God’s Wide Table
We have been on a journey through Psalm 23. It all started because I was given the opportunity to teach on the psalm in my online Bible study. I jumped at the chance because God is doing a work in me - bringing joy to me in the using of my gifts in a place I never thought I’d want to find myself - speaking in public. But here we are, and I have found myself coming alive in the teaching opportunities I have been given. So lets recap: In My Shepherd, we talked about God as Shepherd and the way our Shepherd leads is natural because it is God’s very character to lead and care for us. In Darkest Valley and Deepest Intimacy, we looked at the intimate way that God, Emmanuel, meets us in our suffering.
Today we finish the journey. Today we move from green grass and still waters to a wide open table. Today we see God as a gracious host, doing the very same things that the Shepherd does for sheep. Lets hear the scripture before we dive in:
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
my whole life long.
These verses re-emphasize for us that the Shepherd provides food (you prepare a table) and water (my cup overflows.) However, there is an additional element. Did you notice it in verse 5? God prepares that table in the presence of my enemies. These are the same enemies that have pursued the psalmist. The same enemies that the psalmist has railed against and fled from are present. But God has rendered them harmless.
And then the Shepherd honors us by anointing our heads with oil. Anointing isn’t a common occurrence during these days, but it was more common in ancient Hebrew culture. The desert was hot and dry and dusty. Good hosts would anoint guests with oil as a cultural norm. Oil was soothing to the skin and was often perfumed with spices or herbs. But there was more to oil than just anointing houseguests. Oil - olive oil specifically - was used in the Near East for cooking, for burning in lamps, for incense, and for sacrifices. It was an integral part of life and was revered because it came from the richness of the earth. It signified abundance and sustenance.
Remember those enemies? The ones that are now rendered harmless? I believe they are important to remind ourselves of here. Because once we were pursued by enemies, but guess what? Now we are being pursued by goodness and unfailing love! surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
These words are significant because they are important characteristics of who God is. Way back in verse 3 we were told that the Shepherd leads us in right paths for his name’s sake. I may have even said that this was foreshadowing a further revealing of the character of the Shepherd. Well, here we are. Those two things that now pursue us, goodness and unfailing love, are fundamental characteristics of who God is.
I love to know the Hebrew words for things, even though I don’t read Hebrew at all. The Hebrew word for goodness is pronounced tove and is the same word God used in creation. God called the light, the dry ground and seas, the vegetation, the sun and moon and stars, the sea creatures and earth creatures and water creatures, and everything that God made was pronounced tove. This goodness, this tove pursues us. Then there is the second word that describes God’s character - mercy or unfailing love or steadfast love - chesed. This word was used to describe God’s love throughout the Old Testament. We see it for the Hebrew patriarchs. We see it over and over to describe God in the psalms. It is used to describe the God who wooed Israel throughout their rebellion. And in Lamentations, as the author cries out to God in the middle of the exile years, he declares in hope,
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
This chesed, this steadfast love pursues us. We are pursued by God, by God’s goodness and God’s steadfast love all the days of our lives.
And we finish with the profession, the promise, that we will dwell in the house of Yahweh. This idea of the table and the house reminds us that we live in community. Psalm 23 is both intimately personal and wide with inclusiveness. It brings to mind the bread and the wine of Communion. And we see Jesus echoing the idea in Mark 6, when he is preaching to a large crowd and he has compassion on them “because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” And Jesus sits them down on the green grass and he gives them food and drink and security. All of these instances are experienced in community. And our wide table holds community too. We always come back to it, don’t we? We are meant to be in relationship - with the Shepherd whose fundamental character is goodness and steadfast love and with one another around God’s wide table full of abundance and the richness of creation.