Psalms 81

Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

Raise a song, sound the timbrel, the sweet lyre with the harp.

Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.

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

He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a voice I had not known:

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

In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Selah

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

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.

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would have none of me.

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.

O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last for ever.

I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”