“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.”
– Psalm 81:10
That verse is worthy of memorizing today, hiding in your heart and keeping it there. This is God saying to his people, now the context here in Psalm 81:10 is really kind of sobering because right before this, the Psalmist is talking about how God’s people had rebelled against God and had turned from God to foreign gods and false gods. Looking for satisfaction, looking for fulfillment, looking for security. And God says to them right before this, “Hear, O my people, why I admonish you. Israel, if you would, but listen to me.”
God, help us not to seek temporal satisfaction in this world, but to seek lasting satisfaction in God.
This Verse Reminds Us That God Will Provide For Us
God is saying, why are you doing this, when I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of slavery and Egypt, brought you into the promised land. He’s saying if you will just open your mouth wide and if you will look to me for satisfaction, look to me for joy, look to me for fulfillment, look to me for security, look to me for all these things and I will satisfy you more than anything else in this world. More than everything else in this room put together. I will give you a security that nothing in this world can take away from you. I will give you a joy that surpasses circumstances. And I will give you an identity that is unshakable for all of eternity. If you will just look to me, trust in me. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
And in this way, I want to encourage you to hear Psalm chapter 81:10, spoken to you today, to all who have trusted in Jesus. You have been restored to a relationship with God, saved from your sin. Not just saved out of the land of Egypt and slavery there, saved from your sin for all of eternity.
Psalm 81:10: Asking God to Help Us Look to Him For Fulfillment
God is saying to you today, I am the Lord, your God open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Lord help us not to turn aside to the stuff, the pursuits, the pleasures, the possessions, the things of this world for satisfaction and fulfillment and joy and security and identity. God, we pray that you would help us to look to you alone for all of these things.
Oh, God, help us to realize that we have been delivered from the need to go running after possessions, position, sex, success, plaudits, fame, the approval of others, so many things that this world offers us. Even good things in the world around us. None of them compare to you, oh God. You’re the giver of all good things. You’re the greatest one. And You’re the greatest thing. There is no one, nothing greater than you. Everything in this world put together is nowhere near as good as you.
Joy and Fulfillment From the Lord
So God help us to open wide our mouths today, in the sense of looking to you, trusting in you, being free from the pursuit of all these things that the world around us and people in the world around us are pursuing. God help us to live different. Help us to live with devotion to you, in the worship of you, with longing for you, with trust in you, with joy and fulfillment and satisfaction and security and identity in you. God, I praise you. There is no one, nothing like you in this world. And when all of these things in this world have faded away, we are so thankful that we will have you. The one who said to us, “I am the Lord, your God, open your mouth wide and I will fill it.”
We seek you. We trust you today to meet our every need, to fulfill our deepest desires. Not just today, but for all of eternity. And God, we pray that you would help us to proclaim to others, open wide your mouths boldly and God will fill you with everything you need through faith in him, through faith in his son. God help us to share the gospel today with people around us.
Sharing the Gospel
Lord, help us to share the gospel with people far from us. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel, today, to the Thai people. So many of them unreached by the good news of your grace, of your satisfaction, of your joy. God, we pray that you would send out workers, more and more workers to the Thai people. That they might be reached with your mercy, that they might open wide their mouths and be filled by your mercy. We love you, oh Lord, our God. And we are fully and eternally satisfied in you. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
