My Gracious Host

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

“Your prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”. God is pictured here as the gracious host. I imagine God setting the table, preparing the food, telling me to sit down so that I don’t need to do anything but simply sit down and receive. I know this feeling of receiving something from someone clearly greater and nobler. I felt that way when Chuck Colson prepared various ‘tables’ during my first Centurion’s conference. I was amazed at this great man who has experienced so much, whose life and testimony has brought about a revival in Christendom, and here I was, in a room full of highly accomplished individuals, and I got to be there and simply receive. I remember more mundane moments when my parents would make a fuss over me during significant events like my high school graduation, or after I came home for the first time during Thanksgiving break during my freshmen year at Berkeley [Boy, that was literally a table they set before me with my favorite foods and all different kinds of delights]. I have been on the receiving end countless times in these ways, like during my baptism and most recently during my ordination when people ‘prepared a table for me’ to encourage me and affirm this calling in my life. I remembering feeling tremendously awkward during these moments and it is because I felt so undeserved of this kind of attention and grace. On the flip side, I remember preparing a table for others. One Thanksgiving, I cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal for my family when I was 14. As a shepherd, I have prepared ‘tables’, honored people in my life, just because God’s love compelled me, whether it be through the careful attention and prayer over a College Student or to the various friends in my life. Through those incidents, I have some sense of the detailed love and care involved in this process, but more than anything a greater appreciation for the descending one needs to do in order to be that gracious host. Descent is needed but it is not done out of a begrudging spirit but out of love and reverence for Christ. After all, Christ played the ultimate host for us so poignantly symbolized through the last supper event and ultimately as He laid down His life as expressed in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son….” Having been on the receiving end and having done the preparing, when I read this verse, “You prepare a table before me…” I am reminded that I am the object of tremendous love and grace. God is not this exacting, fiery, judgmental deity interested in ‘catching me’ do wrong so that I can be punished and so that He can enjoy with delight the experience of power over my life. To the contrary, this picture gives a window into the true heart of God. He prepares a table before me, he anoints my head with oil and he fills my cup until it overflows. How much does this convey a picture of His heart to dare say, pamper and spoil, but contrary to what I want, spoil with true blessings? He wants to fill my life with abundance, joy, peace and ultimately His salvation.

And He does this in the presence of my enemies maybe to convey the utter powerlessness of the enemies before the perfect shepherd and His ability to deliver blessings into my life. In the end, what assurance this brings that no enemy, no power can ultimately prevent God from preparing a table before me and making my cup overflow. And this has been my story as I think about all the blessings I have received despite numerous ‘enemies’ in my life.  Looking at my life now, my cup overflows in terms of relationships, in terms of the messages I have received, the various experiences that have been challenging, fun, and inspiring, the different countries I have been able to visit for the Gospel. Truly God has been my gracious host and I want to meditate on that next time I think God is someone different, the next time I hear those voices of condemnation. I must remember He prepares a table before me and truly my cup has and will continue to overflow in my life!