¹Lord, just singing about you makes me strong!

So I’ll keep shouting for joy to Jacob’s God, my champion.

²Let the celebration begin!

I will sing with drum accompaniment and with the sweet sound

of the harp and guitar strumming.

³Go ahead! Blow the jubilee trumpet to begin the feast!

Blow it before every joyous celebration and festival.

⁴For God has given us these seasons of joy,

days that the God of Jacob decreed for us to celebrate and rejoice.

⁵He has given these feasts to remind us of his triumph over Egypt,

when he went out to wage war against them.

I heard the message in an unknown tongue as he said to me,

⁶“I have removed your backbreaking burdens

and have freed your hands from the hard labor and toil.

⁷You called out to me in your time of trouble, and I rescued you.

I came down from the realm of the secret place of thunder,

where mysteries hide.

I came down to save you.

I tested your hearts at the place where there was no water to drink,

the place of your bitter argument with me.”

⁸“Listen to me, my dear people.

For I’m warning you, and you’d better listen well!

For I hold something against you.

⁹Don’t ever be guilty of worshiping any other god but me.

¹⁰I am your only God, the living God.

Wasn’t I the one who broke the strongholds over you

and raised you up out of bondage?

Open your mouth with a mighty decree;

I will fulfill it now, you’ll see!

The words that you speak, so shall it be!

¹¹But my people still wouldn’t listen;

my princely people would not yield to me.

¹²So I lifted my grace from off of their lives, and I surrendered them

to the stubbornness of their hearts.

For they were living according to their own selfish fantasies.

¹³O that my people would once and for all listen to me

and walk faithfully in my footsteps, following my ways.

¹⁴Then and only then will I conquer your every foe

and tell every one of them, ‘You must go!’

¹⁵Those who hate my ways will cringe before me

and their punishment will be eternal.

¹⁶But I will feed you with my spiritual bread.

You will feast and be satisfied with me,

feeding on my revelation-truth like honey

dripping from the cliffs of the high place.”