7Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of all generations.
Ask your father, and he will inform you,
Your elders, and they will tell you.
8When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
When He separated the sons of man,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the sons of Israel.
9For the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
10He found him in a desert land,
And in the howling waste of a wilderness;
He encircled him, He cared for him,
He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
11Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
That hovers over its young,
He spread His wings and caught them,
He carried them on His pinions.
12The Lord alone guided him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
13He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
And he ate the produce of the field;
And He made him suck honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock,
14Curds of cows, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs,
And rams, the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the finest of the wheat—
And of the blood of grapes you drank wine.
PSALM 81
God’s Goodness and Israel’s Waywardness.
For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of Asaph.
1Sing for joy to God our strength;
Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.
2Raise a song, strike the timbrel,
The sweet sounding lyre with the harp.
3Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
At the full moon, on our feast day.
4For it is a statute for Israel,
An ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5He established it for a testimony in Joseph
When he went throughout the land of Egypt.
I heard a language that I did not know:
6“I relieved his shoulder of the burden,
His hands were freed from the basket.
7You called in trouble and I rescued you;
I answered you in the hiding place of thunder;
I proved you at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
8Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you;
O Israel, if you would listen to Me!
9Let there be no strange god among you;
Nor shall you worship any foreign god.
10I, the Lord, am your God,
Who brought you up from the land of Egypt;
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11“But My people did not listen to My voice,
And Israel did not obey Me.
12So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart,
To walk in their own devices.
13Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
14I would quickly subdue their enemies
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
15Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.
16But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
9But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; 10and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.
12Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
19This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;
1) How does Moses’ call to remember יהוה’s care parallel Psalm 81’s reminder of His deliverance?
2) What connection do you see between remembering יהוה’s blessings and the call to “be swift to hear”?
3) How does gratitude guard the heart from drifting into forgetfulness or pride?
56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies,
57But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;
They turned aside like a treacherous bow.
58For they provoked Him with their high places
And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.
59When God heard, He was filled with wrath
And greatly abhorred Israel;
60So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,
The tent which He had pitched among men,
61And gave up His strength to captivity
And His glory into the hand of the adversary.
62He also delivered His people to the sword,
And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.
63Fire devoured His young men,
And His virgins had no wedding songs.
64His priests fell by the sword,
And His widows could not weep.
65Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
Like a warrior overcome by wine.
66He drove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting reproach.
67He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loved.
69And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.
70He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
72So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.
All the Tribes Are Guilty
1Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt:
2“You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth;
Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
3Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment?
4Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?
Does a young lion growl from his den unless he has captured something?
5Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it?
Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all?
6If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble?
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?
7Surely the Lord God does nothing
Unless He reveals His secret counsel
To His servants the prophets.
8A lion has roared! Who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
9Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod and on the citadels in the land of Egypt and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great tumults within her and the oppressions in her midst. 10But they do not know how to do what is right,” declares the Lord, “these who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels.”
11Therefore, thus says the Lord God,
“An enemy, even one surrounding the land,
Will pull down your strength from you
And your citadels will be looted.”
12Thus says the Lord,
“Just as the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear,
So will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away—
With the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch!
13Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,”
Declares the Lord God, the God of hosts.
14“For on the day that I punish Israel’s transgressions,
I will also punish the altars of Bethel;
The horns of the altar will be cut off
And they will fall to the ground.
15I will also smite the winter house together with the summer house;
The houses of ivory will also perish
And the great houses will come to an end,”
Declares the Lord.