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Psalm 81:6

“I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.

5He 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.
6“I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.
7You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah.
8“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!
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← Psalm 81:5Psalm 81:7 →
Notice

The shoulder and basket make Israel’s slavery tangible, and God’s claim to have removed that burden gives remembered freedom a clear source.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What does the detail of hands freed from a basket help you notice about Israel’s deliverance?

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What burden has been lifted from your own hands that you want to remember before God?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Isaiah 9:4For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.Both describe deliverance through a burden removed from a shoulder, with Isaiah also naming the oppressor’s rod.
Isaiah 10:27It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the …Both describe a shoulder freed from its burden; the psalm recalls deliverance, while Isaiah speaks of a coming day.
Exodus 6:6Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their …Exodus promises release from Egypt’s burdens, and the psalm recalls God’s removal of that burden.
Matthew 11:29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.Both speak of relief: the psalm recalls freedom from forced labor, while Jesus promises rest for souls through learning from him.
Exodus 1:11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.Exodus names the taskmasters who imposed Israel’s burdens; the psalm names God as the one who removed the burden.
Exodus 1:14and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they …Exodus describes the bitter forced labor behind the psalm’s picture of a burdened shoulder and hands freed from a basket.
Exodus 6:7I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the …Both identify God as the one who frees Israel from burdens, with Exodus also promising that Israel will be his people.
1 Chronicles 4:23The shared thread is work: Chronicles describes workers serving a king, while the psalm recalls release from burdensome labor.
Psalm 68:13while you sleep among the camp fires, the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold.The connection is slight: both use concrete physical images, but sleeping among camp fires does not itself describe freedom from forced labor.
Genesis 49:15He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor.Both join the shoulder and burden with forced labor; Genesis describes entering that service, while the psalm describes release.
Where this verse fits

Gratitude. injustice and anger.

What the Bible says about gratitude →What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Exodus 6:6 beside this verse; mark God’s actions

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Encouragement

Israel’s freedom began with God’s action. The burden and basket belonged to real forced labor, and God speaks here as the one who brought that labor to an end.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 81:6. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 81 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).