Psalms 81-83

Psalm 81

¹To the Overseer. -- ‘On the Gittith.' By Asaph. Cry aloud to God our strength, Shout to the God of Jacob.

²Lift up a song, and give out a timbrel, A pleasant harp with psaltery.

³Blow in the month a trumpet, In the new moon, at the day of our festival,

⁴For a statute to Israel it is, An ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵A testimony on Joseph He hath placed it, In his going forth over the land of Egypt. A lip, I have not known -- I hear.

⁶From the burden his shoulder I turned aside, His hands from the basket pass over.

⁷In distress thou hast called and I deliver thee, I answer thee in the secret place of thunder, I try thee by the waters of Meribah. Selah.

⁸Hear, O My people, and I testify to thee, O Israel, if thou dost hearken to me:

⁹There is not in thee a strange god, And thou bowest not thyself to a strange god.

¹⁰I am Jehovah thy God, Who bringeth thee up out of the land of Egypt. Enlarge thy mouth, and I fill it.

¹¹But, My people hearkened not to My voice, And Israel hath not consented to Me.

¹²And I send them away in the enmity of their heart, They walk in their own counsels.

¹³O that My people were hearkening to Me, Israel in My ways would walk.

¹⁴As a little thing their enemies I cause to bow, And against their adversaries I turn back My hand,

¹⁵Those hating Jehovah feign obedience to Him, But their time is -- to the age.

¹⁶He causeth him to eat of the fat of wheat, And with honey from a rock I satisfy thee!

Psalm 82

¹-- A Psalm of Asaph. God hath stood in the company of God, In the midst God doth judge.

²Till when do ye judge perversely? And the face of the wicked lift up? Selah.

³Judge ye the weak and fatherless, The afflicted and the poor declare righteous.

⁴Let the weak and needy escape, From the hand of the wicked deliver them.

⁵They knew not, nor do they understand, In darkness they walk habitually, Moved are all the foundations of earth.

⁶I -- I have said, ‘Gods ye are, And sons of the Most High -- all of you,

⁷But as man ye die, and as one of the heads ye fall,

⁸Rise, O God, judge the earth, For Thou hast inheritance among all the nations!

Psalm 83

¹A Song, -- A Psalm of Asaph. O God, let there be no silence to Thee, Be not silent, nor be quiet, O God.

²For, lo, Thine enemies do roar, And those hating Thee have lifted up the head,

³Against Thy people they take crafty counsel, And consult against Thy hidden ones.

⁴They have said, ‘Come, And we cut them off from being a nation, And the name of Israel is not remembered any more.'

⁵For they consulted in heart together, Against Thee a covenant they make,

⁶Tents of Edom, and Ishmaelites, Moab, and the Hagarenes,

⁷Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia with inhabitants of Tyre,

⁸Asshur also is joined with them, They have been an arm to sons of Lot. Selah.

⁹Do to them as to Midian, As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the stream Kishon.

¹⁰They were destroyed at Endor, They were dung for the ground!

¹¹Make their nobles as Oreb and as Zeeb, And as Zebah and Zalmunna all their princes,

¹²Who have said, ‘Let us occupy for ourselves The comely places of God.'

¹³O my God, make them as a rolling thing, As stubble before wind.

¹⁴As a fire doth burn a forest, And as a flame setteth hills on fire,

¹⁵So dost Thou pursue them with Thy whirlwind, And with Thy hurricane troublest them.

¹⁶Fill their faces with shame, And they seek Thy name, O Jehovah.

¹⁷They are ashamed and troubled for ever, Yea, they are confounded and lost.

¹⁸And they know that Thou -- (Thy name is Jehovah -- by Thyself,) Art the Most High over all the earth!