Psalm 81

Psalm 81

“Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day. For it is a statute for Israel, a rule of the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a language I had not known: “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. 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. “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Money, vacation, new golf clubs, new surf boards, clothes, food, camping gear, things for the tent trailer, keeping my cars and house beautiful at all times. . . This list can go on and on of things that I fill my life with. When I find myself in a season that doesn’t involve a routine relationship with my heavenly Father, I am constantly looking for other worldly things to try and fill my life and give it meaning. This obviously is not the right way to go as we are designed by our creator to live lives that reflect that of Jesus’ life. Jesus provides many examples of how we need to submit ourselves to the only thing that will fill us up with exactly what we need. One of the examples is when Jesus is in the desert in Matthew. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus also shows us how devastating it can be when we find ourselves without a connection with our Father on the cross. Even after Jesus was tortured, flogged, drug out to the crucifixion site, and nailed to the cross; nothing was more unbearable than being separated from his Father. Jesus paid the ultimate cost to make sure that our relationship with God would be easily available. 

This verse in the Psalms is stating that God is always right here for us and we are to be filled up as you submit to him and his time. 

“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.” (v. 10)

We will continue to fall short of this, but as I was reading through another small devotional book, there was a great excerpt by St. Augustine who talks about God not looking for any reward for himself by people seeking him out, but excited for us to receive an eternal reward in His presence. 

We will continue to fall short as we are a sinful bunch, but I encourage and challenge you to be a part of a routine that continually seeks out a desire to be filled up with something that will be life changing instead of being filled up with something that will only bring temporary relief. 

Blessings to you all this week. 

-Tim