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Psalm 81

God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel

To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
¹ Sing aloud to God our strength;
   shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
² Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
   the sweet lyre with the harp.
³ Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
   at the full moon, on our festal day.
⁴ For it is a statute for Israel,
   an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He made it a decree in Joseph,
   when he went out over^* the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:
⁶ ‘I relieved your^* shoulder of the burden;
   your^* hands were freed from the basket.
⁷ In distress you called, and I rescued you;
   I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
   I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
          Selah
⁸ Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
   O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no strange god among you;
   you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
   who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
   Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

¹¹ ‘But my people did not listen to my voice;
   Israel would not submit to me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
   to follow their own counsels.
¹³ O that my people would listen to me,
   that Israel would walk in my ways!
¹⁴ Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
   and turn my hand against their foes.
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
   and their doom would last for ever.
¹⁶ I would feed you^* with the finest of the wheat,
   and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’