Psalm 23, pt.4
A Different Look
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
When enemies attack, God sets a table for the saint, spiritual provision to take him through and beyond the schemes of the enemy. He pours out His Holy Spirit upon the attacked saint (‘anointest my head with oil’) and fills the cup of his provision of grace that he might be able to stand ‘and having done all, to stand.’ And God is not stingy with that provision but when the saint is attacked for holiness sake, God gives him grace abounding, sufficient and beyond for the difficulty.
I have read that in the eastern culture a visitor was always offered a glass of wine and the host was always careful to fill the cup until it overflowed. The gesture was to mean that so long as the visitor was a guest in the home there would be provision enough and to spare for his needs.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
He is confident that this is not a temporary provision but that God will faithfully keep him all the days of his life and, when his life is over, keep him in His Own house for ever and ever.
It is clear that David had a firm hold on the principle of Everlasting Life for the saints of God and a confidence that his “for ever” would be in the very place that John would ultimately show us, the City of God, the New Jerusalem, “wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
How can goodness and mercy fail to be his experience if Christ is His Shepherd? If his soul is restored by the Lord, if the Shepherd leads him, if He both defends him and recovers him from any place in which he
falls? If the Lord nourishes him even in the face of his enemies?
No sheep was ever so secure and no one’s destiny was ever guaranteed so completely.
— May 7, 2020