Sing aloud to God our strength;

     shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

Raise a song, sound a tambourine,

     the sweet lyre with the harp.

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

     at the full moon, on our festival day.

For it is a statute for Israel,

     an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

He made it a decree in Joseph,

     when he went out over the land of Egypt.

     I hear a voice I had not known:

I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

     your hands were freed from the basket.

In distress you called, and I rescued you;

     I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

     I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;

     O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

There shall be no strange god among you;

     You shall not bow down to a foreign god.

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.

But my people did not listen to my voice;

     Israel would not submit to me.

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

     to follow their own counsels.

O that my people would listen to me,

     that Israel would walk in my ways!

Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,

     And turn my hand against their foes.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,

     and their doom would last forever.

I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

     and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Psalm 81