You become my delicious feast
even when my enemies dare to fight.
You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit;
you give me all I can drink of you until my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5 TPT
I awoke at 2:35 this morning with the thought that I should check on our youngest daughter who hadn’t been feeling well. The house was quiet, and my daughter was soundly sleeping in her bed. I returned to see a text from our oldest who is working an early morning shift, so I replied and returned to my lovely warm bed. But sleep, it seemed, had eluded me ☹
When this happens, I have come to believe that the Lord is trying to speak to me. I asked Him if there was something He wanted me to see, and when I closed my eyes, I saw the time I had noticed upon waking – 2:35 am. I knew at once that Jesus was highlighting that old familiar passage in Psalms. I was about to run through what I remembered of the verses the see if I could remember verse 5 so I wouldn’t have to get out of the warmth of my bed to hear the rest of what He was saying, but all at once the first part of the verse leapt into my spirit, “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies”. I wasn’t sure I was remembering it correctly and really didn’t want to feel the cold, as sleep had already begun to knock and my eyelids infused with its heaviness, but I did manage to find my phone and quickly text the verse to my husband then fell fast asleep.
This morning I woke to a thank you from my husband for the text and realized I needed to pen what the Lord had shown me. My tried-and-true version of scripture translates Psalm 23:5 this way, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows.” Now while I believe that with my whole heart, in this era of things not always being what they appeared, I compared a few versions to see if there were any differences.
As you can see from the verse listed at the top of this word, there was one version in particular, that stood out to me. All the other versions seem to allude to an actual meal and riches being provided to David in his distress, but The Passion Translation suggests quite another focus. In fact, it’s focus mirrors that of verses that outline communion. By taking communion we proclaim His death and our salvation. In short, we declare His lordship over us and command upon us, His protection and provision. We boast in our oneness.
Revelation 19:9 writes this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This speaks clearly of the marriage supper which is to be our ultimate delight in His presence, but David wasn’t at that dinner in that moment. Perhaps the Lord had given him insight into the coming age and His promise to prepare a table in the presence of David’s enemies. I believe that that may have been part of it, but the revelation Jesus showed me early this morning was that of feasting NOW. The prophets have been speaking a lot about refocusing on the ONE. Making it all about Him. Letting all the noise of the critics, naysayers and fear mongers fall away. Not that there isn’t real stuff to consider, but that He would be the one through which all these would be seen rightly.
Part of the consequence of the fall has been our reliance upon our own best thinking. Our own best thinking got us where we are. Think about that for a minute. Listen to the news, read some social media posts and watch as our babies are morphing into things we never thought possible. There has to be something better. Lucky for us there is. Before the fall, we were tethered to the source, the one, the maker, the one who knows all. Only since the fall do we believe our pride, explaining how, like Eve, God is holding out on us, and because we can think and reason – we believe we know better. But I digress.
You become my delicious feast
even when my enemies dare to fight.
You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit;
you give me all I can drink of you until my cup overflows.
…says that my cup overflows BECAUSE He is my delicious feast. Even when my enemies are squawking and dare to raise a hand to the, what? The Lord’s anointed! That may seem like blasphemy to some, but it’s in the text. Look at it. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit. He what? Anointed me! That means that if I’m His and I am anointed, and you’re His…then you’re anointed 😊 This truth says that as we feast on Him, we are anointed in the Holy Spirit and we become full to the point of overflowing! But full of what? Full of His presence, full of His love for His children, full of His provision! Everything we need is found in Him! If that’s our fruit, then we are on the right road.
So, dear one, let our focus be that of Christ. Let’s make Him first in more than just lip service. In Philippians Paul professes to be CONTENT in ALL things. As Christians, his beloved friends, are being tortured and put to death. In sickness, in the face of his own death, with the right foods or in starvation, clothed and naked, how can this man of God say he can be content. How is that? Can you be at peace looking into those potential consequences? I know I can’t.
What that tells me is that I need to spend allot more time sitting in the lap of my Father and staring at the face of Jesus <3. It’s there the answers come. It’s there I will find inexplicable peace for my soul and it’s there I will know what to do. This life isn’t about passing the time and finding solace in a Disney movie, although that can be a nice diversion. This life isn’t about you at all. It’s about the Lord working through you. If you’ve clogged up the machinery with the cares of this life or pacification of self, you’ve missed the entire point. If you can be at peace with that and NOT be on medication, color me suspicious. The discontent you feel is because the empty void inside of you is being filled by things that are the wrong size and shape. If your god-hole is square and you’re shoving a round peg in there, it’s really not going to be a good fit ☹ Our focus needs to be on the person of Jesus not the gifts of the Spirit. Again, might be a place of rub for some, but the gifts are a fruit of relationship, not the other way around.
Can I encourage you today? Lay it down. All of it. All the drama, all the rub, all the emptiness. Bring it to the foot of the cross and practice being ok with not knowing the answer to every question that comes at you. Ask the giver of all good things to meet you in that broken and dry place. Ask Him to refresh you and bring new life to things that have died. It’s His desire to see you whole and walking in the newness of life that He died to bring to you. It’s His job to fix it all. Let go of your expectations and jump into the arms of love, as He shows you the unlimited possibilities of what can be.