18 (pt. 2). The Supply of Nourishment: "a table before me" (23:5a, pt. 2)

Psalm 23:5a

The Provision: God provides a table of spiritual nourishment. Nowhere in the Old Testament is the word “table” used for a “tableland” of grass. Indeed, most of the grass eaten by the sheep I saw in the Holy Land on both of my visits were mere nubs of barely perceptible blades of grass.

            Clearly the “table” used in Psalm 23:5 is a symbolic parable for spiritual food which the Lord prepared and prepares for me. This “table” is filled with abundant spiritual nourishment. When Peter professed his love for Christ, in his three-fold restoration at the Sea of Galilee found in John 21, Christ responded with one command “Feed My lambs…shepherd My sheep…Feed My sheep.”

             Lambs and sheep need feeding and shepherding so that they can find a table of food. Jesus said that “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." God's will was food for Him, and indeed it is food for us as well. 

            The Apostle Paul also was concerned that the church needed to be protected and fed in Acts 20:28: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the church of God.”

            And if that were not enough, Peter, perhaps remembering Christ's final command to him (who could ever forget the aforementioned John 21 restoration)  also urged the pastors who read his epistle to “feed the flock of God” (1 Peter 5:2). God will feed us through our pastors and spiritual leaders, but most of all, through His Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Place: God places the table in front of His sheep. 

            We already saw that the Shepherd “prepared a table” beforehand, as in time. But this “before me” is not so much of a time but rather a place. It is a dimensional placement of the table. The word before means “In front of my face and before my very eyes,”  It is in this place that the Shepherd shows me the table of nourishment He has prepared for me.

          God demonstrates the place of His provision in the parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats, found in Matthew 25:34 – “Then the King shall say to (the sheep) at His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

            As mentioned yesterday, those who reject Christ, there is another prepared place, but it was prepared for the devil and his demons. “Then He shall say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

            If Heaven is prepared as a place where no evil can enter, and all that remains in our essence is the good that God has supplied within us, what else could Hell be, other than a place prepared where no good can enter, and all that remains there within those souls who have rejected Christ's supply of forgiveness in their essence is the utterly wicked that the devil and his angels has placed within their unforgiven souls? C.S. Lewis said of the unrepentant, 

"What are you asking God to do (for them)? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not to be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does."

The Problem of Pain, chapter 8, "Hell" 

            Then where is that kingdom place for the forgiven? where is the "table before me" which is that spiritual inheritance? God Himself through His Good Shepherd has prepared it “before me” spiritually in front of me, even though I cannot see it with my physical eyes. Jesus said in Luke 17:20-21, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;  nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” 

“Dear Shepherd, before my spiritual eyes,
I see a table of heavenly food prepared.
May I feast at your banqueting table. Amen.”