Psalms 81:5

5. Testimony See on Psalms 19:7. The terms translated “statute,” “law,” “testimony,” in Psalms 81:4-5, indicate the solemnity and obligation of the passover institution, and explain why it is ushered in with such joyful demonstrations.

He went out through the land of Egypt Hebrew, In his going forth over the land of Egypt, spoken, not of the exodus, but of God’s going out over “the land of Egypt” for purposes of judgment, especially on the firstborn, as Exodus 11:4, “Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into [or through] the midst of Egypt,” etc. An exactly similar form occurs Genesis 41:45, “And Joseph went forth over [ על ] the land of Egypt.” The phraseology exactly suits a reconnoissance of, never a departure from, a place. The exodus proper uniformly takes the particle מן , ( min,) out of, from, as Exodus 12:41-42.

Language I understood not A foreign or barbarous dialect. The description indicates, according to the spirit of those earlier ages, not only an entire want of national sympathy, as having no natural bond of “language” or religion, but often a hostile disposition. See Psalms 114:1; Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 5:15. The political jealousy and religious antipathy, therefore, of the Egyptians toward the Hebrews, were the more easily and implacably aroused. Thus, in the survey just mentioned, God found his people in the vilest condition, among an oppressive and hard-hearted nation. See Exodus 3:7-8.