Feasting at the Table

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” - Psalm 23:5

Just picture this: there’s a battle raging outside. Your enemies are trying to bust down the door to attack you, and the Lord is calmly preparing dinner for you. He’s setting the table, lighting the candles, folding the napkins. And as your enemies rage right outside, He invites you to sit and eat with Him as if everything were in perfect peace.

That is absolutely wild!

Everything in us would want to panic. Fight or flight would probably kick in. Some of us would be bunkering down in the crawl space with pillows and bike helmets, ready to wait it out until the danger passed. Others would be itching to jump into the battle and push back the enemy. 

But our Lord is not worried. He’s preparing the victory feast even while the battle rages, because He knows the end of the story. He knows how your season of testing will produce fruit in your life. He knows that even though you’re grieving that loss now, it will turn into joy in the end. He sees what we can’t see in the midst of the battle.

Here is a picture of confidence in the victory of Christ. It’s God’s abundant provision, and it’s where we receive our anointing. We endured through the dark valley, and now it’s time for a refreshing feast.

“Set my mind on things above and not earthly things.” - Colossians 3:2

His provision is abundant and overflowing, but we must be careful to keep our eyes fixed on Him and not the battle raging around us. Doing so can create fear, doubt, and discontent. These things create cracks in our cup so the blessing leaks out instead of overflowing.

Jesus warns John the Baptist of this in Matthew 11:6 after John sends a messenger to ask Jesus if he’s really the Messiah. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, who knew who He was even in the womb, was susceptible to doubt.

“And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” - Matthew 11:6

It can be easy to misunderstand Jesus and become offended by him. Let’s play it out with our analogy of the feasting during the battle. I could picture it all too easily. As the Lord prepares the table, unbothered by the battle outside, I could so easily become frustrated that He doesn’t care about the battle, that He’s focused on the wrong thing, and we should be doing something about that instead of eating dinner. 

But this offended posture has one glaring issue: I’ve assumed that I know more than the Almighty God. I think I know what’s best to do, and in my offense, have convinced myself that He doesn’t care about me and that He’s wrong. 

When I put it blatantly like that, it’s easy to see how ridiculous it is. We know our Lord cares about us, more than we could possibly imagine. And we know that He is in control of all things, therefore He can never be wrong. 

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” - Matthew 6:13

Here in this closing of the Lord’s Prayer, we have this plea to God to deliver us from evil. Feasting at the table in the midst of the battle feels to me like exactly that. It’s His reassurance to us that the victory is already won, and as long as we sit at the table with Him, we will be delivered from the evil raging outside.