Psalm 81–83

Psalm 81

For the choir director; on the gittith;^aby Asaph. 

¹Sing joyfully to God, our strength. 

Shout happily to the God of Jacob. 

²Begin a psalm, and strike a tambourine. 

Play lyres and harps with their pleasant music. 

³Blow the ram’s horn on the day of the new moon, 

on the day of the full moon, 

on our festival days. 

⁴This is a law for Israel, 

a legal decision from the God of Jacob. 

⁵These are the instructions God set in place for Joseph 

when Joseph rose to power over Egypt. 

I heard a message I did not understand: 

⁶“I removed the burden from his shoulder. 

His hands were freed from the basket. 

⁷When you were in trouble, you called out ⸤to me⸥, and I rescued you. 

I was hidden in thunder, but I answered you. 

I tested your ⸤loyalty⸥ at the oasis of Meribah. 

Selah 

⁸Listen, my people, and I will warn you. 

Israel, if you would only listen to me! 

⁹Never keep any strange god among you. 

Never worship a foreign god. 

¹⁰I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt. 

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 

¹¹“But my people did not listen to me. 

Israel wanted nothing to do with me. 

¹²So I let them go their own stubborn ways 

and follow their own advice. 

¹³If only my people would listen to me! 

If only Israel would follow me! 

¹⁴I would quickly defeat their enemies. 

I would turn my power against their foes. 

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would cringe in front of him, 

and their time ⸤for punishment⸥ would last forever. 

¹⁶But I would feed Israel with the finest wheat 

and satisfy them with honey from a rock.” 

Psalm 82

A psalm by Asaph. 

¹God takes his place in his own assembly. 

He pronounces judgment among the gods: 

²“How long are you going to judge unfairly? 

How long are you going to side with wicked people?” 

Selah 

³Defend weak people and orphans. 

Protect the rights of the oppressed and the poor. 

⁴Rescue weak and needy people. 

Help them escape the power of wicked people. 

⁵Wicked people do not know or understand anything. 

As they walk around in the dark, 

all the foundations of the earth shake. 

⁶I said, “You are gods. 

You are all sons of the Most High. 

⁷You will certainly die like humans 

and fall like any prince.” 

⁸Arise, O God! 

Judge the earth, because all the nations belong to you. 

Psalm 83

A song; a psalm by Asaph. 

¹O God, do not remain silent. 

Do not turn a deaf ear to me. 

Do not keep quiet, O God. 

²Look, your enemies are in an uproar. 

Those who hate you hold their heads high. 

³They make plans in secret against your people 

and plot together against those you treasure. 

⁴They say, “Let’s wipe out their nation 

so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.” 

⁵They agree completely on their plan. 

They form an alliance against you: 

⁶the tents from Edom and Ishmael, 

Moab and Hagar, 

⁷Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, 

Philistia, along with those who live in Tyre. 

⁸Even Assyria has joined them. 

They helped the descendants of Lot. 

Selah 

⁹Do to them what you did to Midian, 

to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River. 

¹⁰They were destroyed at Endor. 

They became manure to fertilize the ground. 

¹¹Treat their influential people as you treated Oreb and Zeeb. 

Treat all their leaders like Zebah and Zalmunna. 

¹²They said, “Let’s take God’s pasturelands for ourselves.” 

¹³O my God, blow them away like tumbleweeds,^a

like husks in the wind. 

¹⁴Pursue them with your storms, 

and terrify them with your windstorms 

¹⁵the way fire burns a forest 

and flames set mountains on fire.^b

¹⁶Let their faces blush with shame, O Lord, 

so that they must look to you for help. 

¹⁷Let them be put to shame and terrified forever. 

Let them die in disgrace 

¹⁸so that they must acknowledge you. 

Your name is the Lord. 

You alone are the Most High God of the whole earth.