our Lord's voice to us, and by the power of his Spirit we would cast out every false god from our hearts.

None.

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

9. No strange god—Thus the psalmist strikes the fundamental doctrine of their dispensation. It has the Sinaitic ring of Exo_20:1-7. This had been, before the exile, their point of departure from the religion of Moses. After that date they never fell into formal idolatry; but their after national sin was ritualism and indifference.

Worship—The same word as “bow down.” Exo_20:5

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

There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. (comp; Exo_20:3 Deu_5:7) Such worship had evidently begun, and required to be forbidden afresh.

The sole Object of worship.

This verse recalls to mind the second recitation of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy 5. "In ver. 9 the keynote of the revelation of the Law from Sinai is struck; the fundamental command which opens the Decalogue demanded fidelity to Jehovah, and forbade idol worship as the sin of sins." The claim of Jehovah on the Israelites needs to be precisely described. God, as El, was very generally, perhaps universally, known. But men went wrong, in relation to him, when they began to make representations of him. Then two things happened:

(1) different representations became fixed to different localities and countries; and

(2) the representations came to be worshipped, rather than the spiritual Being whom they represented. Israel was selected, as a nation, to preserve for the world the imperilled primary truth of the unity and spirituality of God. So two things are firmly asserted as the basis of God"s revelation of his will to Israel

I GOD IS THE ONE GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord." "The God of the whole earth shall he be called." There are no such things as "strange gods." An idol is a "nothing," a "vanity." God is God alone. See the importance of this for Israel. Looking on the nations around them, they might imagine that the gods of the nations were doing better for them than Jehovah was doing for his people, and so they might be tempted to join service to these strange gods with service to Jehovah. So they must learn that God was really the God of all nations; the one and only true God. In view of our work among the heathen, we still must hold fast this primary and fundamental truth there is but one God; and he is as truly the God of the heathen as of the civilized and the Christianized.

II GOD IS THE ONE OBJECT OF HUMAN WORSHIP. Man must worship. He feels dependent. He must look out of himself for some one on whom to lean. He must be sure that be on whom he leans is absolutely trustworthy. There never can be more than one absolutely trustworthy Being. If right ideas be attached to God, we must feel that there can only be one God. He must be the perfect realization of our highest conceptions; and therefore our admiration and our dependence will unite to make him the sole Object of worship. He who knows God wants to worship no other. 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.

Hearken, My people Since I did all this for you, it is fitting for you to hearken to Me.

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.