[Image: Introduction to the Psalms]
PSALMS 81-82
Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
[1] Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
[2] Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
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,
a rule 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 language 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 Meribah. 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 not submit to me.
[12] So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
[13] Oh, 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 forever.
[16] But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Rescue the Weak and Needy
A Psalm of Asaph.
[1] God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
[2] “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
[3] Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
[4] Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
[5] They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
[6] I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
[7] nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
[8] Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations! (ESV)
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