Psalm 81

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^m the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:^*

⁶“I relieved yourⁿ shoulder of the burden;

your^o 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^p with the finest of the wheat,

and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”^*