Psalm 81

Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. 1 Of Asaph.

1
h Sing aloud to God our strength;
i shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
 2 Raise a song; sound j the tambourine,
k the sweet lyre with k the harp.
 3 Blow the trumpet at l the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.

4 For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule 2 of the God of Jacob.
 5 He made it m a decree in n Joseph
when he o went out over 3 the land of Egypt.
p I hear a language q I had not known:
 6 "I r relieved your 4 shoulder of s the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
 7 In distress you t called, and I delivered you;
I u answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I v tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
 8 w Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
 9 There shall be no x strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a y foreign god.
 10 z I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
a Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 "But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel b would not submit to me.
 12 So I c gave them over to their d stubborn hearts,
to follow their own e counsels.
 13 f Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would g walk in my ways!
 14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and h turn my hand against their foes.
 15 Those who hate the Lord would i cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
 16 But he would feed you 5 with j the finest of the wheat,
and with k honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

  1. Cross References
    Psalms 8:1
    O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
    Psalms 84:1
    How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 50:1
    The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
  3. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:43
    "Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people's land."
  4. Cross References
    Psalms 66:1
    Shout for joy to God, all the earth.
  5. Cross References
    Exodus 15:20
    Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 71:22
    I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
  7. Cross References
    Psalms 71:22
    I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
  8. Cross References
    Leviticus 23:24
    Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation.
    Numbers 10:10
    On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the Lord your God.
    Numbers 29:1
    On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets.
  9. Cross References
    Psalms 122:4
    To which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
    Psalms 78:5
    He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children.
  10. Cross References
    Psalms 77:15
    You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
    Psalms 78:67
    He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
    Psalms 80:1
    Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
  11. Cross References
    Exodus 11:4
    So Moses said, "Thus says the Lord : About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt.
  12. Cross References
    Psalms 114:1
    When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language.
  13. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 28:49
    The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.
    Jeremiah 5:15
    Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.
  14. Cross References
    Isaiah 9:4
    For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
    Isaiah 10:27
    And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.
  15. Cross References
    Exodus 1:11
    Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.
  16. Cross References
    Psalms 50:15
    And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
    Exodus 2:23
    During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
    Exodus 14:10
    When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord.
  17. Cross References
    Exodus 19:19
    And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.
    Psalms 18:11 - 14
    He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.
  18. Cross References
    Exodus 17:7
    And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?
    Numbers 20:13
    These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.
  19. Cross References
    Psalms 50:7
    Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
  20. Cross References
    Psalms 44:20
    If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god.
    Isaiah 43:12
    I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and I am God.
    Exodus 20:3
    You shall have no other gods before me.
  21. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:12
    The Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.
  22. Cross References
    Exodus 20:2
    I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
  23. Cross References
    Psalms 37:3 - 4
    Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
  24. Cross References
    Exodus 32:1
    When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
    Deuteronomy 32:15
    But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
    Deuteronomy 32:18
    You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
    Proverbs 1:25
    Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof.
    Proverbs 1:30
    Would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof.
  25. Cross References
    Job 8:4
    If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
    Acts 7:42
    But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: "'Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
    Acts 14:16
    In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
    Romans 1:24
    Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
    Romans 1:26
    For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
  26. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 29:19
    One who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.
  27. Cross References
    Psalms 106:43
    Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.
    Jeremiah 7:24
    But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
    Micah 6:16
    For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.
  28. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 5:29
    Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!
    Deuteronomy 32:29
    If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end!
    Isaiah 48:18
    Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
  29. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 5:33
    You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
  30. Cross References
    Amos 1:8
    I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish," says the Lord God.
  31. Cross References
    Psalms 18:44
    As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me.
  32. Cross References
    Psalms 147:14
    He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
    Deuteronomy 32:14
    Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat - and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
  33. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:13
    He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.
    Job 29:6
    When my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
    Ezekiel 16:19
    Also my bread that I gave you - I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey - you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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