Sermon: If Only My People Would Listen

Psalm 81

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.

[1] Sing aloud to God our strength;

shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

[2] Raise a song; sound the tambourine,

the sweet lyre with the harp.

[3] Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

at the full moon, on our feast day.

[4] For it is a statute for Israel,

a rule of the God of Jacob.

[5] He made it a decree in Joseph

when he went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a language I had not known:

[6] “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

your hands were freed from the basket.

[7] In distress you called, and I delivered you;

I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

[8] Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

[9] There shall be no strange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

[10] 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.

[11] “But my people did not listen to my voice;

Israel would not submit to me.

[12] So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

to follow their own counsels.

[13] Oh, that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would walk in my ways!

[14] I would soon subdue their enemies

and turn my hand against their foes.

[15] Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,

and their fate would last forever.

[16] But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,

and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (ESV)