A Feast in the Battle

Intro

Good Morning Point Harbor! My name is Tim Trinkle and I am blessed to be the Student Minister here at Point Harbor. This morning we are going to be continuing in our study of Psalm 23, so if you brought your bible this morning please grab that and turn to Psalm 23. If you’ve not and you’d like a bible to read there is one in the seat back in front of you. That bible is for you if you don’t own one. We’d love for you to take and keep that bible as our gift to you. If you’re using one of those this morning, I want to warn you that I’m actually preaching out of the ESV this morning keeping with Pastor John’s theme here. Ultimately the Psalms are poetry and the NET simply doesn’t sound as poetic as the ESV. Both are good translations, both accurate and both mean the same things, but without a doctoral thesis on which one is better, just wanted to warn you that it’s going to be a bit different.

That being said, I want to center us on where we are this morning. We had Mark “OZ” Geist come and preach for us so we were a little out of order, but this morning we are going to be going back to that order and we will focus on the first part of Psalm 23:5. At this point in the Psalm, you’ve had David paint this picture of God as the perfect Shepard. He leads us beside still waters, he restores our soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness! Then in V4. we are told that even when we are lead through a season of life where we are in the shadow of death we need not fear any evil because our creator Shepard is with us and we are guided by his rod and his staff. This morning we land at the beginning of the second stanza of this poem and are greeted with wonderful truth about our God. Let’s read this morning

Psalm 23:5 (ESV)

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

Prayer for the message

While it might not seem like it, just in these 12 english words here or the 5 words in Hebrew have a lot to unpack. Further, I think that they very much relatable for us as humans living through the 21st century. Between the imagery of v4 of walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and us being told that we are going to be in the presence of our enemies here in V5 it’s easy to relate to that. Often times, we will go through seasons of life where everyone seems and feels like an enemy. Every situation seems like one that was crafted by someone that does not like us to harm us. But, here we have a promise that a “table” will be prepared for us in front of our enemies giving us more imagery that we are going to be eating a good meal in front of our foes which on it’s face can be a lot to process. For me, when i’m eating, I like peace, not the chaos of the battlefield. This morning, as we work our way through this short snippet of God’s word my aim is to help us all unpack not only God’s promise for his people, but, how God intends for us to interact with with that promise.

Psalm 23:5 (ESV)

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

I’m sure it’s been said from this pulpit more than once, but i’m here to say it again. The English language is a bit clunky. It struggles to capture exactly what the original writer intended when they penned scripture all those years ago. Now as a modern society we have wonderful tools to do research. My favorite is the “pronounce” button in my sermon software. I can listen to a man pronounce Hebrew and greek all day. Liz isn’t a fan. But I just feel like it helps me to interact with Scripture in a closer way. So this morning I want to lead us down a path of discovering the richness of this short 12 word passage by covering the 5 Hebrew words that this passage makes up.

Before I loose you because you’re like “Tim, no, we aren’t doing the seminary thing this morning”. Hold on for me. We aren’t going to learn all 5, and I’m not holding a pronunciation competition. But i’ve broken up this passage into 5 small parts plus, I trust that this will bless you because God’s word is so special if you focus in a bit more than you’re used to. Let’s start with:

“You”

The first question that should come to mind is

“Who is ‘you’?”

You is God!

But what does that mean? Because as we see in the rest of the passage, a fairly big promise has been made to us. We are being promised that we are going to have a meal prepared for us, and we are going to enjoy that meal in the presence of our enemies. That’s quite the expectation! We all know that the giver of the promise guarantees the quality of the promise! We know that when a 3yo promises not to touch, that it’s getting touched again! And we know from scripture and honestly if we had share time here this morning we’d see that a lot of people in scripture and in this room have seen the good quality promises from God come to fruition. But just so we are all on the same playing field here… Let’s ask this question. Who is God?

God speaks in Isaiah 45:5 to tell us...

Isaiah 45:5–6 ESV

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.

God is the most high, there is none like him, there is none close to being like him. God’s power is known through how he handles his people and there can be no doubt after experiencing his work that he is LORD of all. King of Kings, the great I AM.

You see, the God that David is relying on here as he writes this passage isn’t some demi god that Disney will eventually make a movie about. No… This is Creator the the Universe God. This is Holy God. This is the one, true living today and yesterday and for all eternity God. Let’s come to the next word here.

“Prepare”

The presence of this word suggests that planning and fore-thought was given. Care was had, The Host knows what his or her guests might like and need. The host prepares the best product of the house to be enjoyed in the best part of the house. When we host people in our house we use the best ingredients, we pull out all the stops. As a host, our goal is and should be to bless the socks off those that we are hosting and God here is the host that has prepared.

When we say “You Prepare” or “God Prepares” it gives the rest of what we say much more weight in our expectation, because as we have already discussed the quality of the promise depends on the promise giver.

