Ever watch someone make a bad decision? You know disaster looms, and you speak up, but no change in behavior. Then the disheartening moment when your premonitions prove true.

I sense this type of frustration while reading the Lord’s admonition in Psalm 81:

Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—if you would only listen to me, Israel! You shall have no other foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me.

To these people searching in the wrong places, the Lord presents a better way—Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

Return to the Lord wholeheartedly and experience the Lord stuffing you like a mama bird feeding her young. Enjoy the finest of wheat and honey. But we know the end of the story. The children of Israel never quite abandoned those foreign gods.

What foreign gods entice me? Where do I look to meet my needs instead of turning to the Lord? Perhaps giving in to the desire for security and comfort, or accepting the norms of our world and no longer pushing back. Joining the narcissistic hordes and just coasting. But in the end all such gods only provide pockets full of holes—everything falls out and I’m left wanting more.

These ancient words apply today. If I focus my adoration solely on the Lord, and shove all other gods away, then at least the promise of his filling opens to me. Otherwise, I’m on my own. Better to open wide and see how the Lord stuffs my mouth.

Psalm 81 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Mateusz Stępień