Psalm 81

For the choir director: A psalm of Asaph, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.^a

¹Sing praises to God, our strength.

Sing to the God of Jacob.

²Sing! Beat the tambourine.

Play the sweet lyre and the harp.

³Blow the ram’s horn at new moon,

and again at full moon to call a festival!

⁴For this is required by the decrees of Israel;

it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.

⁵He made it a law for Israel^b

when he attacked Egypt to set us free.

I heard an unknown voice say,

⁶“Now I will take the load from your shoulders;

I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.

⁷You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;

I answered out of the thundercloud

and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Interlude

⁸“Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.

O Israel, if you would only listen to me!

⁹You must never have a foreign god;

you must not bow down before a false god.

¹⁰For it was I, the Lord your God,

who rescued you from the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

¹¹“But no, my people wouldn’t listen.

Israel did not want me around.

¹²So I let them follow their own stubborn desires,

living according to their own ideas.

¹³Oh, that my people would listen to me!

Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!

¹⁴How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!

How soon my hands would be upon their foes!

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him;

they would be doomed forever.

¹⁶But I would feed you with the finest wheat.

I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”