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Psalm 81 :: Amplified Bible (AMP)

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Waywardness.

Psa 81:1

To the Chief Musician; set to the [fn]Philistine lute. A Psalm of Asaph.

Sing aloud to God our strength;

Shout for joy to the God of Jacob (Israel).

Psa 81:2

Raise a song, sound the timbrel,

The sweet sounding lyre with the harp.

Psa 81:3

Blow the trumpet at the New Moon,

At the [fn]full moon, on our feast day.

Psa 81:4

For this is a statute for Israel,

An ordinance of the God of Jacob.

Psa 81:5

He established it for a testimony in [fn]Joseph

When He went throughout the land of Egypt.

I heard the language [of One whom] I did not know, saying,

Psa 81:6

“I removed the burden from his shoulder;

His hands were freed from the basket.

Psa 81:7

“You called in [the time of] trouble and I rescued you;

I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah.

Psa 81:8

“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you—

O Israel, if you would listen to Me!

Psa 81:9

“Let there be no strange god among you,

Nor shall you worship any foreign god.

Psa 81:10

“I am the LORD your God,

Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Psa 81:11

“But My people would not listen to My voice,

And Israel did not [consent to] obey Me.

Psa 81:12

“So I gave them up to the stubbornness of their heart,

To walk in [the path of] their own counsel.

Psa 81:13

“Oh, that My people would listen to Me,

That Israel would walk in My ways!

Psa 81:14

“Then I would quickly subdue and humble their enemies

And turn My hand against their adversaries;

Psa 81:15

Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him and cringe before Him,

And their time of punishment would be forever.

Psa 81:16

“But I would feed Israel with the finest of the wheat;

And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

AMP Footnotes
A technical musical term, meaning uncertain.
Or New Moon, lit covering, i.e. when the moon is “covered” or hidden. This was taken by the ancient rabbis to refer to the festival of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana).
Curiously, in this one verse Joseph’s name has an extra letter, an “h.” In an example of rabbinic lore, the ancient rabbis said that because Joseph sanctified the divine name in private (by resisting Potiphar’s wife) he merited having one letter of the divine name (Yahweh) added to his. Another rabbinic explanation is that when Pharaoh was about to elevate Joseph to power, the astrologers demanded that Joseph speak the 70 languages of the world. The angel Gabriel came to teach him, but Joseph was unable until Gabriel added to his name the extra letter from the divine name.
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