I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. —Psalm 81:10
This verse begins with a direct quotation from the preamble to the Ten Commandments: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Thou shalt not; thou shalt not; thou shalt..." (Exodus 20:2).
Here in this psalm, however, where you might expect another list of rules, God offers a lovely grace-note: “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it."
Israel's history, like mine, is a tale of underachievement, yet God does not call for greater effort. He rather asks us to lay our "doing" down and receive what He has to give.
Trying to keep rules and make myself a better person is a losing cause. I know because I tried it for years. God alone is the source of goodness for He alone is good. We must ask for his righteousness and keep on asking.
Long, long ago, on the Cross, Jesus did away with our wrong-doing. Now He lives to make us good children. If we open our mouths wide He will, in his time, fill us with love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other traits we admire in Him and seek for ourselves. He will feed us with the "finest of the wheat," and satisfy us with "honey from the rock" (Psalm 81:16).
"Honey from the rock!" Sweetness flowing from an unexpected source. Who could imagine that someone so "wholly other" could be so near at hand?
Weary, working, burdened one,Wherefore toil you so?Cease your doing; all was doneLong, long ago. —James Proctor
David Roper
5.30.22
* Photograph taken by our neighbor, Duane Gray. Used by permission.
