Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me

To the choirmaster: according to fThe Gittith.1 Of gAsaph.

¹hSing aloud to God our strength;

ishout for joy to the God of Jacob!

²Raise a song; sound jthe tambourine,

kthe sweet lyre with kthe harp.

³Blow the trumpet at lthe new moon,

at the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴For it is a statute for Israel,

a rule2 of the God of Jacob.

⁵He made it ma decree in nJoseph

when he owent out over3 the land of Egypt.

pI hear a language qI had not known:

⁶“I rrelieved your4 shoulder of sthe burden;

your hands were freed from the basket.

⁷In distress you tcalled, and I delivered you;

I uanswered you in the secret place of thunder;

I vtested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

⁸wHear, O my people, while I admonish you!

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

⁹There shall be no xstrange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a yforeign god.

¹⁰zI am the Lord your God,

who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

aOpen your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

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

Israel bwould not submit to me.

¹²So I cgave them over to their dstubborn hearts,

to follow their own ecounsels.

¹³fOh, that my people would listen to me,

that Israel would gwalk in my ways!

¹⁴I would soon subdue their enemies

and hturn my hand against their foes.

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would icringe toward him,

and their fate would last forever.

¹⁶But he would feed you5 with jthe finest of the wheat,

and with khoney from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Rescue the Weak and Needy

A Psalm of lAsaph.

¹mGod nhas taken his place in the divine council;

in the midst of pthe gods he qholds judgment:

²“How long will you judge unjustly

and rshow partiality to sthe wicked? Selah

³tGive justice to uthe weak and the fatherless;

vmaintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

⁴wRescue the weak and the needy;

xdeliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

⁵yThey have neither knowledge nor understanding,

zthey walk about in darkness;

aall the foundations of the earth are bshaken.

⁶cI said, “You are gods,

sons of the Most High, all of you;

⁷nevertheless, like men dyou shall die,

and fall like any prince.”1

⁸eArise, O God, judge the earth;

for you shall finherit all the nations!