Behold the power of God in the Psalms!

The future proves the past.

Psalm 81

God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of Asaph.

81 Sing aloud to God our strength;

shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

2 Raise a song, sound the timbrel,

the sweet lyre with the harp.

3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

at the full moon, on our feast day.

4 For it is a statute for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

5 He made it a decree in Joseph,

when he went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:

6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

your hands were freed from the basket.

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 Mer′ibah. Selah

8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

9 There shall be no strange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

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.

11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;

Israel would have none of me.

12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

to follow their own counsels.

13 O that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would walk in my ways!

14 I would soon subdue their enemies,

and turn my hand against their foes.

15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,

and their fate would last for ever.

16 I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

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