God’s Appeal to Stubborn Israel
To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day.
For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over[a] the land of Egypt.
I hear a voice I had not known:
“I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Selah
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever.
I would feed you[d] with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”