The Finest of Dining

One of the memory tasks our Joel took on this year at school was to tackle the 23rd Psalm. He will still recite it from time to time randomly, not if asked of course, but just out of the blue.

As a result, because it is just so cute to hear him, I have had it on a bit of a cycle in my own mind. I guess if my brain is going to run on a loop, this is as good a place to get stuck as there is.

Often when I am walking, instead of counting blocks in the sidewalk or how many houses there are to the next turn on the path, I will go over it in my mind.

Scripture recitation and meditation is an excellent discipline as it leads the mind to begin to really think and ponder on certain words and phrases.

The part that had me going over and over in depth on a recent walk was verse 5.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Psalm 23:5 NIV

While most other translations use exactly this same wording, Eugene Peterson puts it this way in The Message

You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies.

As I thought about the imagery of this, I pictured one of our local restaurants. The seating is not ideal in my book. Around the outer edges of the room there are semi-circles of couches with an oval shaped table in front of them.

These are on a raised area that you have to step up to get into. They look down on the tables that are scattered close together on the flooring below.

If you are with other couples, conversation is difficult as you lean around to see faces on either side and if it is just two, you sit as if at a theater gazing down on others visiting and eating.

The other side of the coin is, those faces often glance back up at you making for a rather awkward dining experience.

So my mind took the memory of this particular arrangement and plugged it into the picture David paints of the LORD hosting me for a meal and I struggled.

I imagined sitting there with my plate filled with yummy food, gazing down on scowling, angry, hate-filled faces that would love nothing better than to take me out and I found myself only longing for a sack lunch in those green pastures and still waters up in verse 2.

However, this line was included by the psalmist so I prayed for a better understanding.

And as I walked I felt the nudging in my spirit to consider that if I focused on the LORD who is my Shepherd, actually serving me a meal; acting as my Host and attending to nourishing and welcoming me, the whole perspective shifts.

I thought of the meal He prepared for His disciples and served them in the presence of His own enemy on that last supper they shared together and I realized, He has gone before me in every detail of my life and struggles.

Whatever is going on around me, my attention should be held fast on Him who provides for me, who cares for me, who tends me.

I can not only just function, but thrive and have joy in all settings because He is with me.

Praise Him <3

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