Open Wide

“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (Ps 81:10 AV)

At first, I had the picture of a chick in the nest which opens its beak for the hen to drop in nourishment.  But that is not the idea at all.  The word used for ‘open wide’ has to do with exhaling.  Not eating.  The idea is if the children of Israel open their mouths wide with prayer and praise, then the LORD will fill the petitions for which they seek.  With that in mind, there is one word that appears to pop when I read this verse. That word? Wide.  Open wide the mouth in praise and prayer, and the LORD will answer.  The opening of the mouth to prayer and praise is not cursory.  It is not something done in passing.   Opening the mouth wide infers opening the mouth as wide as it can be opened.  If our whole person is involved in opening the mouth in prayer and praise, then the LORD honors what the heart expresses.  However, if the heart is only partially involved, the LORD may not be as apt to move on our behalf.

I have a condition called TMJ.  That is when one side of your jaw is longer than the other.  What can happen is the shorter side can slip out of joint.  There are certain things I must avoid.  I do not chew gum.  I have to be careful eating very hard things.  What I also must do is yawn in a certain way.  I remember the first time I suffered lock-jaw.  I was at a McDonalds eating chicken McNuggets.  Not too hard or large.  But for some reason, I opened my mouth wide and quickly.  Immediately my jaw swelled.  I could not open my mouth at all.  The remaining food I had to shove through clenched teeth.  It took about a week for that swelling to completely recede.  That weak, I learned what it was like to be very limited without the use of my jaw.  Talking became a chore.  I could talk.  I could project volume.  I could for words to some degree.  Vantrilicanism is more closely related to what I was doing than to carry on a normal conversation.  This made my job very difficult.  I was the expeditor at a pizzeria.  Communication is essential to doing that job well.  I learned what it meant to lose the ability to eat and to communicate.  At least for a week or so.

This begs the question.  Do we seek God’s face and His benevolence until it hurts?  Opening wide means just that.  It means to pray and praise God with all we have.  Every ounce of strength and ability we have must go into prayer to God and praise for God.  Then and only then will the LORD fill our desires.  The words above were spoken to a nation that had recently been liberated from slavery.  One might assume a nation like that would rejoice.  However, four hundred years of governmental caretaking and mandatory servitude made Israel a helpless dependent.  When they suffered a need, they complained.  This is what they had been doing the entire time they lived in Egypt.  The cycle of welfare had to be broken.  The way to do that was to pray to God and praise Him for what He provides.  They didn’t need to throw a temper tantrum.  They didn’t need to threaten a return to Egypt.  All they needed to do was to open wide their mouths in prayer and praise, and the LORD would have gladly taken care of them.