Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me (PSA 81:1-16)

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.

[81:1] Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

[81:2] Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.

[81:3] Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.

[81:4] For it is a statute for Israel, a rule of the God of Jacob.

[81:5] He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a language I had not known:

[81:6] “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.

[81:7] In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

[81:8] Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

[81:9] There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

[81:10] 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.

[81:11] “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.

[81:12] So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.

[81:13] Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

[81:14] I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes.

[81:15] Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever.

[81:16] But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

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