6 I removed his shoulder from the burden, His hands were freed from the basket. 7 In straits thou didst call and I delivered thee, I answered thee in the secret place of thunder, I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. 8 Hear, My people, and I will witness to thee; O Israel, would that thou wouldest hearken to Me! 9 There shall be no strange god in thee, And thou shalt not bow down to an alien god. 10 I, I am Jehovah thy God, Who brought thee up from the land of Egypt. Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it. 11 But My people hearkened not to My voice, And Israel did not yield to Me. 12 Then I let them go in the stubbornness of their heart, That they might walk in their own counsels. 13 Would that My people would hearken to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! 14 Easily would I humble their enemies, And against their adversaries turn My hand. 15 The haters of Jehovah would come feigning to Him, But their time should endure for ever. 16 And He would feed thee with the fat of wheat, And with honey from the rock would I satisfy thee. The psalmist summons priests and people to a solemn festival, commemorative of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, and sets forth the lessons which that deliverance teaches, the learning of which is the true way of keeping the feast. There has been much discussion as to which feast is in the psalmist's mind. That of Tabernacles has been widely accepted as intended, chiefly on the ground that the first day of the month in which it occurred was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets, as the beginning of the civil year. This practice is supposed to account for the language of ver. 3, which seems to imply trumpet-blowing both at new and full moon. But, on other grounds, the Passover is more likely to be intended, as the psalm deals with the manifestations of Divine power attending the beginning of the Exodus, which followed the first Passover, as well as with those during the desert sojourn, which alone were commemorated by the feast of Tabernacles. True, we have no independent knowledge of any trumpet-blowing on the first day of the Passover month (Nisan); but Delitzsch and others suggest that from this psalm it may be inferred "that the commencement of each month, and more especially the commencement of the month (Nisan), which was at the same time the commencement of the ecclesiastical year, was signalised by the blowing of horns." On the whole, the Passover is most probably the feast in question.