81
Sing for Joy to God Our Strength 
 
For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. Of Asaph. 
 
   
 
1 Sing for joy to God our strength;  
make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.   
2 Lift up a song, strike the tambourine,  
play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.   
3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,  
and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.   
4 For this is a statute for Israel,  
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.   
5 He ordained it as a testimony for Joseph   
when he went out over the land of Egypt,  
where I heard an unfamiliar language:   
   
 
6 “I relieved his shoulder of the burden;  
his hands were freed from the basket.   
7 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.   
Selah  
8 Hear, O My people, and I will warn you:  
O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!   
9 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.”