“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:5-6S
My favorite line is “my cup overflows.” Let me tell you why.
During our seminary days in New Orleans, we would often take afternoon walks around the school grounds. Many of the professors and most of the students lived in some form of campus housing…from meager little apartments to nice brick homes. It was commonplace to refer to the seminary campus as “our little slice of Mayberry.”
One hot summer day when Christian was about 2 years old, Trinity and I took him for a spin around the block in his red wagon. We got to the corner and discovered not one, but two lemonade stands on either side of the street. One was staffed by a group of boys and the other by a group of girls. It was obvious from their signs that they were in a price war as both signs displayed the gradual decrease of prices where former amounts had been crossed through.
I asked Christian which lemonade stand he wanted to buy from and he quickly pointed to the boys. One cup was only 50 cents! I looked over at their plastic Solo cups which were at least 20 ounces. I exclaimed, “Christian, we have hit the jackpot! This much lemonade for a half dollar! Give us 3!” I have them 2 singles and said, “Keep the change, fellas.”
They gave us 3 giant cups with about 2 ounces of lemonade in each of them! Not only had the cut the prices, they had also cut the portions! Say what you want about these little hucksters, but they were not dumb. Cheap, yes. Stingy, maybe. Generous, definitely not.
The world is full of these kinds…pitiful portions and stingy slices. But God is nothing like that.
In verse 5, the imagery of Psalm 23 completely changes from Shepherd and sheep to a feast at the table. And at this table, everything is abundant and plentiful. The closing verse, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” lets us know that it’s God’s table at which we sit. And we realize God is our Generous Host. God is a host who loves to bless the ones He welcomes…He prepares the table, He lavishly anoints our heads with oil, and He fills our cups until they overflow! When you sit at God’s table, you are surrounded by goodness and mercy.
When I survey my life, I stand in humble awe at the many times I expected, and deserved a miserably filled plastic cup only to look at my table and find that God in his big-hearted, open-handed way, had poured out so much blessing that it ran off the table and splashed on to the floor! Amen and Amen.
