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Psalms 81:2

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Take a psalm - זמרה zimrah . I rather think that this was the name of a musical instrument.

Bring hither the timbrel - תף toph ; some kind of drum or tom tom.

The pleasant harp - כנור kinnor . Probably a sistrum, or something like it. A Stringed instrument.

With the psaltery - נבל nebel, the nabla . The cithara, Septuagint.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

Take a psalm - literally, “Lift up a psalm; perhaps, as we should say, “Raise the tune.” Or, it may mean, Take an ode, a hymn, a psalm, composed for the occasion, and accompany it with the instruments of music which are specified.

And bring hither the timbrel - For the purpose of praise. On the meaning of this word rendered “timbrel” - תף tôph - see the notes at Isaiah 5:12.

The pleasant harp - On the word here rendered “harp” - כנור kinnôr - see also the notes at Isaiah 5:12. The word translated “pleasant” - נעים nâ‛ı̂ym - means properly pleasant, agreeable, sweet, Psalm 133:1; Psalm 147:1. It is connected here with the word harp, as meaning that that instrument was distinguished particularly for a sweet or pleasant sound.

With the psaltery - On the meaning of the word used here - נבל nebel - see the notes at Isaiah 5:12. These were the common instruments of music among the Hebrews. They were employed alike on sacred occasions, and in scenes of revelry. See Isaiah 5:12.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
All the worship we can render to the Lord is beneath his excellences, and our obligations to him, especially in our redemption from sin and wrath. What God had done on Israel's behalf, was kept in remembrance by public solemnities. To make a deliverance appear more gracious, more glorious, it is good to observe all that makes the trouble we are delivered from appear more grievous. We ought never to forget the base and ruinous drudgery to which Satan, our oppressor, brought us. But when, in distress of conscience, we are led to cry for deliverance, the Lord answers our prayers, and sets us at liberty. Convictions of sin, and trials by affliction, prove his regard to his people. If the Jews, on their solemn feast-days, were thus to call to mind their redemption out of Egypt, much more ought we, on the Christian sabbath, to call to mind a more glorious redemption, wrought out for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, from worse bondage.