- Sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Sound the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day; for this was a statute for Israel and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not:
- I removed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were delivered from the pots. You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I proved you at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you, O Israel, if you will listen unto me. There shall no strange god be in you, neither shall you worship any strange god. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to my voice, and Israel would have none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust, and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had listened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways. I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him, but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock I should have satisfied you.
Psalm 81
To the chief musician upon Gittith, a psalm of Asaph.