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Psalm 81

For the music leader. According to the Gittith. Of Asaph.

81 Rejoice out loud to God, our strength!
    Shout for joy to Jacob’s God!
Take up a song and strike the drum!
    Sweet lyre along with harp!
Blow the horn on the new moon,
    at the full moon, for our day of celebration!
Because this is the law for Israel;
    this is a rule of Jacob’s God.
He made it a decree for Joseph
    when he went out against the land of Egypt,
    when I heard a language I did not yet know:

“I lifted the burden off your shoulders;
    your hands are free of the brick basket!
In distress you cried out, so I rescued you.
    I answered you in the secret of thunder.
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
Listen, my people, I’m warning you!
    If only you would listen to me, Israel.
There must be no foreign god among you.
    You must not bow down to any strange deity.
10 I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up from Egypt’s land.
    Open your mouth wide—I will fill it up!

11 But my people wouldn’t listen to my voice.
    Israel simply wasn’t agreeable toward me.
12 So I sent them off to follow their willful hearts;
    they followed their own advice.
13 How I wish my people would listen to me!
    How I wish Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would subdue their enemies in a second;
    I would turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would grovel before me,
    and their doom would last forever!
16 But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”

Psalm 82

A psalm of Asaph.

82 God takes his stand in the divine council;
    he gives judgment among the gods:
“How long will you judge unjustly
    by granting favor to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the lowly and the orphan;
    maintain the right of the poor and the destitute!
Rescue the lowly and the needy.
    Deliver them from the power of the wicked!

They don’t know; they don’t understand;
    they wander around in the dark.
    All the earth’s foundations shake.

    I hereby declare, “You are gods,
    children of the Most High—all of you!
But you will die like mortals;
    you will fall down like any prince.”

Rise up, God! Judge the earth
    because you hold all nations in your possession!

Psalm 83

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

83 God, don’t be silent!
    Don’t be quiet or sit still, God,
    because—look!—your enemies are growling;
    those who hate you are acting arrogantly.
They concoct crafty plans against your own people;
    they plot against the people you favor.
“Come on,” they say, “let’s wipe them out as a nation!
    Let the name Israel be remembered no more!”
They plot with a single-minded heart;
    they make a covenant against you.
They are the clans of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    Moab and the Hagrites,
    Gebal, Ammon, Amalek,
    Philistia along with the citizens of Tyre.
Assyria too has joined them—
    they are the strong arm for Lot’s children. Selah

Do to them what you did to Midian,
    to Sisera, and to Jabin at the Kishon River.
10 They were destroyed at Endor;
    they became fertilizer for the ground.
11 Make their officials like Oreb and Zeeb,
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna—
12     those who said, “Let’s take God’s pastures for ourselves.”
13 My God, make them like tumbleweeds,
    like chaff blown by wind.
14 Just like a fire consumes a forest,
    just like flames set mountains ablaze,
15         pursue them with your storm,
        terrify them with your hurricane.
16 Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they might seek your name.
17 Let them be shamed and terrified forever.
    Let them die in disgrace.
18     Let them know that you—
        your name is the Lord!—
    you alone are Most High over all the earth.

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