Psalm 81

Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

¹Sing aloud to God our strength;[#Deut. 32:43]

shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

²Raise a song; sound the tambourine,[#Ex. 15:20]

the sweet lyre with the harp.

³Blow the trumpet at the new moon,[#Lev. 23:24; Num. 10:10; 29:1]

at the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴For it is a statute for Israel,

a rule of the God of Jacob.

⁵He made it a decree in Joseph[#Ps. 122:4; Ps. 78:5; #Ps. 77:15; 78:67; 80:1]

when he went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a language I had not known:

⁶“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;[#Isa. 9:4; 10:27; #81:6 Hebrew ; also next line; #Ex. 1:11]

your hands were freed from the basket.

⁷In distress you called, and I delivered you;[#Ps. 50:15; Ex. 2:23; 14:10]

I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

⁸Hear, O my people, while I admonish you![#Ps. 50:7]

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

⁹There shall be no strange god among you;[#Ps. 44:20; Isa. 43:12; Ex. 20:3]

you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

¹⁰I am the Lord your God,[#Ex. 20:2]

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.

¹²So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,[#Job 8:4; Acts 7:42; 14:16; Rom. 1:24, 26; #Deut. 29:19]

to follow their own counsels.

¹³Oh, that my people would listen to me,[#Deut. 5:29; 32:29; Isa. 48:18]

that Israel would walk in my ways!

¹⁴I would soon subdue their enemies

and turn my hand against their foes.

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,[#Ps. 18:44]

and their fate would last forever.

¹⁶But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,[#81:16 That is, Israel; Hebrew; #Ps. 147:14; Deut. 32:14]

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