all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Message: My Shepherd, So I don't have a want
Time: The psalms were written by many different people across a period of a thousand years in Israel's history. They are thought to have been compiled and put together in their present form by some unknown editor shortly after the captivity ended about 537 B.C.
What the Lord is Saying:
Today I continue with verse 5 of this celebrated Psalm. I've often wondered why so many people revert back to this Psalm and call it out as their favorite passage in scripture. As I study it, I see that it is in fact a fantastic lament and promise from God. It makes me wonder if people really comprehend its words.
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." On the heels of seeing that the shepherd will walk me through, showing me the right way and right path, difficult times or sadness or sorrow or low points of my life, I see now that He will prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. From the first verse was the statement, "I shall not want," and ever since there has been the idea that God provides for my needs and he is there with me in the low points of life. And He is also there for me in the presence of my enemies.
God, the Shepherd, provides a feast for me in front of my enemies. My enemies may want the feast but God has provided it for me. God will provide for my needs. It feels sometimes like people that are enemies of God or have no regard for God, get everything they want or desire. They live a happy life, it seems and have discovered through things or ambition, that life can be fulfilling. They have found their answers.
God anoints my head with oil. This is a customary act of pouring oil on a persons head with abundance to the point of making fat. There is abundance of God's provision.
My Cup Overflows. From Spurgeon:
The intention of the Psalmist was to picture himself as a favored guest in the house of the Lord. When you are entertained in an Oriental house, a portion of meat is served out for you which constitutes your mess or portion; to highly esteemed and welcomed guests, a further honor is given, oil is poured upon the head; and yet further, a certain cup is placed before the favored one containing the portion which he is to drink. Now David felt himself to be not a beggar knocking at the door of Mercy, receiving a crust and a sip by the way, but he felt that he had been received by the great Master of the feast, and permitted to sit down to receive the supply of all his necessities, and what was more, to receive of the luxuries of the feast as one who was thoroughly and heartily welcomed to all that was provided. Brothers and Sisters, a little while ago you and I were among the blind, and the halt, and the lame lurking in the hedges and the highways, far off from the heavenly banquet—but Eternal Mercy has brought us, by living Faith, to sit down at the feast which Mercy has prepared! This day ours is the lot of those who are saved! Ours is a portion with the Justified! We sit at the table, this day, with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob—having been made children and heirs of God, even as they were. We participate in the pardon, the Justification, and the security which God gave to His saints in the olden times, and which Christ clearly revealed to His Apostles in the latter days. All heavenly things are ours! We are denied none of the luxuries of the Banquet of Mercy. Whatever belonged to any child of God belongs to us; whatever was enjoyed by the brightest of the saints may be enjoyed by us, if by Faith we are sitting at the table of Divine Grace!
Promise: God has set me apart and made me more special than I will ever know.
Wow...what a great visual!
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