Psalms 81:16

Psa 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

Ver. 16. With the finest of the wheat] Heb. With the fat or marrow of wheat, with the choicest of picked nourishment.

And with honey, &c.] Hyperbole incomparabilis felicitatis et foecunditatis. See Deu 32:13, shadowing out the sweetness of the word and sacraments.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_81:16

With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

A little but wise teacher

You know it was said of the Holy Land, long before God led His people into it, that it was a land flowing with milk and honey. Such it was and still is. That bees swarmed abundantly in the East many years ago, we may infer from the honey found in the dried remains of the lion which was killed by Samson. And in these modern days the wandering Arabs who live in tents, especially those who dwell in the wilderness of Judea, are said to support themselves by bee-hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of wild honey like that on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness. The visitor to the Holy Land, when he sees the busy multitude of bees about its cliffs, cannot but recall to mind the promise, With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. But then these words of Asaph mean far more than that those who love and serve the Lord shall be thus fed. They mean that God will surely supply all the wants of His people; that He offers all His infinite resources as a security that they shall not be left to want any good thing; and that, as honey in abundance is gathered out of the hard and flinty rock, so He will provide for those who love Him, even though they are brought into the hardest trials, where it might seem as if they were beyond the reach of help. But a promise so large and rich as this we cannot expect to have made good unto us, no matter what we are, or do. No! this is a promise with a condition. That is, there are some things which we must do, if we would claim the fulfilment of this promise for ourselves. The bee which stores up honey that is gathered out of the rock may so teach us that we shall be truly wise, and be able to secure all the earthly blessings and all the spiritual riches which are promised by the text.

I. Obedience. Do you know that in every hive of bees there is one which is called the Queen Bee? Those who have studied most carefully the habits of bees tell us that the Queen Bee is beloved and obeyed by all the others, who show in all ways that bees have a desire to please her. And if bees are thus obedient and devoted to their queen, how much more ought children to obey their parents in the Lord!

II. Cheerful and happy industry. How diligent and industrious the bees are in building the cells of the honey-comb, in storing them with honey, and in taking care of their young. They are not satisfied to work an hour a week, or an hour a day, and then dance away all the rest of the time in the warm and bright sunshine. They are not like some children that I have seen, who are hardly satisfied unless they can give themselves up to all play and no work, which, as the rhyme says, makes Jack a mere toy. But the bee works all the day long, day after day, bringing home full loads of honey. It finds pleasure in its work, singing continually as it goes about it. What a fine example for boys and girls! Our blessed Lord Himself, when still a little child, felt that He must be about His Fathers business. Every community of bees is apt to be afflicted for a time with what are called drones--that is, with bees that wont work. But the working bees very soon get rid of them, either by putting them to death, or by driving them out of the hive. And is not something like this the law of the Bible? Paul declared that, if any would not work, neither should he eat, and Solomon says that an idle soul shall suffer hunger. Idleness, then, brings a blight and a curse both upon the body and upon the soul.

III. We should guard watchfully and well what treasures we have. The bee uses all possible care and skill to protect from its enemies its stores of honey, and the wonderful cells in which that honey is laid up. It has many enemies, such as wasps, hornets, spiders, dragonflies, lizards, toads, and a kind of winged moth. This last is a very dangerous enemy, for at night, when the bees are asleep, it creeps in at the door of the hive, and lays its eggs, from which little worm-like caterpillars are soon hatched, and these crawling things soon make such havoc with the waxen cells that the bees are obliged to desert. They do the best they can to defend their treasures from enemies wit, hour, but sometimes they are overpowered. My children, learn a lesson from them to guard and keep such treasures as you have; for you, unlike the bees, may effectually do this, with such help as God will give you, if you seek help of Him.

IV. From the bee, again, we may learn the lesson that we can serve but one ruler and sovereign at a time. I have spoken of the Queen Bee. It is the supreme ruler of the hive, whom all the bees delight to obey. Not till one queen dies do they transfer their allegiance to another. You know that there is only One who has a right to demand, as He does demand, that you shall serve and love Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Jesus Christ Himself has said, No man can serve two masters, etc.

V. Another lesson, and a most important one, for us to learn from the bee, is, not to trust too much to appearances. Many a bright and most attractive-looking flower does the bee pass by, to alight perhaps upon some plain and humble one that we would have thought altogether unworthy of notice. All is not gold that glitters, and not even the marvellous skill of the bee can extract honey from flowers which, though they may appear very beautiful, have no sweetness, and perhaps only deadly poison in them. There are many things which, to young eyes, and sometimes to eyes not so young, appear very beautiful indeed. Not having them, we greatly covet, and having, we greatly prize them.

