“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee,” Psalm 81:10-16.
As I read this Psalm this morning, one of the portions of God’s Word allocated for reading today in Robert Murray M‘Cheyne, Bible Reading Calendar, I recalled wth joy of heart the words of verse 10 : “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”.
How often I heard my wife Ann, now in glory, plead these words before the Lord for the school she pioneered in Kilskeery in September 1979 until she went to be with the Lord. It was a promise given to her of the Lord in the very early days of the school. Her prayers, and those who joined with her in praying for the school, were wonderfully answered so that the little school, totally without Government aid of any kind, prospered and enjoyed spiritual and academic success.
However precious the memories provoked by the words in verse 10, the rest of the Psalm provokes thoughts of a very different nature. Here are not thoughts of God’s faithfulness and care but of the dire consequences of the disobedience of God’s people and the vexation such causes the Lord!
I. A REJECTING OF GOD’S WORD IS THE BEGINNING OF THE TROUBLES OF GOD’S PEOPLE.
That takes place, at least at the first, with NOT an outright rejection of the Bible, but a questioning of some portions which would deny us what we particularly like from within the realm of worldly and carnal activities.
The errors of Israel that led on to great sin and brought down a severe punishment upon those guilty, often started in relatively ‘small’ ways!
“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel,” Numbers 25:1-3.
The ‘beginning’ of that which resulted in the “anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel,” was the accepting of an invitation to ‘a feast’!
It went on from there. The road of disobedience is “dark and slippery” (Psalm 35:6) and is one that is very difficult to maintain one’s footing upon and, it being dark, it is easy to get lost!
Faster and Faster
Once started on the downward way, Israel accelerated into greater and greater sin until open immorality and the most blatant defiance of God is engaged in, verse 6.
“And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,” Numbers 25:6.
Phinehas – hero of the day!
The response of Phinehas was in the spirit of God’s anger and he was commended for his action, severe as some might see it!
“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel,” verses 10-13.
There was no criticism or fault-finding on God’s part but rather a highlighting of the fact that the action of Phinehas had basically stopped what would have become an even great tragedy!
The small beginnings of rebellion against the Lord and which results in disaster for those deceived, is repeatedly illustrated in the Bible.
“Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour,” Ecclesiastes 10:1.
Many might call the condemnation of sins that seem insignificant, mere ‘nit-picking’, but not so the Lord!
“And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD,” 2 Chronicles 19:1-2.
It is easy to visualise the response of many of the king’s supporters to the prophet’s words of condemnation. There would have been some who would have seen the prophet’s words as a condemning of that which was a wise and proper political move!
The Lord did not share their view!
Peter’s actions, as recorded in Galatians 2:12, may have been welcomed by many and considered of little importance by others, but both would have been wrong. The response of Paul shows this to be so.
“For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.”
“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed,” verse 11.
Blamed
Why? Because what Peter did was deemed as “dissimulation”, verse 13. That is, acting hypocritically and encouraging others to likewise act and so endorse the errors of the ‘Judaisers’ whose views corrupted the Gospel!
Likewise, any endorsing or making the compromise and disobedience of the ‘evangelicals’ who remain in the apostate ecumenical denominations appear to be acceptable, is very wrong.
That may be done by a minister, who professes to follow the Bible’s path of separation, sharing in meetings and gathering where they are honoured.
That is be warned against and condemned as the beginning of that which will end in the judgment of God falling upon those seduced by such folly!
II. PERSISTENCE IN DISOBEDIENCE RESULTS IN THE LORD GIVING SUCH UP TO THEIR OWN LUSTS!
“But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels,” verses 11-12.
To be given over to the control and domination of our own heart’s desires and notions, is to be delivered into the hands of a most cruel and deceitful ‘jailer’!
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9.
“And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me,” Jeremiah 16:12.
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man,” Matthew 15:19-20.
Where the supposedly innocent and acceptable ideas that spring from our own hearts will lead us is to GOD’S JUDGMENT.
Proper
How proper therefore for a faithful servant of God to warn, as did Jeremiah, of the presently unforeseen, though fully warned of in the Scriptures, consequences that inevitably follow the pursuing of the highly esteemed notions that spring from the ‘heart’!
One Guide
The Word of God is to be our ‘only rule of faith and practice’!
“He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered,” Proverbs 28:26.
The rebuking of the actions of such is a mercy and not an act worthy of condemnation and derision!
III. THE FOOLISHNESS OF FOLLOWING OUR OWN NOTIONS IS A GRIEF TO THE LORD AND ROBS US OF THE EXPERIENCE OF HIS MIGHTY GRACE AND POWER!
“Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee,” verses 13-16.
When we learn that our actions grieve the Lord, how quickly we should abandon them. We should not, out of pride of heart and in an effort to conceal our sinful follies, excuse and defend our actions or those whom we may esteem, who are guilty of doing or saying that which grieves the Lord.
Grieving the Lord has a high cost.
“I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”
I know there are those who deny that there has been a backward trend in the affairs of the Free Presbyterian Church in recent times. Much is made the many, many activities within our walls.
But ‘activities, good and all as they may be, are not the evidence of God subduing our enemies and our feasting upon the “finest of the wheat” or being satisfied by “ honey out of the rock”!
Any who think that the enjoying of these ‘divine delights’, is the state of blessing that exists in the Free Presbyterian Church at present, have no knowledge of what these blessing sentail!
’60s – ’70s
Such mercies were known amongst our congregations 60 years ago and for a blessed number of years that followed.
But we deceive ourselves if we think that such is our spiritual state today. That deception is particularly embraced by those too young to have experienced those blessed times!
May the Lord in mercy awaken the Free Presbyterian Church to the grief that the ways embraced by only some, praise the Lord, BUT by some who are engaged in activities which offend the Lord and which will eventually rob us of what remains of the blessings of the past!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
28th May 2026