THERE is a in the eighty-first Psalm, and it is this: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” The Eastern host and his guests around the table, assist us in laying hold of the fullness of the figure. A host, as a special act of favor, will give a guest some dainty from the dish. With his own hands he will supply him with the best morsel. Thus Jehovah speaks to Israel, once slaves in Egypt, once the bondservants of the tyrant, but by His strong arm made His freed men. The Lord looked at them as His guests, and the best things of His feast He Himself would give them. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
He has delivered, He has made free, He has spread the feast, and He has made His people His guests, and now what is required of us? That we have faith and a good heart to receive His blessings.
First, let us praise Him for what is past—for salvation accomplished, and for His own working out of our salvation. He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, He has redeemed us from the hand of the enemy. Let us rejoice in God’s work for us.
Next, let us have a good soul appetite for what He has to give. We need fresh mercies every day, fresh spiritual good, fresh bread from God. We will not choose what we suppose we most want—we will leave that to our God; only as His hand has in it the good things He is waiting to give, we will open our mouths wide, that He may fill them.
Christians need to be constant receivers—indeed, a great element in Christian prosperity lies in receptiveness: the truly longing soul becomes satisfied. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” The best receivers are the surest over flowers. Place a pitcher under a fountain, and after it is full it will overflow. Let the Christian get drinking of Christ, and out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.
We need to remember that God loves to give. He gives eternal life; He gives joy, and peace, and rest, and it is His pleasure to give.
Alas! God’s ancient people did not respond to the gracious invitation— “But My people would not hearken to My voice; and Israel would none of Me.” They had not a heart for God. Hence God said, “I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust.” We must never forget that our hearts will be, or will seek to be, satisfied with something. If we are not receiving the good things God is offering us we shall be taking in the evil things of our own lusts; and very frequently God allows us to go after our own hearts’ lusts, because, like Israel of old, we will not have His good things. The believer should be earnest with himself, and ask what is his daily spiritual bread? A prosperous Christian life has to do with the state of the Christian’s heart. Is there readiness to respond to the gracious invitation, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”? What a lost life is that which is spent in walking in our own counsels! Upon it is written, as it were, “Oh! that My people had hearkened unto Me,” and then God’s own record of what He would have done for His people had they been willing to receive His bounties, “He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”