VI. We should make wise and timely provision for the future. The bees do not eat their honey as fast as they make it, but they lay by a store for winter. In this, they are unlike some young people, who are inclined to spend everything as fast as they make it, and sometimes faster. They lay up nothing at all to fall back upon in a time of need. This is more especially and sadly true with respect to religion. How many are there among the young who spend the best part of their lives in worldly pleasure. They think not of a future day, and are making no provision for needs of which they will soon, and may be suddenly, be made aware, when it will be too late to provide for them. (G. C. Noyes, D. D.)

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Psa_82:1-8

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 81:16. He should have fed them with the finest wheat — He would have made their country exceedingly fruitful and productive, especially of wheat and other grain, in the highest perfection. And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee — That is, with all pleasant and precious fruits, and with all delights; as all necessaries may be expressed in the former clause under the name of wheat. Or honey may be here taken literally; for the land of Canaan abounded with excellent honey; and the bees used to be collected in the clefts and holes of the rocks, as in hives, and there made their honey in such plenty that it often flowed down upon the ground in considerable quantities: see Deu 32:13; 1Sa 14:25-26.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. (Psa 81:16) And he would feed him with the fat of wheat, and from the rock with honey sate him. The first verb is a causative, and means would let (or make) him eat. The fat of wheat, its richest part or finest quality, another transfer of animal attributes to vegetable objects. See above, on Psa 80:15. Honey from the rock, some suppose to mean wild honey; others, with more probability, honey supplied by miracle, like the water from the rock in the desert. All these strong expressions are borrowed from Deu 32:13-14, and are imitated likewise in Psa 147:14, Isa 34:16. Wheat and honey, by a natural and primitive association, are here put for the necessaries and the luxuries of human sustenance, and these again for the highest enjoyment and prosperity. The English version refers these four verses all to past time, had hearkened, had walked, should have subdued, should have submitted, should have endured, should have fed, should have satisfied. This is in fact the true construction of the similar passage in Isa 48:18; but there the conditional or optative particle is construed with the preterite, and not with the future tense as here, which makes an essential difference of syntax. See Nordheimer's Hebrew Grammar, § 1078.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, with most fine wheat and abundance of honey.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 16. With the finest of the wheat] מחלב חטה mecheleb chittah; literally, with the fat of wheat, as in the margin.

Honey out of the rock] And he fed thaim of the grese of whete: And of the hony stane he thaim filled. Old Psalter. Thus paraphrased: "He fed thaim with the body of Criste and gastely understandyng; and of hony that ran of the stane, that is, of the wisedome that is swete to the hert." Several of the fathers understand this place of Christ.

ANALYSIS OF THE EIGHTY-FIRST PSALM

The contents of this Psalm are the following: -

I. The psalmist exhorts them to celebrate God's name in their festivals, Ps 81:1-4.

II. The reasons why they should do this: God's benefits conferred on Israel, Ps 81:5-10.

III. Israel's ingratitude, and its consequences, Ps 81:11-12.

IV. God's love and call to amendment, with the reasons for obedience, Ps 81:13-16.

I. He exhorts them to rejoice: but this must be, 1. In God, Ps 81:1. 2. At his festivals, Ps 81:2-3.

II. The reasons. 1. It was God's command, Ps 81:4. 2. It was an ancient ordinance, Ps 81:5. 3. Their deliverance from base servitude, Ps 81:6. 4. When in deep affliction, Ps 81:7. 5. In a miraculous manner, Ps 81:7. 6. His mercy shown at the waters of Meribah, Ps 81:7. 7. His giving them his law, Ps 81:8-9.

He then inculcates obedience, for which he gives three reasons: 1. "I am the Lord thy God," Ps 81:10. 2. Who redeemed thee from bondage, Ps 81:10. 3. He will make thee truly happy: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," Ps 81:10.

III. Israel's ingratitude, and its consequences. 1. God gave them up; left them to themselves, Ps 81:12. 2. They walked in their own counsels, Ps 81:12. And came to ruin.

IV. God's love and call, c.

He calls them to repentance, Ps 81:13. The fruits of which would be three great benefits. 1. The subjugation of their enemies, Ps 81:14. 2. A long uninterrupted prosperity. 3. An abundance of all temporal and spiritual blessings, Ps 81:15-16.

Under the emblems of the finest wheat, and the purest honey from the hives of bees in the rocks, where they abounded in Judea, he shows them that his followers should have so much of earthly and spiritual blessings, that they should be satisfied and say, It is enough. But, alas! Israel would not be obedient and, therefore, Israel is under the curse.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(16) Finest of the wheat.—See margin, and comp. Psa_147:14. The construction of this verse is matter of difficulty. Properly we should render, And he fed them with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock satisfied thee. The change of person is harsh, though perhaps it may be illustrated by Psa_22:27, &c, but the past tense seems out of keeping with the context. The conclusions of Psalms 77, 78 are hardly analogous. The pointing should be slightly changed to give, “And I would feed them also,” &c

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. Tense and person both present serious difficulties, and it seems necessary to emend the text of the first line, and read:

Yea, I would feed him with the fat of wheat,

And with honey out of the rock would I satisfy thee.

