Matthew Henry Commentary Psalms 81:8-16

"Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wouldest hearken unto me! There shall no strange god be in thee; Neither shalt thou worship any foreign god. I am Jehovah thy God, Who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people hearkened not to my voice; And Israel would none of me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart, That they might walk in their own counsels. Oh that my people would hearken unto me, That Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, And turn my hand against their adversaries. The haters of Jehovah should submit themselves unto him: But their time should endure for ever. He would feed them also with the finest of the wheat; And with honey out of the rock would I satisfy thee." — Psalms 81:8-16 (ASV)

We cannot expect too little from the creature, nor too much from the Creator. We may have enough from God if we pray for it in faith. All the wickedness of the world is due to human wilfulness. People are not religious because they choose not to be.

God is not the Author of their sin; he leaves them to the lusts of their own hearts and the counsels of their own minds. If they do not act rightly, the blame must be upon themselves. The Lord is unwilling that any should perish. What enemies sinners are to themselves!

It is sin that makes our troubles long and our salvation slow. Upon the same conditions of faith and obedience, Christians hold those spiritual and eternal good things that the pleasant fields and fertile hills of Canaan symbolized. Christ is the Bread of life; he is the Rock of salvation, and his promises are like honey to devout minds.

But those who reject him as their Lord and Master must also lose him as their Savior and their reward.