Ps.23:5 – You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

We live in a world surrounded by an invisible tension. We see God’s glory in His handiwork all around us, we drink deeply from the cup of salvation, and we are continually wooed by the Lord to come to His banqueting table. At the same time there is a spiritual war raging all around us. We may not see it but it is always present. It comes in tormenting attacks of temptation and accusation as well as a barrage against the moral standard required by God’s word; it is always pounding away at the moral law that our civilization is built on. Here is how Spurgeon describes this table the Lord has prepared for us in the middle of this conflict.

“The good man has his enemies. He would not be like his Lord if he had not. If we were without enemies we might fear that we were not the friends of God, for the friendship of the world is enmity to God. Yet see the quietude of the godly man in spite of, and in the sight of, his enemies. How refreshing is his calm bravery! When a soldier is in the presence of his enemies, if he eats at all he snatches a hasty meal, and away he hastens to the fight. But observe: “Thou preparest a table,” just as a servant does when she unfolds the damask cloth and displays the ornaments of the feast on an ordinary peaceful occasion. Nothing is hurried, there is no confusion, no disturbance, the enemy is at the door, and yet God prepares a table, and the Christian sits down and eats as if everything were in perfect peace. Oh! the peace which Jehovah gives to his people, even in the midst of the most trying circumstances!”

David understood this conflict as well as anyone. He had the glory of God’s presence abiding on him since the day of his anointing as a teenager which lead to his supernatural ability to write songs of intimacy calling us to the banqueting table. He fought against enemies all of his life from the giant Goliath, the Philistines, Saul, and even his son Absalom. He had sustained himself through all of that discovering that the Lord had a table for him in the wilderness. Maybe you feel the stress of that war pressing in on you, its time to take your seat with Jesus at the table that He has set for you at the table in the presence of your enemies.