“But I would feed you with the finest of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” The lines conclude Psalm 81, which begins with Asaph’s affirmation to “Sing for joy to God our strength.” Soon, though, Asaph describes how he “heard an unfamiliar language”: God, exasperated, speaking to the Jewish people. Especially when juxtaposed with the prosaic first clause, the second clause is both enigmatic and enticing. God’s words are a call, and a promise; faith would be rewarded, even under impossible circumstances.

The line appears early in Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, the debut novel by Carolyn Kuebler.