Psalm 81

Sing for Joy to God Our Strength

For the choirmaster. According to Gittith.^a Of Asaph.

¹ Sing for joy to God our strength;

make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.

² Lift up a song, strike the tambourine,

play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.

³ Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,

and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.

⁴ For this is a statute for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵ He ordained it as a testimony for Joseph^b

when he went out over the land of Egypt,

where I heard an unfamiliar language:

⁶ “I relieved his shoulder of the burden;

his hands were freed from the basket.

⁷ You called out in distress, and I rescued you;

I answered you from the cloud of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.^c

Selah

⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will warn you:

O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!

⁹ There must be no strange god among you,

nor shall you bow to a foreign god.

¹⁰ I am the LORD your God,

who brought you up out of Egypt.

Open wide your mouth,

and I will fill it.

¹¹ But My people would not listen to Me,

and Israel would not obey Me.

¹² So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts

to follow their own devices.

¹³ If only My people would listen to Me,

if Israel would follow My ways,

¹⁴ how soon I would subdue their enemies

and turn My hand against their foes!

¹⁵ Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience,

and their doom would last forever.

¹⁶ But I would feed you the finest wheat;

with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”