Psalms 81

1 For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. Of Asaph. Sing for joy to God our strength; make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.

Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm for Asaph himself. Rejoice to God our helper: sing aloud to the God of Jacob.

2 Lift up a song, strike the tambourine, play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.

Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel: the pleasant psaltery with the harp.

3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.

Blow up the trumpet on the new moon, on the noted day of your solemnity.

4 For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

For it is a commandment in Israel, and a judgment to the God of Jacob.

5 He ordained it as a testimony for Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt, where I heard an unfamiliar language:

He ordained it for a testimony in Joseph, when he came out of the land of Egypt: he heard a tongue which he knew not.

6 “I relieved his shoulder of the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.

He removed his back from the burdens: his hands had served in baskets.

7 You called out in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you from the cloud of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Thou calledst upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee: I heard thee in the secret place of tempest: I proved thee at the waters of contradiction.

8 Hear, O My people, and I will warn you: O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!

Hear, O my people, and I will testify to thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken to me,

9 There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god.

There shall be no new god in thee: neither shalt thou adore a strange god.

10 I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.

For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

But my people heard not my voice: and Israel hearkened not to me.

12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

So I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall walk in their own inventions.

13 If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways,

If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:

14 how soon I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes!

I should soon have humbled their enemies, and laid my hand on them that troubled them.

15 Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience, and their doom would last forever.

The enemies of the Lord have lied to him: and their time shall be for ever.

16 But I would feed you the finest wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock.