John Calvin Commentary Psalms 81:10

"I am Jehovah thy God, Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." — Psalms 81:10 (ASV)

I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide. God, by mentioning the deliverance He had accomplished for the people, put a bridle on those He had taken under His protection, by which He might hold them bound to His service; and now He assures them that for the future, He had an abundant supply of all blessings with which to fill and satisfy their desires.

The three arguments He employs to persuade the Israelites to adhere exclusively to Him, and by which He shows them how wickedly and impiously they would act in turning aside from Him and resorting to strange gods, deserve special attention. The first is, that He is Jehovah. By the word Jehovah, He asserts His claims as God by His very nature, and declares that it is beyond human power to create new gods.

When He says I am Jehovah, the pronoun 'I' is emphatic. The Egyptians, undoubtedly, pretended to worship the Creator of heaven and earth; but their contempt of the God of Israel clearly convicted them of falsehood. Whenever people depart from Him, they adorn the idols of their own making with His spoils, whatever the deceptive justifications they may use to vindicate themselves.

After affirming that He is Jehovah, He proves His Godhead from the effect and experience—from the clear and undeniable evidence of it in His delivering His people from Egypt, and especially, from His fulfilling at that time the promise He had made to their ancestors. This is His second argument.

The power that was displayed on that occasion should not have been considered in isolation, since it depended on the covenant, which He had entered into with Abraham long before. By that deliverance He gave proof of His truthfulness no less than of His power, and thus justified the praise that was due to Him.

The third argument is that He offers Himself to the people for the future, assuring them that, provided they continue to persevere in faith, He will be the same toward their children as their ancestors experienced Him to be, His goodness being inexhaustible: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. By the expression open wide, He tacitly condemns the narrow views and desires that obstruct the exercise of His beneficence.

“If the people are in poverty,” we may suppose Him to say, “the blame is to be entirely attributed to themselves, because their capacity is not large enough to receive the blessings they need; or rather, because by their unbelief they reject the blessings that would flow spontaneously to them.”

He not only tells them to open their mouths, but He also magnifies the abundance of His grace even more, by suggesting that however great our desires may be, nothing will be lacking that is necessary to give us full satisfaction.

From this it follows that the reason God’s blessings come to us in a sparse and meager way is because our mouths are too narrow, and the reason others are empty and famished is because they keep their mouths completely shut.

The majority of humanity, whether from disgust, pride, or madness, refuse all the blessings offered to them from heaven.

Others, although they do not reject them entirely, still struggle to take in only a few small drops because their faith is so constricted that it prevents them from receiving an abundant supply. This is a very clear proof of the depravity of humanity: when people have no desire to know God so that they may embrace Him, and when they are equally unwilling to be satisfied with Him.

He undoubtedly requires worship through external service here, but He places no value on the mere name of Deity—for His majesty does not consist in two or three syllables. Instead, He looks to what the name signifies and is concerned that our hope might not be withdrawn from Him to other objects, or that the praise for righteousness, salvation, and all blessings might not be transferred from Him to another. In calling Himself by the name Jehovah, He claims Godhead exclusively for Himself on the basis that He possesses a plenitude of all blessings with which to satisfy and fill us.