Honey From The Rock

Quern For Grinding Wheat

In my time with the Lord prior to celebrating Resurrection Sunday with my family, I found a gem in Psalm 81 [ESV]:

Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.

For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
“I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

“But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
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 foes.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

What was amazing about this is that it hearkens back to Passover. Near the beginning it refers to “our feast day”. Technically, this could refer to any, or all of the feasts—but the following context makes it clear that the writer is thinking of Passover. The NIV translates “blow the trumpet” as the shofar, and that fits as well.

And so, for me at least, this psalm fit in even better because I was not only preparing my heart to celebrate the resurrection, I was also preparing for Passover, which we celebrate in a Jewish/Christian way every year.

Usually we celebrate Passover prior to celebrating the resurrection, because that is the order of events in the Bible. Sometimes we move it based on other circumstances. One year we celebrated it on the Jewish date for Passover.

Quern For Grinding Wheat

This year we are celebrating Passover late, and it turns out it will coincide with the Orthodox calender. To me the exact date does not matter as much as the attitude of our hearts … celebrating the life and joy, death and sorrow, grace and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One (possible) insight I gleaned into Psalm 81 had to do with the last line: “honey from the rock”. What is that? I can’t imagine honeybees building a nest inside a rock, but I suppose it’s possible.

Quern For Grinding Wheat

But then I had a flash of insight … what color is wheat? Honey colored! The rock? Possibly a grinding stone. God says:

“But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Quern For Grinding Wheat

The context is wheat! Maybe “honey from the rock” is just an expression for ground wheat.

Regardless of whether the text means honey or wheat, it does have spiritual applications … God’s word being the “honey”, or maybe God himself, our chief delight.

So then, the main points of this psalm are:

  • Shout for joy to God!
  • Remember what God has done for you.
  • Listen to God’s voice, soften your heart, and follow his counsel.
  • God will provide more for you than you can imagine.

5 thoughts on “Honey From The Rock

  1. I’ve been wanting to start those jewish/christian traditions in my own (small) family.
    Bringing the context of the old testement and the new testement together I feel is important.
    It’s like when God told the israelites to make monuments, so as not to forget where they came from, and what the Lord did there.

  2. You hit the nail on the head… “so as not to forget”!

    Its really been a blessing in our family’s life. There is so much symbolism in the Passover seder, and it really does bring the old and new testaments together.

    If you are interested, you can purchase a guide to holding a Christian seder.

    The order of service is called a Haggadah, and Amazon sells a number of Christian ones. Just search for “Christian seder” and they pop right up.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  3. I love studying these jewish holidays and traditions. There so much interesting history and scriptural truth to glean from Jewish culture. And the idea of celebrating and thanking God for everything he’s done is something I want to constantly keep before me. So thanks for the Psalms and the great reminder today!

  4. Alex, the history is there, and it’s rich! And since Christ celebrated the passover, there is deep meaning.

    I think it is especially amazing that historians think that Christ used the 3rd cup of the Passover, the cup of Elijah, when he said “this is my blood”. That is the cup that the Jewish people do not drink because they are waiting for Elijah. Christ would have been saying, “it is fulfilled. Elijah has come, and one greater than Elijah has come.”

    And Brandon, glad I could offer that one tip … its pretty neat. If you can, visit a church service where Jews For Jesus make a Passover presentation, as that explains a lot.

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