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Hear, O my people, and I will warn you—if you would but listen to me, O Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not bow down to an alien god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. (Psalm 81:8-12)

“Listen. Listen to Me!” God calls out to His people. The people are joyfully worshipping God as the psalm begins, according to what the law of Moses commands them to do at the appointed festival times. But as God tries once again to call His people to attention, it is as if He is talking to a wall.

In Hebrew, ‘hearing’ and ‘doing’ are basically the same thing. So, how should the Israelites, and by extension, how should we, respond when God calls us to listen? We must love the Lord our God. Love Him not just with all our emotions, but love Him with all of our strength. All of our “doing.” When we love someone, we act out that love in loyalty and faithfulness.

For Israel, to love the Lord meant faithful obedience to the terms of their covenant relationship. Obedience to the laws of God was never supposed to be about legalism or trying to earn God’s favour. The people already have His favour. We already have God’s favour. Rather, obedience is about love and listening to the voice of God. Read through the beginning of Deuteronomy and you’ll find the words “love” and “listen” closely connected throughout because they go hand in hand.

God wants us to open wide our mouth and He will fill it. This statement implies dependency, faith, trust, and obedience to God on our part. On God’s part, it implies commitment, faithfulness, and provision.

Just think of a nest full of baby birds. Their mouths seem almost too big for their scrawny bodies as they open them wide and thrust their necks upward in expectation for what tasty morsel will be given to them. Those babies are completely dependent on their parent for regular provision and protection. They have faith that when they open their mouth, their parent will fill it. They trust their parent completely.

Whatever we open in our lives to God, He will fill. We can’t open our mouths bigger than He can fill. We tend to open our mouths most often when we are in need. Verse 6 says, “You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you.” We know how to come to God when we’re in need.

But we also open our mouths wide when we ask God for large things. Larger than life things. We open our mouths wide when we understand the awesome wonder of the God to whom we pray and serve. We open our mouths wide when we ingest the word of God and speak His words in love back out of our, once again, open mouths.

When we open our mouths, our hearts, our love, our loyalty, and our obedience to God, it becomes more than a command that God gave to the Israelites back in the days of Moses. It becomes a relationship with the God who saves us.

And Psalm 81 ends by telling us what He will do for us as we listen to His words, love Him and others, and take action in obedience to that love. “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways how quickly I would subdue their enemies…you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock, I would satisfy you.” (v13,14a,16)

As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4, “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” (14). Let’s go straight to the source. Straight to the one who satisfies. Open our mouths wide to Jesus and receive from Him the goodness, and satisfaction which He alone provides.