Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it (Psalm 81)

—(Part32 of Seeing Jesus in the O.T.)

Andrew Fountain – Oct 24, 2021

Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)

Goal

That we would hear some of the most beautiful words of Scripture,
that we would take them in,
and that they would change us!

The Bible

Psalms

The Book of Psalms

Book 1
1–41

Book 2
42–72

Book 3
73–89

Book 4
90–106

Book 5
107–150

Middle of the Middle book of Psalms

W. Robert Godfrey (2013)

What does the church most need today?
In answering this important but rather general question, Psalm 81 is uniquely important and helpful.
This psalm obviously contains beautiful promises and clear directions to help the people of God. But careful study of this psalm will deepen our appreciation of it, increase its value for us, and show us how distinctive it is for helping the church.

Psalm 81

Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
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.
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Psalm 81

“Psalm 81”

(I think this is the best way of translating it)

We are told to sing and shout out as loud as we can!
- How come people can do it for a sport’s team but not for God?
- Let’s shout Jesus now!
The introduction tells us it was part of a feast (but we are not 100% sure which one, maybe Feast of Tabernacles)
Dates back to when they came out of Egypt

The Psalm moves into a different phase at the end of v.5
- God has given a message, and here it is:

—7 Story of slavery to freedom
The main section

The focus is on the word Listen
which in Hebrew is Shema and means to listen and obey
See all the “Listen”’s here
- God is pleading with his people
This word “Listen” or Shema would have echoed in their minds
- A reference to what they considered the core words of their faith
  - They actually called it the Shema (the Listen)

Deut 6:5–6 the Shema

Listen (Shema), Israel:
The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

You must love the LORD your God
with all your mind,
with all your being,
and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 11:13

So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul (NIV)
literally:
So if you Shema’ingly Shema the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul

Psalm 81

Questions:

Is this about earning God’s favour through works?
It this not the wrong motivation?

Psalm 81

Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
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.
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Questions:

Is this about earning God’s favour through works?
It this not the wrong motivation?
Why does God not force us to listen so he can bless us?

Problems with “hearing” God

How do I what God is saying?
What is God wanting me to do?
Mary vs Martha —how do we sit at his feet?
God is pleading with you now: Read the words I have written to you!
He is pleading with you to give you the opportunity of being satisfied by him
Will you open your mouth wide?

What God is saying: usually this is not our problem
- Most of us know very well what God wants us to do
- The problem is doing it!
Mary: Tell the story
- It was not that she was in his presence—so were the pharisees.
- It was that she was listening to him
- We have Jesus’s words right here in the Bible
- If you want to be a Mary, you need to be regularly sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him!
You might think that these promises are only for Christians, but actually they are not.
- Psalm 81 was written to people who were not following God
- It was an invitation to turn around and come to God
- Jesus gave a very similar invitation to a woman he met at a well, who had had a lot of bad stuff happen in her life
  - She was even shocked that Jesus would talk to her
  - But what he said was very similar to Psalm 81

Psalm 81 & John 4

Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give will become in them a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”
Will you listen/shema in 2022?
There is so much God has for you!