Psalms 81
1Sing aloud to God our strength, shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2Raise a song, sound the timbrel, sweet lyre and harp.
3On the new moon blow the horn, at the full moon, the day of our festival.
4For this is a statute for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob,
5a witness he set up in Joseph, when he marched against Egypt’s land, where he heard an unknown voice say:
6“I removed from your shoulder the burden, and freed your hands from the basket.
7At your call of distress I delivered you, from the thundercloud I answered you. At Meribah’s waters I tested you. Selah
8“Listen, my people, to my warning, O Israel, if you would but listen!
9There must not be a strange god among you, you must bow to no foreign god.
10I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt. Open your mouth, that I fill it.
11“But my people did not listen to my voice, Israel would have none of me.
12So to their own hard hearts I left them, to follow their own devices.
13O that my people would listen, that Israel would walk in my ways.
14Soon would I humble their enemies, and turn my hand on their foes.
15Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him in everlasting terror.
16But you would I feed with the richest wheat, and with honey from the rock to your heart’s desire.”