Psalm 81

¹Sing with joy to God our strength *and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob.

²Raise a song and sound the timbrel, *the merry harp, and the lyre.

³Blow the ram’s-horn at the new moon, *and at the full moon, the day of our feast.

⁴For this is a statute for Israel, *a law of the God of Jacob.

⁵He laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph, *when he came out of the land of Egypt.

⁶I heard an unfamiliar voice saying, *“I eased his shoulder from the burden; his hands were set free from bearing the load.”

⁷You called on me in trouble, and I saved you; *I answered you from the secret place of thunder and tested you at the waters of Meribah.

⁸Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you: *O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

⁹There shall be no strange god among you; *you shall not worship a foreign god.

¹⁰I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said, *“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

¹¹And yet my people did not hear my voice, *and Israel would not obey me.

¹²So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their hearts, *to follow their own devices.

¹³Oh, that my people would listen to me! *that Israel would walk in my ways!

¹⁴I should soon subdue their enemies *and turn my hand against their foes.

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, *and their punishment would last for ever.

¹⁶But Israel would I feed with the finest wheat *and satisfy him with honey from the rock.