8 Hear, O My people, and I testify to thee, O Israel, if thou dost hearken to me: 9 There is not in thee a strange god, And thou bowest not thyself to a strange god. 10 I 'am' Jehovah thy God, Who bringeth thee up out of the land of Egypt. Enlarge thy mouth, and I fill it. 11 But, My people hearkened not to My voice, And Israel hath not consented to Me. 12 And I send them away in the enmity of their heart, They walk in their own counsels. 13 O that My people were hearkening to Me, Israel in My ways would walk. 14 As a little thing their enemies I cause to bow, And against their adversaries I turn back My hand, 15 Those hating Jehovah feign obedience to Him, But their time is—to the age. 16 He causeth him to eat of the fat of wheat, And 'with' honey from a rock I satisfy thee!

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 81:8-16

Commentary on Psalm 81:8-16

(Read Psalm 81:8-16)

We cannot look for too little from the creature, nor too much from the Creator. We may have enough from God, if we pray for it in faith. All the wickedness of the world is owing to man's wilfulness. People are not religious, because they will not be so. God is not the Author of their sin, he leaves them to the lusts of their own hearts, and the counsels of their own heads; if they do not well, the blame must be upon themselves. The Lord is unwilling that any should perish. What enemies sinners are to themselves! It is sin that makes our troubles long, and our salvation slow. Upon the same conditions of faith and obedience, do Christians hold those spiritual and eternal good things, which the pleasant fields and fertile hills of Canaan showed forth. Christ is the Bread of life; he is the Rock of salvation, and his promises are as honey to pious minds. But those who reject him as their Lord and Master, must also lose him as their Saviour and their reward.