If Only You Would Listen
For the director of music; on the gittith. A psalm of Asaph.
Festival music — trumpet, tambourine, new moon — interrupted by our Father's own voice. He recalls lifting the basket off their shoulders and says, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Then the ache: if only my people would listen.
81 1Sing for joy to our Father, our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! 2Strike up a song, beat the tambourine, the sweet lyre and the harp. 3Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on the day of our feast. 4For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5He appointed it as a testimony for Joseph when he went out against the land of Egypt. I heard a language I had not known:
6"I removed the burden from his shoulder; his hands were freed from the basket.
7"In your distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you from the hiding place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 8Hear, my people, and I will warn you—Israel, if only you would listen to me! 9There must be no foreign god among you; you must not bow down to any other god.
10"I am your Father, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11But my people would not listen to my voice; Israel would not yield to me. 12So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own plans. 13If only my people would listen to me, if Israel would walk in my ways! 14How soon I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! 15Those who hate our Father would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever. 16But he would feed them with the finest wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."
