Psalms
Psalms 81
For the end, concerning the winepresses. A psalm by Asaph.
1 Celebrate in God our helper; shout to Jacob’s God!
2 Take up a psalm and sound the hand-drum, the pleasant harp together with the lyre.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on the prominent day of our feast.
4 This is a decree for Israel and a judgment belonging to Jacob’s God.
5 He established it as a witness in Joseph when he came out from the land of Egypt. He heard a language he did not know.
6 He removed the burden from his back; his hands had slaved at the basket.
7 “You called upon me in affliction, and I rescued you. I listened to you from the storm’s secret place; I tested you at the water of Strife. Pause.
8 Listen, my people, and I will testify to you. Israel, if you would listen to me,
9 there would be no recent god among you, and you would not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people did not listen to my voice, and Israel paid no attention to me.
12 So I sent them away according to the practices of their hearts; they will walk in their own practices.
13 If my people had listened to me, if Israel had walked in my ways,
14 I would have quickly humbled their enemies and laid my hand upon those who afflicted them.”
15 The Lord’s enemies lied to him, and their time will last forever.
16 He fed them from the fat of wheat and filled them with honey from a rock.