Stiff Necks and Wide Mouths

That's a little bit high, isn't it? Cutting our heads there. Give me one second, guys. There we go. Well, good morning and welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, Olivia's father is with me, Mr. Brian Greco. And so thanks for jumping on today. Thank you for having me. Yeah.
So what we'll do is we'll just read a small bit. We'll just read through Psalm 81 and we'll ask ourselves, A, what is this talking about? B, what's the best verse to summarize it? And C, what are we called to do in response to it? But before that, why don't we go ahead and have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Father, we thank you so much for the rich blessing it is to get to come to your word. We thank you that you are the one who convicts us of sin, who builds us up in holiness, who brings us to repentance. Lord, we thank you that your face shines upon us and that you care for us as a loving father. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, here we go with Psalm 81. You want to read verses one and two, and we'll just kind of do paragraph by paragraph. OK.
Singing aloud of God, Our strength, make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Raise a song and strike the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the lute. Blow the trumpet at the time of the new moon, at the full moon on our solemn feast day. For this is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob. This he established in Joseph as a testimony when he went throughout the land of Egypt. where I heard a language I did not understand. I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the baskets. You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Here, O my people, And I will admonish you, O Israel, if you will listen to me. There shall be no foreign god among you, nor shall you worship any foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." But my people would not heed my voice, and Israel would have none of me.
So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own councils. 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 adversaries. The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat and with honey from the rock. I would have satisfied you.
Well, that's a different type of song. What do you think this is talking about? It leads me to believe that we're never satisfied as humans. And once again, we're not following what God has commanded us to do. Yeah, that's a clear thing that's going on in this passage, right? Here are my people and I will admonish you, O Israel, if you will listen to me, O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways. This is the Lord speaking to his people. Do you remember what he calls the people again and again when they're in the wilderness? He calls them something about their necks. Stiff neck. Stiff neck people. Yeah, right. Why won't you just listen? I'm sure you never felt that way with the girls growing up. No, anybody that has children, no. And then we think back to our childhood.
But we really, even though we grow up, I think we still struggle with this, you know, trusting in the Lord, following Him. What do you think here would be the best verse, what would you underline the best verse or verses that kind of get at the heart of what this is saying? Well, I like 10 where it says that God tells them that he brought them out and showed them all the ways that they were supposed to do and heed his commands. and they're not doing it because of the stubborn hearts. Yeah, that's what I underlined was 8 through 10 in my Bible. I think that's good. So, okay, so we know what this is talking about. I think that's a good kind of point for B, best verse.
C is the hard part, calling. Are we called to live in response to this? How do you think this applies to life? It's hard for us as humans to give in to what somebody else wants us to do and somebody else commands us to do. And that's even with the Lord. We still want to do what we want to do. That's our sinful nature. So instead doing what the Lord commands us. Yeah, that's right. So do we follow after the Lord? Will we go after His ways? Will we go to Him? Let me know down in the comments. How do you think this applies to your life?
Is there a commandment that you struggle with? Is there something in your life that you know that the Lord has commanded, but you've been stiff-necked? Maybe you've been dragging your feet. Maybe you just enjoy that sin or that thing in your life that you know you shouldn't. And the Lord is saying, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. Maybe the Lord is holding off blessings from us because we're not willing to walk in His ways.
Let me know down in the comments, how do you think this is applying in your life today? Let's go ahead and let's give Olivia's dad, Brian, a thumbs up. Feel free to show him that you appreciate him and coming on this morning, but why don't we go ahead and pray and we'll go on with our day.
Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you that, indeed, you do convict us of sin. Lord, we pray that we would be gentle to the prompting of your Holy Spirit, that we would not be stiff-necked, that we would not be hard-hearted, but, Lord, we pray that we would be tender, we would turn away from our sin, that we might walk in the light of your countenance out of a love for you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the peace of Jesus Christ and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye.