Psalm 81
God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel
To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
1Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our festal day.
4For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5He made it a decree in Joseph,
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a voice I had not known:
6“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
7In distress you called, and I rescued you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Selah
8Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11“But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13O that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their foes.
15Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their doom would last forever.
16I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
