Psalm 81

Common Metre (8,6,8,6)

Suggested Tunes:

(vv.1-7) 34 Bishopthorpe, 153 Old 81st

(vv.8-16) 112 St Flavian, 106 St Anne

1    Sing loud to God our strength; with joy

            to Jacob’s God do sing.

2    Take up a psalm, the pleasant harp,

            timbrel and psalt’ry bring.

3    Blow trumpets at new-moon, what day

            our feast appointed is:

4    For charge to Isr’el, and a law

            of Jacob’s God was this.

5    To Joseph this a testimony

            he made, when Egypt land

      He travell’d through, where speech I heard

            I did not understand.

6    His shoulder I from burdens took,

            his hands from pots did free.

7    Thou didst in trouble on me call,

            and I deliver’d thee:

      In secret place of thundering

            I did thee answer make;

      And at the streams of Meribah

            of thee a proof did take.

8    O thou, my people, give an ear,

            I’ll testify to thee;

      To thee, O Isr’el, if thou wilt

            but hearken unto me.

9    In midst of thee there shall not be

            any strange god at all;

      Nor unto any god unknown

            thou bowing down shalt fall.

10  I am the Lord thy God, which did

            from Egypt land thee guide;

      I’ll fill thy mouth abundantly,

            do thou it open wide.

11  But yet my people to my voice

            would not attentive be;

      And ev’n my chosen Israel

            he would have none of me.

12  So to the lust of their own hearts

            I them delivered;

      And then in counsels of their own

            they vainly wandered.

13  O that my people had me heard,

            Isr’el my ways had chose!

14  I had their en’mies soon subdu’d,

            my hand turn’d on their foes.

15  The haters of the Lord to him

            submission should have feign’d;

      But as for them, their time should have

            for evermore remain’d.

16  He should have also fed them with

            the finest of the wheat;

      Of honey from the rock thy fill

            I should have made thee eat.