The Table Set Before Me

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

Most of us are pretty familiar with the 23rd Psalm, even those who have never read the book of Psalms probably have heard this one a time or two.  But did you ever think about verse 5 and what it might mean that God "has prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies?"  What does that mean?  Does it mean that I'll have a table filled with food while my enemy is forced to look on, hungry?  Does it perhaps mean that we will have seperate tables, but my food will be way better?

Our sense of fairness and justice wants us to believe that whatever comes after this life, those I don't approve of just aren't going to have it as good as I will.  We really can't tell by the words of the psalm, but I think that by looking at the sweep of scriptures to tell us about the character of God, I would bet that he has something entirely different in mind...

Perhaps the psalmist is telling us that God is preparing a grand table where friend and foe will finally eat together with joy and peace.  And not just you and the neighbor who lets his dog get into your trash cans.  I'm talking Christian and Muslim, and Israeli and Palastinian.... or even Liberal and Conservative.  Can you imagine it?

Perhaps the Psalmist is talking about a different kind of meal.  The kind that is set before us on the altar in our places of worship.  It is where we all come together with different problems, different needs, different perspectives on life.  And yet, at the very depth of our inmost being, we are all very much the same.  We need Christ's body and blood poured out for us.  We need that forgiveness of sin, because we all have sin and ours is every bit as bad as our enemies, because ALL sin creates a barrier between us and God.

But let's think about the senerio of being seated with our enemies in the life to come.  Those first moments are going to be... well... awkward.  So we might want to start in this life to overcome any hatred that might lie in our hearts, to seek to mend any relationships we might have trashed, to heal conflicts that are going on in our lives right now, so when we meet at that table that God has already set for us, we can just dig in, because there will be no enemies if we have already made them friends.

Father,
Help us to see that we are so much more like others than we are different.  Help us to overcome our fears of those we see as so different.  Help us to be friends, because we will be in the end anyway.  Amen.

Joys:  Getting home and in the house only seconds before the downpour started yesterday; Richard's procedure going well and not feeling as bad as the last time he had it done; a quiet morning.