Psalms 81

1 TO THE OVERSEER. ON THE GITTITH. BY ASAPH. Cry aloud to God our strength, Shout 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, and give out a timbrel, A pleasant harp with stringed instrument.

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

3 Blow a horn in the month, In the new moon, at the day of our festival,

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

4 For it [is] a statute to 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 has placed it—a testimony on Joseph, In his going forth over the land of Egypt. A lip, I have not known—I hear.

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 turned aside his shoulder from the burden, His hands pass over from the basket.

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

7 In distress you have called and I deliver you, I answer you in the secret place of thunder, I try you by the waters of Meribah. (Selah)

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 testify to you, O Israel, if you listen to me:

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

9 There is not in you a strange god, And you do not bow yourself to a strange god.

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

10 I [am] your God YHWH, Who brings you up out of the land of Egypt. Enlarge your mouth, and I 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 did not listen to My voice, And Israel has not consented to Me.

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

12 And I send them away in the enmity of their heart, They walk in their own counsels.

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

13 O that My people were listening to Me, Israel would walk in My ways.

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

14 As a little thing I cause their enemies to bow, And I turn back My hand against their adversaries,

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

15 Those hating YHWH should have feigned [obedience] to Him, And their time would last for all time.

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

16 He causes him to eat of the fat of wheat, And I satisfy you [with] honey from a rock!

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