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

Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2021-10-24

Video cover image by Kati Fleming CC BY-SA 3.0

  • God has so much for you, and longs to satisfy you with the very best
  • So what is stopping him?
  • The same thing as in Psalm 81 where he longed to bless Israel, but they did not “shema”.
  • This word is the key that will open all the blessings.
  • If you have trouble viewing this video, you can try watching it directly on Vimeo
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Sermon Slides - Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it

  • Hebrew poetry places a great value on symmetry
    • Often what is most important is put right in the middle of the symmetry

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
  • The Psalms are divided in the Bible into 5 books.
    • The middle book is book 3, which is Psalms 73–89

Middle of the Middle book of Psalms

73 75 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
  • The central Psalm in this central Psalm is 81
    • The fact that they are in the centre I don’t believe is an accident.
    • I should say that I found this fact from an article by Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Seminary, one of the world’s leading centres of Bible scholarship.

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.

  • Right in the centre of the central Psalm, in the central book is this promise:

Psalm 81

  1. Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
  2. 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.
  3. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
          and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Psalm 81

For the music leader; in the gittith style; by Asaph.

  1. Sing out in joy to God our strength!
      Shout out to the God of Jacob!
  2. Lift up a song; sound the tambourine,
      the beautiful harp, and the ten-stringed instrument!
  3. Blow the horn at the new moon,
      at the full moon, when our festival begins.
  4. For it is a decree for Israel,
      a rule of the God of Jacob.
  5. He made it a regulation in Joseph
      when he went out against the land of Egypt.
     
    I listen to a voice I had not understood:
     
  6. “I relieved his shoulder of the burden;
      his hands were freed from the basket.
  7. In distress you called, and I delivered you;
      I answered you from a dark thundercloud;
      I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
     
  8. Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
      O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
  9. There shall be no other god among you;
      you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
  10. 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.
  11. But my people did not listen to my voice;
      Israel would not submit to me.
  12. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
      to do what seemed right to them.
     
  13. If only my people would listen to me,
      that Israel would walk in my ways!
  14. I would soon subdue their enemies
      and turn my hand against their foes.
  15. Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
      and they would be permanently humiliated.
  16. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
      and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

based on NET Bible with some changes by amf

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.

Not Listening!

Not Listening!

Image source: Michael Newton

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

Open your mouth!

Open your mouth!

Image source: Kati Fleming

Problems:

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

Psalm 81

  1. Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
      O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
  2. …Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
  3. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
      and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.

Problems:

  • 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?
    Guidance is so hard—how do I know what I should be doing?
  • 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?

Psalm 81 & John 4

  1. Listen, O my people, while I speak earnestly to you!
      O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
  2. …Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
  3. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
      and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
  4. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
  5. 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 2019?
There is so much God has for you!

  • Put him first in all you do!
  • Open your hands now if you want this

Updated on 2021-10-17 by Andrew Fountain