Him = Israel. The transition to direct address in Psa_50:2 (‘thee’) seems harsh, but is not uncommon in Heb. The third person ‘them’ or ‘him’ in LXX, Jer., Syr., is probably only a correction to avoid it. We have here another reminiscence of Deuteronomy 32, vv13, 14. Cp. Psa_147:14. To an obedient people God would fulfil His ancient promises of blessing. Cp. Exo_3:8; Deu_7:12-13; Deu_8:6 ff.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He should have fed them also - He would have given them prosperity, and their land would have produced abundantly of the necessities - even of the luxuries - of life. This is in accordance with the usual promises of the Scriptures, that obedience to God will be followed by national temporal prosperity. See Deu 32:13-14; 1Ti 4:8; Psa 37:11. Compare the notes at Mat 5:5.

With the finest of the wheat - Margin, as in Hebrew, with the fat of wheat. The meaning is, the best of the wheat - as the words fat and fatness are often used to denote excellence and abundance. Gen 27:28, Gen 27:39; Job 36:16; Psa 36:8; Psa 63:5; Psa 65:11.

And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee - Palestine abounded with bees, and honey was a favorite article of food. Gen 43:11; Deu 8:8; Deu 32:13; 1Sa 14:25-26; Isa 7:15; Eze 16:13; Mat 3:4. Much of that which was obtained was wild honey, deposited by the bees in the hollows of trees, and as it would seem in the caverns of the rocks. Much of it was gathered also from rocky regions, and this was regarded as the most delicate and valuable. I do not know the cause of this, nor why honey in high and rocky countries should be more pure and white than that obtained from other places; but the whitest and the most pure and delicate honey that I have ever seen I found at Chamouni in Switzerland. Dr. Thomson (land and the Book, vol. ii. p. 362) says of the rocky region in the vicinity of Timnath, that “bees were so abundant in a wood at no great distance from this spot that the honey dropped down from the trees on the ground;” and that “he explored densely-wooded gorges in Hermon and in Southern Lebanon where wild bees are still found, both in trees and in the clefts of the rocks.”

The meaning here is plain, that, if Israel had been obedient to God, he would have blessed them with abundance - with the richest and most coveted productions of the field. Pure religion - obedience to God - morality - temperance, purity, honesty, and industry, such as religion requires - are always eminently favorable to individual and national prosperity; and if a man or a nation desired to be most prospered, most successful in the lawful and proper objects of individual or national existence, and most happy, nothing would tend more to conduce to it than those virtues which piety enjoins and cultivates. Individuals and nations, even in respect to temporal prosperity, are most unwise, as well as most wicked, when they disregard the laws of God, and turn away from the precepts and the spirit of religion. It is true of nations, as it is of individuals, that “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is,” 1Ti 4:8.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

With honey; either,

1. Metaphorically, with all pleasant and precious fruits, and with all delights, as all necessaries may be expressed under the name of wheat. Or rather,

2. Properly; this land of Canaan being commended for its excellent and plentiful honey; and the bees there did oft-times harbour and make their honey in the holes of rocks and such-like places, from which it flowed down upon the ground. See Deu 32:13; 1Sa 14:25,26.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 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.

Ver. 16. Honey out of the rock. The rock spiritually and mystically designs Christ, the Rock of salvation, 1Co 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.

Ver. 16. Honey out of the rock. God extracts honey out of the rockthe 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.

Ver. 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.

Ver. 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, Ro 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.

Ver. 16.

I. Spiritual dainties.

II. By whom provided.

III. To whom given.

IV. With what result"satisfied."

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. He should have fed them—The excellent quality and abundant supply of food here stand generically for all needful things. The expression, honey out of the rock, is not to be taken literally, as in 1Sa_14:27, but figuratively, as denoting the richest supplies from the most sterile and unpropitious sources. The fundamental passage is Deu_32:13, where both “honey” and “oil” are made to flow from the rock, the “oil,” probably referring to the olive tree. See note on Psa_92:14; Psa_128:3 : compare, also, Job_29:6. The stern admonition and the life giving promise go hand in hand. “God assures them, that if Israel of the present would hearken to the Lawgiver of Sinai, then would he renew to it the miraculous gifts of the time of the redemption under Moses.”—Delitzsch.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He should have fed them also; rather, he should Feed. with the finest of the wheat; literally, with the fat of the wheat. (comp. Deu_32:14 and Psa_147:14) And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee; rather, would I satisfy thee. The expression, "honey out of the rock," is taken from Deu_32:13. It evidently means "honey of the best native honey, stored by the bees in clefts of the rocks. Of course, both the "wheat" and the "honey" are metaphors, which we are to regard as shadowing forth all temporal and spiritual blessings.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Honey - With all pleasant and precious fruits.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The enemies of the Lord would lie to Him, and their time would be [The time of] their retribution [would be] forever.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.