There’s Honey in the Rock

Do you know that song? It’s by Brooke Ligertwood and Brandon Lake, and it’s right out of Psalm 82.

But what does that even mean? I think it’s just God’s way of saying to us: He can do anything! He can take any situation and fix it in a way that we never saw coming. But He only does this for those who trust Him. There was a time this would have seemed like a foreign language to me, but now I believe Him – let me tell you why.

This psalm was written by Asaph, a musician who lived during the reign of King David. This one is prophetic, as if God is talking through him. He first talks about singing praises to God as a requirement when He attacked Egypt to set the people free. (Don’t get hung up here – once you get to know God you will want to do this: you will want to remember the ways He saved you!  I do notice that as soon as I stop singing praises to God, I start to become depressed and ungrateful). And then Asaph says this:

‘I heard an unknown voice say, “Now I will take the load from your shoulder; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings, O Israel, if only you would listen to me! You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god. For it was I, the Lord your God who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.”’ (PS81:5b-10)

And then he says this: Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths! How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon my hands would be upon their foes! Those who hate the Lord would cringe before Him; they would be doomed forever. But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.’ (PS 81:13-16)

Here’s what I noticed:

-God’s heart longs to be good to us. There was a time when I didn’t know this, and I wouldn’t have believed it either, because people had hurt me. I thought that if God really loved me then nothing bad would ever happen. And when it did, I blamed God. I think the enemy suggest to us that God is against us, when nothing could be further from the truth. But how would I know? I had no idea who God really is, what He is like, how He reacts to things. Until I hit a point of desperation in my life and decided to read my Bible as a last resort. That was almost 10 years ago now, and when I asked God to make Himself known to me, He did! Even after all the stupid things I had done in ignorance of Him, He still wanted a relationship with me. He took my heart and gave me a new one. He changed my desires. He showed me that I can trust Him and He will do that for you too. He has filled my life with good things, just like He promised.  Just approach Him with humility and ask Him to open your eyes. He will.

-A stern warning is a gift. A proud person will bristle at a warning, but a wise person will listen. It’s like when someone tells you something that might hurt your feelings, but afterward you realize they were right. God is warning us for our good! So, we can have a relationship with Him and not face destruction and separation from Him for all eternity. It must be a stern warning! The stakes are too high: O Israel, if only you would listen! (O Valerie, if only YOU would listen!)

-We must listen to Him if we want His goodness in our lives. I wasn’t listening to God. I didn’t even know what He was like. My Bible was covered in dust somewhere looking ‘boring’. (that’s the word the enemy used in my life to keep me from opening my Bible. If you know me, you will know that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when I loved God, loved His word, but then got busy: the world started to pull me in, and I drifted away from Him. This led me to the darkest place of my life, but God still came and got me, and my prayer is that I will never drift away again.).

Listening to God involves finding out what He said and doing it. I know the 10 commandments- I know that we can’t be saved by keeping them, because we can’t keep them perfectly, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good. They are! And they can be summed up like this: love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to his neighbor. So, if you are sinning in an ongoing way like I was, you are not listening to God. You can’t be close to Him, and you are no longer being wise, able to discern good from evil. That was me. My thinking had gotten twisted by the lies of the enemy until one day my daughter said to me: Mom, you are not making any sense!’  I’m thankful for that moment, because it stuck with me. I started doing a Bible study ‘Discerning the voice of God’ by Priscilla Shirer. I will never forget the first point: if you ever want to hear God’s voice, you need to get rid of all known sin. I knew what my sin was, and I knew it had to go. It wasn’t easy at first, but I was sick of being miserable. And then, the miracle happened! My heart was changed, I was horrified at the way the enemy had tricked me, and I wanted nothing more to do with it. Instead of seeing how close I could get to sin, I wanted to know more about Jesus. I am in awe of what He did for me, and I don’t want to hurt Him anymore.

-He will subdue our enemies quickly when we walk in his paths. He also promises to lighten our load and free our hands from the burdens we carry. Have you experienced this? Suddenly, you get an idea of how to do something that had you stumped: this happens to me a lot! And the enemies who attack you without cause are unable to destroy you because they have to go through your Heavenly Father. You are filled with peace and face things without fear.

-Your needs will be generously met. He knows what we need and promises to meet those needs if we would only seek Him first and with our whole heart. Once you have tasted his goodness, you won’t want to revert to the chore of meeting your own needs. Ask Him everything: should I do this or that? If He is for it, He will bless it for you.

If you’re not sure where to start, I started in the book of John. And then read all four gospels for the first time. Get to know Jesus, and then you will get to know the Father too. And don’t forget ---you are a miracle that He created, and He wants you to know Him.