Chapter 81

Asaph.

A Psalm of praise recalling deliverance from Egypt.

It also laments that Israel did not remain true to God, nor follow his commandments.  Therefore, he cannot do for them what He would really like to do.  He is a just God, and he cannot reward them except when they keep the covenant they made.  These verses sum it up:

11 "But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. [Psa 81:11-12 ESV]

God doesn't always punish us directly for the wrong we do.  Sometimes he just steps away, leaves us to our own devices, knowing that the random horrors of this sin-polluted world will eventually be our undoing.  That, and trying to make it without God to lean on.  All these send us in directions that God would keep us from going.  We end up doing ourselves harm when we depend on our own wisdom and understanding apart from God's. 

Good FB post.

2023 - Vs 12 reads very much like Romans 1.  Asaph seems to be writing from a time when these consequences have occurred, and pretty much everyone recognizes that they brought themselves to this end by disobedience to God.  Asaph knows that Israel did it to themselves, and so does Israel.  This could very well be about 586 BC, and about those who stayed behind when the captives were removed to Babylon, or even about the repentance IN Babylon of those taken captive.  Asaph would not have to have lived through that, which might make these Psalms of his historical, and his own time later than 586 BC.  Somehow, I've always thought the Psalms were older, all from David's and Solomon's time, but I think we have a few from Ezra also, which would be after 586 BC.  So this starts to fit as history instead of prophecy.