Psalm 81:16

EXPOSITION

Verse 16. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat. Famine would have been an unknown word, they would have been fed on the best of the best food, and have had abundance of it as their every day diet.

And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. Luxuries as well as necessaries would be forthcoming, the very rocks of the land would yield abundant and sweet supplies; the bees would store the clefts of the rocks with luscious honey, and so turn the most sterile part of the land to good account. The Lord can do great things for an obedient people. When his people walk in the light of his countenance, and maintain unsullied holiness, the joy and consolation which he yields them are beyond conception. To them the joys of heaven have begun even upon earth. They can sing in the ways of the Lord. The spring of the eternal summer has commenced with them; they are already blest, and they look for brighter things. This shows us by contrast how sad a thing it is for a child of God to sell himself into captivity to sin, and bring his soul into a state of famine by following after another god. O Lord, for ever bind us to thyself alone, and keep us faithful unto the end.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 16. Honey out of the rock. The rock spiritually and mystically designs Christ, the Rock of salvation, 1 Corinthians 10:4 ; the honey out of the rock, the fulness of grace in him, and the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David, and the precious promises of the everlasting covenant; and the gospel, which is sweeter than the honey or the honeycomb, and with these such are filled and satisfied who hearken to Christ and walk in his ways; for, as the whole of what is here said shows what Israel lost by disobedience, it clearly suggests what such enjoy who hear and obey. John Gill.

Verse 16. Honey out of the rock. God extracts honey out of the rock -- the sweetest springs and pleasures from the hardness of afflictions; from mount Calvary and the cross, the blessings that give greatest delight; whereas the world makes from the fountains of pleasure stones and rocks of torment. Thomas Le Blanc.

Verse 16. Honey out of the rock. Most travellers who have visited Palestine in summer have had their attention directed to the abundance of honey, which the bees of the land have stored up in the hollows of trees and in crevices of the rock. In localities where the bare rocks of the desert alone break the sameness of the scene, and all around is suggestive of desolation and death, the traveller has God's care of his chosen people vividly brought to mind, as he sees the honey which the bees had treasured up beyond his reach, trickling in shining drops down the face of the rock. John Duns.

Verse 16. When once a people or a person are accepted of God, he spares no cost, nor thinks anything too costly for them. He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. I would not have fed thee with wheat only, that's good; but with the finest wheat, that's the best. We put in the margin, with the fat of wheat; they should not have had the bran, but the flour, and the finest of the flour; they should have had not only honey, but honey out of the rock, which, as naturalists observe, is the best and purest honey. Surely God cannot think anything of this world too good for his people, who hath not thought the next world too good for them; certainly God cannot think any of these outward enjoyments too good for his people, who hath not thought his Son too good for his people; that's the apostle's argument, Romans 8:32 : He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? even the best of outward good things, when he seeth it good for us. Joseph Caryl.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 16.

1. Spiritual dainties.
   
2. By whom provided.
   
3. To whom given.
   
4. With what result -- "satisfied."