Psalms 23:
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Exhortation Verse 5,
1) God Prepares:
God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. This verse is a prophetical verse, the enemies that we have is not humans or fleshly. The only enemy that human has is the sin leading to eternal death.
So, what is this table that God prepares for us?
This table is surely the Table of our Lord, His flesh and His blood, the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. How good is our God and how loving He is that He prepared Lord Jesus Christ for us. His body broken on the cross and His blood shed as a propitiation for our sin.
We surely see this in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in, John 6: 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Jesus was revealing to His disciples and followers regarding this truth. The table that God has laid before His people is the bread which is His body and cup which is His blood. Blessed are the ones whom God bestows this privilege.
We see this being reiterated in Paul’s words, Also, Read, 1 Cor 10: 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Here we see Paul talking about the table of the Lord, this is the table that David talks about inspired by the Holy Spirit. How blessed are the ones whom God has bestowed the privilege to be partakers from this table.
2) To achieve this God prepares a body:
We see that the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 10:5 states, Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
This was inspired by Psalms 40:6 Which says “You have prepared ears for Me”. Christ came as God’s slave, having His ears prepared by God to listen to God – He had His ears bore as a slave (Exodus. 21:6), He was obedient to God even unto death. The focus point here is not whether ears or body are in similarity. The context of the scriptures reveals that God prepared a vessel (Body or Ears) to fulfill His plan of salvation for mankind. This vessel is Christ’s body. So God prepared a body for Christ, so that Christ would come and carry out God’s commission to die on the cross and replace the old covenant with the new covenant in His blood.
He was born in a manger as a babe taking on flesh, subjecting Himself to the law of the nature and the rulers of the world so that He can redeem us from the sin that leads to death.
This is the Table that God prepared before us in the presence of our enemies that is the sin and death. Those that have partaken from this Table, God through the work of Christ has defeated sin and death for them.
3) You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows –
David goes on to say that not only does God prepares a table before us but He also applies the benefit of sitting around this Table God has prepared. God anoints our head with oil and our cup overflows. This is the indication of the salvation applied to us.
The oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit who applies this salvation to us. When we are regenerated or born again by the power of God The Holy Spirit and when the Promised Holy Spirit in dwells in us we are anointed by The Holy Spirit and our life over flows with His presence, comfort and guidance.
Those whom God anoints are indicative that, they are God’s special and chosen people. As was the tradition of Israel, the priest would anoint the king with oil.
Jesus also, compares the Holy Spirit with water when Jesus tells to the Samaritan women in John Ch 4: 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
In Conclusion: Thus David filled with the owe and worship to God inspired to write further that, Verse 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The goodness of God and His Mercy by this effect shall be with us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever. The mercy and goodness of God which we do not deserve but He gives us out of His shear Love towards us expressed on the Cross work of Christ (This table laid before us) which is applied to our lives by the regenerating work and in dwelling of The Holy Spirit (Head anointed with oil and the overflowing cup) follows us all the days of our lives.
The house of God to which we never had an entry, to which we were unworthy to enter but by the blood of Jesus Christ we enter confidently. Once we enter the house of The Lord our place is set there for ever. Though David expresses this about the Temple and how he loved to dwell in the temple of God meditating upon His words and looking unto the beauty of the Lord as he expresses it in Psalms 27. The word mentioned forever is indicative of the Kingdom of God, God’s real house. Once we enter this house we will never desire to come out nor will God let us.
What a privilege we have as followers of Lord Jesus Christ, this is Lord’s work and it shall stand. Glory be to His Name.
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