Psa 81 | OEBc | STEP | For the leader. On the gittith. Of Asaph. Sing aloud to God our strength, shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

Psalms 81

Psalm 81

For the leader. On the gittith. Of Asaph.

1 Sing aloud to God our strength,
shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2 Raise a song, sound the timbrel,
sweet lyre and harp.
3 On the new moon blow the horn,
at the full moon, the day of our festival.
4 For this is a statute for Israel,
a ruling of the God of Jacob,
5 a witness he set up in Joseph,
when he marched against Egypt’s land,
where he heard an unknown language.

6 “I removed from your shoulder the burden,
and freed your hands from the basket.
7 At your call of distress I delivered you,
from the thundercloud I answered you.
At Meribah’s waters I tested you. (Selah)

8 Listen, my people, to my warning,
O Israel, if you would but listen
9 ‘There must not be a strange god among you,
you must bow to no foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God
who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open your mouth, that I fill it.’

11 But my people did not listen to my voice,
Israel would have none of me.
12 So to their own hard hearts I left them,
to follow their own devices.
13 O that my people would listen,
that Israel would walk in my ways.
14 Soon would I humble their enemies,
and turn my hand on their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him
in everlasting terror.
16 But you would I feed with the richest wheat,
and with honey from the rock to your heart’s desire.”