Let’s think about this from our perspective. We all have a great cook in our family we all know who that person is. We all have a a terrible cook in our family we all know who that person is. If the good cook says “i’ve prepared short ribs” we all get really excited we stop eating a day before to make sure there is room in our stomachs we plan, we cancel other obligations. We are going to Aunt Stacies for Ribs People! If the bad cook says the same thing, we make appointments with our tax guy, we look for nails in the road on the way there, we stop at McDonalds probably and have our doctor call in a prescription for food poisoning before we get there.

We know now that God almighty is the one that prepared so we know it’s going to be good because God is a good God. We know what is being prepared has been well thought out because God knows everything and we know the plan is precise because God sees everything. When an omnipotent and omnipresent God prepares, we can be assured it’s going to be epic.

Well what is it that God is preparing for us?

“A Table”

Let’s learn some Hebrew today.

שֻׁלְחָן

(šǔl·ḥān)

A Table for eating, table for the King’s repast.

This table isn’t any 29.99 table from Ikea, this table is the kings table, God’s table, that he prepared for you.

Next week Johnny is going to go further into verse 5 but we can see from the context that the image that David is providing here is that God prepared a feast for us to enjoy. Not just any feast, but a feast for you, that is good for you.

As a parent, I find that I am concerned with the nutrition of my child. I make sure he eats greens and fruit. I make sure that good fats and carbs are in his diet. I also make sure he stays away from dairy because it hurts him, great for a lot of kids but not for him so when crafting foods for him in the kitchen I keep the milk away and because I’m not a total robot I also make sure that he get’s a few lollies and french fries along the way.

God, our good host and heavenly father does the same for us. This feast, that we know that he has prepared is hand crafted for us. We know this because the next phrase is.

“Before Me”

This table has a location and it is right in front of me. God does not see his weary children and provide a table up the road for them to have to travel to, or reach. There isn’t an entrance fee for his children to pay. God sees the weariness in us and provides for us, what we need, right in front of us! We can reach out and touch it! Psalm 31 says this

Psalm 31:19 ESV

Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!

The fact that this provision is being described as a meal is on purpose. David could have written fear not, God’s got you. But God, in his purpose gave David the imagery of a feasting table. It’s significant because meals together weren’t to be taken lightly in biblical times. 3000 years ago, when this passage is dated, the sharing of a feast had weight. Usually the beginning or fulfilment of a covenant. Being invited to the table of God, the one he has prepared for you no less is weighty and not to be missed.

God as the perfect host has prepared for us what we need and the table is right in front of us but where do we find ourselves?

“In the Presence of my Enemies”

In the ancient near east, the job of host was a weighty one. The host was to provide for ALL the needs of the guest including safety. We see this in the story of Lot. He had guests that were in danger and he was willing to throw his daughters to the angry mob to protect the messengers from God.

So, we see here, the image of God as a host complete. God is protecting us from the things around us that would do us harm.

It’s easy to look at this passage and think of an image of you eating ribs while your boss is looking on with frustration and anger that you’re receiving a blessing and he isn’t. While there is some of that, for sure because you are eating good in front of enemies that are defeated or at least subdued for a time, we’ll get to that, to focus there cheapens the image. The simple woes of this world like a flat tire or a cantankerous boss while real aren’t the enemies that scripture discusses. These enemies want death to come to us. Either physical, or worse. Spiritual. But, this passage tells us that God allows us, in the midst of the calamity of life and the danger of those who oppose us to pause, and gain sustenance and refreshment.

Tim’s Expanded Translation of Psalm 23:5a

God loves me, his child, so much that he thoughtfully and lovingly prepares a feast of all that i need, despite and in full view of my enemies, inviting me to dine with him as family.

The Feast is being Prepared

Right now, God is working in your life to prepare the feast that you need when you need it. God as the thoughtful host is working. God is working for you to give you the sustenance and rest you so badly need! And we know that this feast isn’t something that we’d have to wait for the death of all our enemies to enjoy! NO! We know that it’s prepared on a table, the kings table for me. In front of me, no entrance fee or address to put into our phone. Easy Access is the fact here. While we are on this earth we know that God prepares a feast for me. God, the perfect host prepares the best of the house in the best of the house for his child - YOU. But that’s just right now!

Eternally, we know that a feast of eternity is being prepared. Jesus told us that he is going to prepare a place for us HEAVEN. Paul said, “to live is Christ, to die is gain”. Because heaven we are going to be with our heavenly father and we won’t know the sting of the tongue or sword of any enemy. We’ll be in paradise worshiping our creator forever without end.

We know the feast is being prepared and we know that

The Feast is Sustaining & Abundant

Soul Care Vs Self Care

God Knows what you need and is faithful to give it in abundance

We must train ourselves to see what is good for us.

The Feast takes place in the presence of your enemies

They may be present but they are neutralised.

You’re protected! God is the perfect host!