A Table Prepared… Where?

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…” Psalm 23:5

From the guidance and protection of the Shepherd’s rod and staff, we are seemingly plucked from our pastoral setting and set down at a dinner table. The psalmist had already written of the green pastures and still waters that delight the appetite of a sheep, so why abruptly sit us down at a table?

The Hebrew word here does not help us as much as we might at first expect, because it literally does mean “table.” It comes from a root that means to send out or stretch forth. In other words, it is something stretched out to be laid with food. It is primarily used in the context of royalty, as in “the king’s table,” but is also used to refer to the table of shewbread in the Tabernacle.

This idea of a table—and a royal one at that—goes beyond that of the shepherd leading his flock to a field full of nutritious grass. Perhaps that’s why we are taken out of the sheepfold for this verse.

Our Shepherd not only leads us to pastures full of nutritious sustenance, He also spreads out a table and prepares the food Himself! He is intricately involved in the preparations of our feasting, and as the good Shepherd, He has a loving heart that delights in spreading forth the best of His bounty for His flock.

Remember the joyful exclamation in Psalm 34:8-10:

“O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”

But it is not just the table, or the personal preparation of our Shepherd that is significant: it is also the location. Part of the beauty of this picture is the fact that our Shepherd lays out a feast of good things for us in the presence of our enemies. Our great God sets a table where no one would ever have thought of stopping to eat.

Most people would count it poor leadership to set up for a banquet just outside the enemy’s camp. But our God goes beyond that. At salvation, He sets up the King’s table right in the very throne room of the enemy! Listen to Romans 5:8-11:

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

Before salvation, we were God’s enemies. Isaiah 53:6 puts this in the context of our illustration of sheep with a shepherd:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Every one of us has broken God’s law, and every one of us has at some point rebelled and chosen our own way instead of obedience to the absolute goodness and justice of God. That is why Christ died—to save those who had set themselves up as His enemies.

The amazing thing is, Christ loved us and died for us while we were yet sinners. He loves each of us so much that He paid for our sin before we had any intention of accepting His payment by repentance and faith.

Yes, our hearts have always been throne rooms, but the king of our heart was our own desires, our own way, as Isaiah 53 put it. From our view, it was the very center of enemy territory to God. But to the Lord our Shepherd, it was the run-down hovel in which one of His lost sheep was huddling, trapped by its own desires.

Our Shepherd knocks at the door and waits:

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20

As soon as we open the door of our hearts to Him, He enters, the Holy Spirit indwelling our hearts and bringing into the dark, empty space His light and truth. The Shepherd stretches out a table and piles it up with good things while our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the Devil, (who have been the real enemies all along) skulk in the corners, sent cowering away by the merest glance of our strong Shepherd. The feast prepared, He bids us eat, and there is no end to the fulness of His table.

That is what salvation is like. We go from enemies to beloved children, from prisoners of war to heirs of the kingdom.  Romans 8:15-17 tells us,

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Our Good Shepherd spreads His table in the presence of our enemies, for they have no power in His presence. Truly, the very sacrifice He made to save His lost sheep was the very thing that sealed our enemies’ fate. As 1 Corinthians 15:57 so joyously says,

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If you have repented of your sin and trusted Christ’s finished work of salvation, you have much cause for rejoicing! Not only does your Shepherd provide you with the green pastures and still waters, He takes the very areas of your life in which the enemy has had the strongest hold, and turns them into His banqueting hall.

He calls you to embrace His victory and sit down, resting and partaking in the bounteous feast of blessings He has prepared for you in His presence.

“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17