Psalm 80-81

New Living Translation

¹ Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock.
O God, enthroned above the cherubim,
    display your radiant glory
²     to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Show us your mighty power.
    Come to rescue us!

³ Turn us again to yourself, O God.
    Make your face shine down upon us.
    Only then will we be saved.
⁴ O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,
    how long will you be angry with our prayers?
⁵ You have fed us with sorrow
    and made us drink tears by the bucketful.
⁶ You have made us the scorn^[a] of neighboring nations.
    Our enemies treat us as a joke.

⁷ Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies.
    Make your face shine down upon us.
    Only then will we be saved.
⁸ You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine;
    you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.
⁹ You cleared the ground for us,
    and we took root and filled the land.
¹⁰ Our shade covered the mountains;
    our branches covered the mighty cedars.
¹¹ We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea;
    our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.^[b]
12 But now, why have you broken down our walls
    so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?
¹³ The wild boar from the forest devours it,
    and the wild animals feed on it.

¹⁴ Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies.
    Look down from heaven and see our plight.
Take care of this grapevine
¹⁵     that you yourself have planted,
    this son you have raised for yourself.
¹⁶ For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies.
    May they perish at the sight of your frown.
¹⁷ Strengthen the man you love,
    the son of your choice.
¹⁸ Then we will never abandon you again.
    Revive us so we can call on your name once more.

¹⁹ Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.
    Make your face shine down upon us.
    Only then will we be saved.

¹ Sing praises to God, our strength.
    Sing to the God of Jacob.
² Sing! Beat the tambourine.
    Play the sweet lyre and the harp.
³ Blow the ram’s horn at new moon,
    and again at full moon to call a festival!
⁴ For this is required by the decrees of Israel;
    it is a regulation of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He made it a law for Israel^[d]
    when he attacked Egypt to set us free.

I heard an unknown voice say,
⁶ “Now I will take the load from your shoulders;
    I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
⁷ You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you;
    I answered out of the thundercloud
    and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Interlude

⁸ “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
    O Israel, if you would only listen to me!
⁹ You must never have a foreign god;
    you must not bow down before a false god.
¹⁰ For it was I, the Lord your God,
    who rescued you from the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

¹¹ “But no, my people wouldn’t listen.
    Israel did not want me around.
¹² So I let them follow their own stubborn desires,
    living according to their own ideas.
¹³ Oh, that my people would listen to me!
    Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
¹⁴ How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!
    How soon my hands would be upon their foes!
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him;
    they would be doomed forever.
¹⁶ But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”