Psalms 81; Psalms 82; Psalms 83; Romans 11:19-36

1 Sing joyfully to God, our strength. Shout happily to the God of Jacob.

2 Begin a psalm, and strike a tambourine. Play lyres and harps with their pleasant music.

3 Blow the ram's horn on the day of the new moon, on the day of the full moon, on our festival days.

4 This is a law for Israel, a legal decision from the God of Jacob.

5 These are the instructions God set in place for Joseph when Joseph rose to power over Egypt. I heard a message I did not understand:

6 "I removed the burden from his shoulder. His hands were freed from the basket.

7 When you were in trouble, you called out [to me], and I rescued you. I was hidden in thunder, but I answered you. I tested your [loyalty] at the oasis of Meribah. Selah

8 Listen, my people, and I will warn you. Israel, if you would only listen to me!

9 Never keep any strange god among you. Never worship a foreign god.

10 I am the LORD your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 "But my people did not listen to me. Israel wanted nothing to do with me.

12 So I let them go their own stubborn ways and follow their own advice.

13 If only my people would listen to me! If only Israel would follow me!

14 I would quickly defeat their enemies. I would turn my power against their foes.

15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe in front of him, and their time [for punishment] would last forever.

16 But I would feed Israel with the finest wheat and satisfy them with honey from a rock."

1 God takes his place in his own assembly. He pronounces judgment among the gods:

2 "How long are you going to judge unfairly? How long are you going to side with wicked people?" Selah

3 Defend weak people and orphans. Protect the rights of the oppressed and the poor.

4 Rescue weak and needy people. Help them escape the power of wicked people.

5 Wicked people do not know or understand anything. As they walk around in the dark, all the foundations of the earth shake.

6 I said, "You are gods. You are all sons of the Most High.

7 You will certainly die like humans and fall like any prince."

8 Arise, O God! Judge the earth, because all the nations belong to you.

1 O God, do not remain silent. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. Do not keep quiet, O God.

2 Look, your enemies are in an uproar. Those who hate you hold their heads high.

3 They make plans in secret against your people and plot together against those you treasure.

4 They say, "Let's wipe out their nation so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered."

5 They agree completely on their plan. They form an alliance against you:

6 the tents from Edom and Ishmael, Moab and Hagar,

7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia, along with those who live in Tyre.

8 Even Assyria has joined them. They helped the descendants of Lot. Selah

9 Do to them what you did to Midian, to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.

10 They were destroyed at Endor. They became manure to fertilize the ground.

11 Treat their influential people as you treated Oreb and Zeeb. Treat all their leaders like Zebah and Zalmunna.

12 They said, "Let's take God's pasturelands for ourselves."

13 O my God, blow them away like tumbleweeds, like husks in the wind.

14 Pursue them with your storms, and terrify them with your windstorms

15 the way fire burns a forest and flames set mountains on fire.

16 Let their faces blush with shame, O LORD, so that they must look to you for help.

17 Let them be put to shame and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace

18 so that they must acknowledge you. Your name is the LORD. You alone are the Most High God of the whole earth.

19 "Well," you say, "Branches were cut off so that I could be grafted onto the tree."

20 That's right! They were broken off because they didn't believe, but you remain on the tree because you do believe. Don't feel arrogant, but be afraid.

21 If God didn't spare the natural branches, he won't spare you, either.

22 Look at how kind and how severe God can be. He is severe to those who fell, but kind to you if you continue to hold on to his kindness. Otherwise, you, too, will be cut off [from the tree].

23 If Jewish people do not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted onto the tree again, because God is able to do that.

24 In spite of the fact that you have been cut from a wild olive tree, you have been grafted onto a cultivated one. So wouldn't it be easier for these natural branches to be grafted onto the olive tree they belong to?

25 Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery so that you won't become arrogant. The minds of some Israelites have become closed until all of God's non-Jewish people are included.

26 In this way Israel as a whole will be saved, as Scripture says, "The Savior will come from Zion. He will remove godlessness from Jacob.

27 My promise to them will be fulfilled when I take away their sins."

28 The Good News made the Jewish people enemies because of you. But by God's choice they are loved because of their ancestors.

29 God never changes his mind when he gives gifts or when he calls someone.

30 In the past, you disobeyed God. But now God has been merciful to you because of the disobedience of the Jewish people.

31 In the same way, the Jewish people have also disobeyed so that God may be merciful to them as he was to you.

32 God has placed all people into the prison of their own disobedience so that he could be merciful to all people.

33 God's riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep that it is impossible to explain his decisions or to understand his ways.

34 "Who knows how the Lord thinks? Who can become his adviser?"

35 Who gave the Lord something which the Lord must pay back?

36 Everything is from him and by him and for him. Glory belongs to him forever! Amen!