UST PSA Chapter 81

81 This is a note for the worship leader: song stringed instrument. Levite from of Asaph wrote this

1 Sing joyfully to God, who makes us strong!

Shout with joy to the God whom we Israelites worship!

2 Start playing music! Beat tambourines

and play lyres and pleasant-sounding harps.

3 Blow a ram’s horn for the new-moon festival each month

and on the day of the full moon when the Festival of Shelters begins.

4 Do this because the God whom we Israelite people worship

has commanded us to do it.

5 God told our ancestors to observe these festivals

when he delivered them from slavery to the Egyptians,

a people whose language they did not understand.

6 Yahweh says, “They had to hold on to heavy baskets full of bricks

as they carried them on their shoulders,

but I freed them from doing that.

7 When they were suffering, they cried to me for help, and I rescued them.

At Mount Sinai, I spoke to them from dark clouds and gave them laws.

Then I saw whether they trusted me

when they complained at Meribah that they had no water. Selah

8 Listen to me, my people, while I warn you!

I wish that you Israelites would pay attention to me!

9 You must not make any idols that represent any of the gods that other nations worship.

You must never bow down to worship any of those gods.

10 I am Yahweh your God.

I am the one who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.

If you depend on me,

I will provide everything that you need.

11 However, my people would not listen to what I said;

the Israelites refused to obey me.

12 So I let them do whatever they stubbornly wanted to do;

they did whatever they had decided to do.

13 I wish that my people would obey me!

Yes, I wish that the Israelites would live the way I want them to!

14 Then I would use my power against those who are opposing them,

and I would easily defeat their enemies.

15 Then those who had rebelled against Yahweh

would bow down fearfully in front of him to submit to his authority.

But the Israelites would always prosper.

16 I would make their fields produce abundant crops,

and they would even find all the honey they wanted

in wild bee hives in rocky places.”