I will prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemies. This is what the Lord told David in Psalms 23 verse 6. From a shepherd’s practice in that part of the world, we know the shepherd will go before the sheep on a plateau of grazing land and check for snakes and other sources of harm to the sheep. He will take his rod and poke it in holes and around bushes and if a snake is discovered he will kill him in protection of the sheep. This is a picture of what the Lord does for us as the Good Shepherd. By our submission to him, we can know he is working on our behalf dealing with the enemy. Our part is to deal with the enemy of our flesh. The Lord gives us grace and understanding, and the power of his Word and Spirit, to enable us to deal with our flesh – to put off the bad and put on the good. With the Lord doing his part and us doing our part, we can effectively deal with our enemies of satan and the flesh to overcome all things and walk in the will of God. We in the western world think of a table as a place to eat. Sometimes we clean up and dress up and go to a dinner. We have an “anointing” of fragrant cologne and we go feast on an abundance of good food and drink, with our cup running over in abundance of goodness.
The basic lesson in either illustration is this: Even in the presence of “enemies”, the Lord can be counted on to make provision for us to be sustained abundantly. We might be facing opposition in some way – from others, from our own weaknesses and faults, from supernatural adversity of satanic activity – regardless of the source, we are promised a feast in the Lord. It might not be a feast in our circumstances or in what we see, feel, think, or hear, but with our mind stayed on Him, we can have peace, joy, and overcoming power. And with that promise, we are further promised that “surely”, without fail, God’s goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life as we dwell in His house, as we abide in Him. This is promised to be forever. What a deal! If I put the Lord first, trusting in Him as my Shepherd, he will take care of me here and now, and forever.
You can’t beat that! To have the Lord Himself caring for you! How could we refuse such an offer? As I dealt with an elderly man today who wanted to know the Lord, he asked how he could turn from sin and have Jesus? I said decide you want to give your whole life to him and do that, asking him to be the Lord of your life. He prayed and did that. He is starting to feast at the table.
