Honey From The Rock

In my time with the Lord prior to celebrating Resurrection Sunday with my family, I found a gem in Psalm 81 [ESV]:

Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.

For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
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.

“But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

What was amazing about this is that it hearkens back to Passover. Near the beginning it refers to “our feast day”. Technically, this could refer to any, or all of the feasts—but the following context makes it clear that the writer is thinking of Passover. The NIV translates “blow the trumpet” as the shofar, and that fits as well.

And so, for me at least, this psalm fit in even better because I was not only preparing my heart to celebrate the resurrection, I was also preparing for Passover, which we celebrate in a Jewish/Christian way every year.

Usually we celebrate Passover prior to celebrating the resurrection, because that is the order of events in the Bible. Sometimes we move it based on other circumstances. One year we celebrated it on the Jewish date for Passover.

This year we are celebrating Passover late, and it turns out it will coincide with the Orthodox calender. To me the exact date does not matter as much as the attitude of our hearts … celebrating the life and joy, death and sorrow, grace and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One (possible) insight I gleaned into Psalm 81 had to do with the last line: “honey from the rock”. What is that? I can’t imagine honeybees building a nest inside a rock, but I suppose it’s possible.

But then I had a flash of insight … what color is wheat? Honey colored! The rock? Possibly a grinding stone. God says:

“But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

The context is wheat! Maybe “honey from the rock” is just an expression for ground wheat.

Regardless of whether the text means honey or wheat, it does have spiritual applications … God’s word being the “honey”, or maybe God himself, our chief delight.

So then, the main points of this psalm are:

• Shout for joy to God!
• Remember what God has done for you.
• Listen to God’s voice, soften your heart, and follow his counsel.
• God will provide more for you than you can imagine.