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Psalm 81 · a question people ask

"Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day" (81:3). Which feast is it?

In the text

The psalm doesn't name it. It says only "our feast day" (81:3), and that "it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob" (81:4), appointed "in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt" (81:5). The Law has trumpets at the start of the months: "in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets" (Numbers 10:10). In Hebrew blow there is the verb of the psalm's Blow (81:3), and months is its word for New Moon, but trumpets is another word from the psalm's (tap trumpet). The word for full moon comes only twice in the Hebrew Bible (tap full moon). These notes don't choose a feast for the psalm.

The verses

“Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know.”
Psalm 81:3-5 · World English Bible
““Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God. I am the LORD your God.””
Numbers 10:10 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 81

Psalm 81: Oh that my people would listen

Psalm 81 begins as a feast-day song and becomes the LORD speaking to his people. One Hebrew verb runs through it five times, hear and listen, and the God who says "I tested you at the waters of Meribah" (81:7) says "Oh that my people would listen to me" (81:13), and ends with "I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock" (81:16).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions