Psalm 81

¹Sing aloud to God, our strength!

Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!

²Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine,

the pleasant lyre with the harp.

³Blow the shofar at the New Moon,

at the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴For it is a statute for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant,

when he went out over the land of Egypt,

I heard a language that I didn’t know.

⁶“I removed his shoulder from the burden.

His hands were freed from the basket.

⁷You called in trouble, and I delivered you.

I answered you in the secret place of thunder.

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.”

⁸“Hear, my people, and I will testify to you,

Israel, if you would listen to me!

⁹There shall be no strange god in you,

neither shall you worship any foreign god.

¹⁰I am the LORD, your God,

who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹¹But my people didn’t listen to my voice.

Israel desired none of me.

¹²So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts,

that they might walk in their own counsels.

¹³Oh that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would walk in my ways!

¹⁴I would soon subdue their enemies,

and turn my hand against their adversaries.

¹⁵The haters of the LORD would cringe before him,

and their punishment would last forever.

¹⁶But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat.

I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”