I am Hashem your G-d who brought you up from Egypt, open wide your mouth – to ask of Me all your heart’s desires, and I will fill it – as much as you ask I will fulfill.
(Tehillim 81 with Rashi)
This statement made by Dovid HaMelech, with Rashi’s explanation, begs the question: Why do we not always see Hashem fulfilling our tefillos?
Perhaps a second look at the pasuk provides us an answer. Hashem compares our asking of Him and His commitment to fulfill our requests as our opening our mouth wide and his filling it. When one gets ready to eat, he doesn’t open his mouth wide until he is actually holding the food in front of his mouth ready to eat it. If we ask of Hashem in the same fashion, as if we see the fulfillment of our request as much an immediate certainty as eating the food before us as we open our mouth, then we can truly be assured that He won’t let us down.
But how do we develop such a feeling of trust in Hashem’s salvation?
This is explained in the first half of our pasuk: I am Hashem your G-d who took you out from Mitzrayim. The Medrash Agadah in the beginning of this week’s parsha quotes our opening pasuk interpreting it as follows: Just as I saved you from Mitzrayim, so to I will save you from every calamity that may befall you.
Hashem is telling us: While you’re worried about how you’re going to get a business deal through, remember who you have on your side worrying about you, your Father, who took you and millions of others from Mitzrayim in miraculous fashion. Just as I saved you from Mitzrayim, I will save you now. However, Chazal say that Klal Yisroel merited redemption in the merit of the righteous women who, even while in slavery, prepared musical instruments to celebrate their redemption displaying their undying bitachon in Hashem’s ultimate salvation. “If you trust in me as they did, you too will be saved!”
Other parts to this series: Inspiration in Bitachon
