If you have been a believer in the Lord for very long, then I am almost sure that like me, you also love the twenty-third psalm. It’s a powerful passage of scripture that is filled with promises here in this life. That is why I find it somewhat strange that the majority of the time, I find the twenty-third psalm read is at someone’s funeral. But to be clear, it’s a psalm for us who are alive, not for those who have passed into glory to be with the Lord.
Let’s take a look at this psalm for a moment, and then I will make a few observations, especially about the table that the Lord has prepared before us.
“1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” Psalm 23:1-6 KJV
As I stated, this psalm is filled with promises for us from start to finish. However, I want to draw your attention to verse five. The Lord says that He is preparing a table before us, and that he is doing it right in the very presence of our enemy. Keep in mind that our enemies are here on the earth, they are not in Heaven. So this is another reason I know that this is an earthly blessing for us to delight in.
The Lord is telling us that He has planned a feast for us to enjoy while our enemies sit and watch us partake in it. So just imagine the frustration of these evil spirits, as they are put in position to watch you and I enjoy a banquet of God’s making, and all just for us.
Jesus teaches us in Matthew 15:21-28, that healing is the “children’s bread.” Well, we are the children of God right? This means there must be loaves of fresh bread being served on this table that the Lord has prepared for us. Healing bread!
Now in the story in the fifteenth chapter of Matthew, where Jesus states that healing is the children’s bread, we find a woman who came for the healing of her daughter. Because of her faith, this woman’s daughter was healed and made perfectly whole.
This woman was persistent. She wasn’t the type that was going to be run off or offended by anything. She wouldn’t give up on her faith. In fact, she was so strong in faith that she knew that if all she received was some bread crumbs from the table the Lord prepared, that just the crumbs would get the job done!
You see, you have to have persistence if you are going to receive from God. You must be fully determined that you will never give up on your faith, and that you will receive from God absolutely everything that He promised. You can’t have a “maybe so” attitude about it.
The Lord has put the bread on the table; it is not His fault if we are not eating of it.
Yet it seems to me that where most people are missing it is that they have their eyes focused on their enemies, instead of the table of the Lord. Sickness is an enemy, it is not a friend. So, get your eyes on the bread that is on the table.
As a child of God, healing already belongs to us. And if healing is the bread that the Lord has on this table, then what all else has He prepared for us to enjoy?
“If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.” Numbers 14:8 KJV
I am certain that the Lord has both milk and honey on this table that He has prepared for us, too. And when you gain an understanding about what milk and honey represent, it is very, very exciting.
Milk represents the necessities of life, while honey represents the sweetness of life. So, the Lord not only wants to meet our every need, He also intends that we have and enjoy life to the full, until it overflows (see John 10:10 Amplified Bible).
Healing is the children’s bread, but God doesn’t just have bread on His table. There is much, much more. Surely everything that God has and does is available on that table that He has prepared. “Pass me another helping of the joy of the Lord,” someone might say. Or, “Give me a refill of the Lord’s provision,” someone else might say.
Right in the presence of sickness and disease, the Father has prepared us a feast with healing on the table.
Right in the presence of lack and insufficiency, the Father has prepared us a feast with provision on the table.
And right in the presence of difficulties and struggles, the Father has prepared us a feast that abounds with the sweetness of life.
No matter what God has on the table, or what He has promised us in His Word, if we don’t act on it, we will never enjoy it. The Lord has prepared this table for you to enjoy. So why not scoot up to the table and feast on all that He has provided, right there in the presence of your enemies.
