THE TABLE OF THE LORD!

I absolutely love the 23rd Psalm. For over 40 years I have been enjoying the riches of this incredible series of insights that flowed out of David’s heart and spirit. Just when I think I have discovered everything possible, I turn the diamond just a bit and the light catches a whole new brilliance of God’s love and care and it just lights up my life. That happened earlier today.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over” (v. 5, emphasis mine).

This verse is a trilogy of blessing! A God-prepared table, an anointing, and an overflowing cup!

What is it that drives us to the dinner table in the natural? We get hungry and we eat to meet that need! What is it that drives us to seek God? Hunger in the inner man! What is God’s promise to the hungry? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6, emphasis mine). The word hunger means to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire, to be painfully hungry. God promises to meet those who earnestly, wholeheartedly, hungrily seek Him.

God tells us in Psalm 23:5 that He has prepared a table, a spread of spiritual food that is designed to meet and fulfill our deepest and most heartfelt needs. Each table is prepared for us alone! Go ahead, it’s all right, you can call it designer food because that’s exactly what God had in mind for you.

The table finds its best expression, its fullest ability to satisfy your deepest longing and desire, in those moments when you quietly meet with Him in personal worship, in the Word, in prayer and in quiet meditation. In those moments you have the greatest access to the full spread of the table. In those moments God begins to feed you with exactly what you need to fulfill your innermost hunger and to grow your spiritual man/woman.

It is in those personal moments of intimate contact with Him that the full impact of His designed nourishment begins to flow into you. He prepared this table with you in mind: your needs, your struggles, your growth. He has prepared a meal just for you that will meet your exact needs and strengthen you to become that man, that woman of God that He has destined you to be.

Please listen carefully to what I am going to say now because I know that some will misunderstand. When you do not take the time to eat at your own table but rush to eat at others’ tables, it’s not a mortal sin, it’s just the wrong food at the wrong time and it brings less than the desired response.

Your spiritual nourishment is found at the table the Lord has set just for you. This nourishment will come because you step up to the table and partake of the meal that was meticulously designed with you in mind.

We need to be faithful to the church. Hebrews 10:25 has not been taken out of your Bible and Ephesians 4:12 is not going away. Jesus is still calling some to be pastors and still empowering pastors to equip us for the work of the ministry. We need to sit under our pastor’s teaching and inspiration; we need to be in Bible study; we need the fellowship of others on the journey of faith. These are the between-meal power snacks along the journey of our life of faith. But if you are counting on what you get at church, see on Christian television, hear on Christian radio, or read in the latest inspirational best seller to be your primary source of spiritual nourishment, you are eating at the wrong table.

There is a RESERVED sign and a name card on your table. The table is reserved for you and the name on the card is yours. There are only two chairs at your table, one for you and the other for Jesus. Your time at the table is meant to be an occasion of intimacy: eating, talking, listening and worshiping.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20, emphasis mine).

Dinnertime is coming, the table is set, and I can hardly wait!