God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of Asaph.
81 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song, sound the timbrel,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph,
when he went out over[a] the land of Egypt.
I hear a voice I had not known:
6 “I relieved your[b] shoulder of the burden;
your[c] hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Mer′ibah.Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I 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 have none of me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13 O that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last for ever.
16 I would feed you[d] with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Footnotes
- Psalm 81:5 Or against
- Psalm 81:6 Heb his
- Psalm 81:6 Heb his
- Psalm 81:16 Cn Compare verse 16b: Heb he would feed him