Morning Light – July 27th, 2016: Open Your Mouth – I will Fill It

Morning Light – July 27th, 2016: Open Your Mouth – I will Fill It
Today: [Psalm 81-82] Open Your Mouth – I will Fill It. In these chapters we study today there is a great testimony to the goodness of God in our behalf. In chapter 81 God says “open your mouth I will fill it…” Here He calls upon us to abandon the language of unbelief and adopt the language of faith that He promises to respond to. In chapter 82 we see God explaining to us that when we gather together He stands up in our midst to judge in our defense. He shows us how HE sees US when we come together as a congregation when He says “ye are gods…” Just as Jesus quotes to the Pharisees in John 10.
[Psa 81:1-16 KJV] 1 [[To the chief Musician upon Gittith, [A Psalm] of Asaph.]] Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. 3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. 4 For this [was] a statute for Israel, [and] a law of the God of Jacob. 5 This he ordained in Joseph [for] a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: [where] I heard a language [that] I understood not. 6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots. 7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
This psalm is a psalm of celebration to the faithfulness of God. Verses 1-3 call for the making of great noise and jubilant rejoicing because of the love of God for His people. It is a psalm of witness as well against those who felt that somehow God wasn’t coming through for the people in some way. The picture is that of the people hanging their harps on the willow trees in despair and Asaph comes along and compels them out of their despondency into a place of praise. There will be times in your life that you will feel heavy hearted and rejoicing and praise will be far from you. This is when you need to remember the warfare aspect of praise.
In worship we purely come into a place of intimacy with God and nothing else matters. In praise we come into direct confrontation with our own negativity and the assault of the enemy to bring you down and fill you with despair. The psalmist says that we should not just pine after better days but should make noise and participate – singing aloud and sounding the trumpet before the Lord because of His goodness and His faithfulness.
The blowing of trumpets in this case were for the new moon. This was the sounding of a trumpet for a new season and for the announcing of the feast days of the Lord. Are you desiring to move into a new season in God? Are you in a stuck place and crying out for a shift? Every new season in the things of God is preceded by praise. When David found himself in a place of defeat and despair he always encouraged himself in the Lord. He did this not only to address his own unbelief but to activate the wheels of God’s timing to bring about the shift and commencement of a new season in his life. When you praise and when you exalt the Lord, particularly in the face of difficult circumstances there will be a new season brought into your life of change and transformation.
Verse 5 speaks of God moving through the land of Egypt, gathering the people of Joseph. This is God Himself saying that when He came through Egypt to gather His own that He heard a language that He understood not. That is God’s way of saying that He was not acknowledging the culture and character of the Egyptians. This was a culture that was very tempting to the people of God who often wanted to go back to Egypt when things got rough. The question to ask is what language are you speaking? What is coming out of your mouth? Are you parroting the words and opinions of the world around you? The world and the media is always there to put their words and their views and opinions in your mouth and convince you when you repeat what they say how intelligent you are. Are you speaking God-speak or the language of the world? This is a great temptation to the people of God. Paul told the Philipian church:
[Phl 4:8 KJV] 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.
This is the language that God understands. The language of alarmist, conspiracy theorists, or those who immerse themselves in negativity and doom are not speaking God’s language! Why would we allow ourselves to garner the respect of those who cannot see any good or what God is doing in the earth. They will say you are naïve but you are not naïve just because you see the goodness of God in the land of the living when all they choose to look at is their own shoe laces!
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; 9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. 10 I [am] the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: [and] they walked in their own counsels. 13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, [and] Israel had walked in my ways! 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. 15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. 16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
In verses 8-10 the Father exhorts the people to ignore the false gods of the land. These are the gods that are no gods – that could not prevent Jehovah from displacing the Canannites from the Promised Land in favor of His own people. In verse 10 the Father says to them that He is the God that fills their mouth with good things, saying “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it…” We think we know just how good God is prepared to be in our lives but the Father often says “Wider! Wider!” because we have no clue just how far He is willing to go to bless us.
This is not what is taught in the pulpits of the uninformed. They teach about a stingy God who only allows us to experience a meager residue of blessing but that is not the testimony of Psalm 81. God is a generous God that will subdue our enemies and turn His hand against those that choose to be our adversaries. In verse 16 He declares that if the people will turn from idolatry and put their trust in Him that He will feed them with the finest of wheat and satisfy them with “honey from the rock…” This is what Paul teaches in Rom. 2:4 that it is the goodness of God that leads men to repent. When we sin and fall short and turn away from God it is His goodness that He desires to shower on us to bring us back to the place of trust.
[Psa 82:1-8 KJV] 1 [[A Psalm of Asaph.]] God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. 3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid [them] out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. 6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
In this chapter we see the posture of God among His people as a congregation. Jesus taught that His church would be an “ecclesia” which was a ruling governing body. When God comes into the midst of a congregation gathered as He intends – then He stands up to rule over all the earth like a mighty judge. This is why Jesus said His house would be called a house of prayer. When we convene as God intend as a people we are standing in the court of heaven being invited to lay our petitions before the king. Can you imagine going into court for an appointment and then ignoring the judge who is there to rule in your behalf? We know very little as believers of the power of what happens when we come into our gatherings.
Verses 2-3 speaks of God conveining with us to judge in defense of the poor and needy and the widowed and fatherless. He then makes a statement that Jesus quotes to the Pharisees in verse 6 calling US “gods”. It does go on to say “but you shall die like men…” but that is not how Jesus quotes it in John 10:34. He used the quote to rebuke the Pharisees because He referred to Himself as the son of God. The point in context of the chapter here in Psalms is that we have no idea just how powerful and awesome a thing takes place when we gather together and God stands up in our midst.
We look up to Him as the Savior of the Universe but how does He see us? He sees us as He intended to see man before the fall – as gods made in His image. We are gathered together as a group and a people to rule and reign with Him not just after we get to eternity but now. Ruling and reigning begin now in the house of God when we gather before Him in His throne room to pray the indulgence of the king and the mercy of the king in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.