81
Sing for Joy to God Our Strength
 
For the choirmaster. According to Gittith.* Gittith is probably a musical or liturgical term; here and in Psalms 8 and 84. Of Asaph.
 
Sing for joy to God our strength;
make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.
Lift up a song, strike the tambourine,
play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.
Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.
For this is a statute for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
He ordained it as a testimony for Joseph Or in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt,
where I heard an unfamiliar language:
 
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
his hands were freed from the basket.
You called out in distress, and I rescued you;
I answered you from the cloud of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Meribah means quarreling; see Exodus 17:7.
Selah
Hear, O My people, and I will warn you:
O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!
There must be no strange god among you,
nor shall you bow to a foreign god.
10 I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth,
and I will fill it.
 
11 But My people would not listen to Me,
and Israel would not obey Me.
12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts
to follow their own devices.
13 If only My people would listen to Me,
if Israel would follow My ways,
14 how soon I would subdue their enemies
and turn My hand against their foes!
15 Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience,
and their doom would last forever.
16 But I would feed you the finest wheat;
with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

*^ Gittith is probably a musical or liturgical term; here and in Psalms 8 and 84.

81:5 Or in Joseph

81:7 Meribah means quarreling; see Exodus 17:7.