Here is Psalm 81:
1 Sing for joy to God our strength;shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre.
3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
4 this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 When God went out against Egypt, he established it as a statute for Joseph. I heard an unknown voice say:
6 “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket.
7 In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—if you would only listen to me, Israel!
9 You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me.
10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways,
14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Does it say to sing for joy and with musical instruments?
Is it a fun psalm?
It spoke of God's mercy and love and how Israelites repaid Him by turning a deaf ear and follow their own devices.
It's a warning.
It's a warning that has to be sung with joy.
Here is Psalm 42, the inspiration for the hymn "As The Deer":
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
To learn from the psalmists:
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
