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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.’

4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
   that they went far from me,
and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?
⁶ They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
   who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
   in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
   in a land that no one passes through,
   where no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a plentiful land
   to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land,
   and made my heritage an abomination.
⁸ The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
   Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers^* transgressed against me;
   the prophets prophesied by Baal,
   and went after things that do not profit.

⁹ Therefore once more I accuse you,

says the Lord,
   and I accuse your children’s children.
¹⁰ Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
   send to Kedar and examine with care;
   see if there has ever been such a thing.
¹¹ Has a nation changed its gods,
   even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
   for something that does not profit.
¹² Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
   be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the Lord,
¹³ for my people have committed two evils:
   they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
   and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
   that can hold no water.

14 About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. ¹⁵The Jews were astonished at it, saying, ‘How does this man have such learning,^* when he has never been taught?’ ¹⁶Then Jesus answered them, ‘My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. ¹⁷Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. ¹⁸Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.

19 ‘Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’ ²⁰The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?’ ²¹Jesus answered them, ‘I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. ²²Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. ²³If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath? ²⁴Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.’

Is This the Christ?

25 Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? ²⁶And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?^{* 27}Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah^* comes, no one will know where he is from.’ ²⁸Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. ²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’ ³⁰Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, ‘When the Messiah^* comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?’^*

Rivers of Living Water

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. As^* the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart^* shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ ³⁹Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit,^* because Jesus was not yet glorified.