“1 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.”
The 1840’s were horrible for the William and Margaret Carnegie family in Dunfermline, Scotland. Scotland was in the midst of industrialization and while that change was good for some, it was quite hard on others. It wasn’t good for the Carnegie family. They slid into abject poverty. They had to move out of their home. There were indignities that you know all too well if you’ve faced poverty. Eventually the family left Scotland for America with their tail between their legs so to speak.
They relocated to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania but poverty followed them. One day their son Andrew found his mother Margaret crying about it all in her room. “Someday,” Andrew told his mother, “I’ll be rich, and we’ll ride in a fine coach driven by four horses.” His mother quickly said, “That will do no good over here, if no one in Dunfermline can see us.”
Margaret felt as if she and her family were consigned to the trash heap by the people of their hometown. Years later that son, Andrew Carnegie, by then the richest man in the world, did take his mother back to Dunfermline. He had bought the town a library and was returning to dedicate it. It was the first of over 2,500 libraries that he would build and stock with books. He invited his mother to lay the cornerstone, and as he promised she and he rode through the streets of Dunfermline in a fine coach driven horses and his mother cried tears of joy. She had been honored in the midst of those who had written her and her family off.
Now if it felt that good to be honored in the midst of those who had written you off, imagine how good it would feel to be honored in the midst of people who were actually your enemies. Imagine what it would be like to be honored by someone greater than Andrew Carnegie. If you can imagine that, you have a good grasp on the words, “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
God does far more for His children than Andrew Carnegie did for his mother. He honors us in far more lavish ways, and he does so in far more public ways.
The Lord loves His children lavishly and He does it so everyone can see. That is the claim of this sermon: The Lord loves His children lavishly and He does it so everyone can see.
We will study this in two points. Second: images of abundance. Second: the watching enemies. First, we will study three images of abundance. Second, we will consider the watching enemies.
First : images of abundance. It is hard to grasp the generosity of God. Each child of God tries to grasp it in their own way. Phillip Yancey tried to come to terms with it by writing a book called What’s So Amazing About Grace? A group of believers down in Mississippi tried to come to terms with this abundance by naming their church “Lagniappe”. Lagniappe is a Creole word for an undeserved extra, like a thirteenth donut given to you by a baker when you buy a dozen. Mother Teresa tried to come to terms with it by moving to poorest of the poor and treating them as Jesus had treated her. Every child of God tries to come to terms with God’s generosity in different ways. David tried to come to terms with the generosity of God by way of imagining a prepared table, anointing oil, and an overflowing cup.
First, the prepared table. “You prepare a table before me,” as David put it. In the ancient near east, dining at the king’s table was a sign of friendship with the king. Dining at anyone’s table was a sign of friendship. This is why it was so radical when Jesus ate with prostitutes and tax collectors.
Giving and receiving hospitality was, in certain circumstances, more than recognizing friendship. It was a recognition of kinship, which is to say it was a way of recognizing that someone had become part of the family. You see David treat Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth as part of the family by inviting him to eat at his table.
This is part of what God does by inviting you to His table. “He prepares a table before me.” He says that you are part of His family. This is what He did on Mount Sinai when he invited Moses, Aaron, and the elders to feast before Him. He wasn’t simply giving them food. He was saying that we’re all family. This is one of the reasons that the church is referred to as the family of God. This is the metaphor that is on display when we share the Lord’s Supper. You are welcomed to the table because you are part of God’s family.
I hope that you would rather be part of God’s family than Andrew Carnegie’s family. God can do far more for you than Andrew Carnegie can, especially today because Carnegie has been dead for a hundred years. We Christians tend to talk rather casually about being part of the family of God, but it is a remarkable position. The Son of God is not ashamed to call you his brother or sister.
I hope that you believe that God is this generous. His Son did. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” If everyone had their heads on straight, everyone would recognize that it is far better to be a child of God than a child of Andrew Carnegie.
David tried to come to terms with God’s generosity by way of the table. He also tried to come to terms with God’s generosity by way of anointing oil. “You anoint my head with oil,” as he puts it in verse 5.
Such oil was refreshing in the dry and dusty climate of Palestine. My guess is that you find it refreshing to wash your hands and face after working in dust. This oil served that same purpose. You provided it as a way to welcome a guest. God invites you into His presence to be refreshed. He gives you all that you need to enjoy what He has prepared for you just as you give whatever is needful for your guest to enjoy your hospitality.
Anointing a guest with oil at a banquet was also a way of acknowledging him as the guest of honor. This tradition continues today in the Middle East. God considers you an honored guest. If you have thrown yourself on God for mercy, picture Him picking you up and anointing you with oil as a sign that you are an honored guest, or, if you like, picture Jesus washing your feet. If you want to know who you are, you are God’s honored guest. Remember that when you wake up tomorrow.
Carnegie’s mother felt honored to lay that cornerstone. She felt singled out as special by way of her son’s generosity. You are to feel singled out as special by way of God’s generosity. If you are a child of God, God loves you as if you were an only child. As Augustine said to God, “You are good and all-powerful, caring for each one of us as though the only one in your care.”
David tried to come to terms with God’s generosity by way of the table. He tried to come to terms with God’s generosity by way of anointing oil. He also tried to come to terms with God’s generosity by way of an overflowing cup; “my cup overflows,” as verse 5 puts it.
This is an image of celebration. God invites you into His presence to celebrate with this image of a cup overflowing with wine. Now I understand that there are concerns about abusing alcohol and there is wisdom in such concerns. Scripture warns against the dangers of alcohol, but Scripture also makes clear that God gave wine to gladden human hearts. This overflowing cup is a picture of celebration just as Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine was a picture of celebration. God invites you into His presence to celebrate.
Perhaps you have a hard time putting the word “God” and the word “celebrate” together in the same sentence. Please know that, that has more to do with your own hang ups than with the Father of Jesus Christ. Listen to His picture of the new creation, “On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.” That is the imagery that John picks up on when he describes the new creation as a wedding reception. Listen to Jesus’ description the father’s response to his son returning home, “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” It is a celebration.
God is far more generous than we have any reason to expect. One of the biggest obstacles to the good news of Jesus for some is that it is too good. God is so generous, and this generosity will continue forever. We might be able to wrap our minds around a bit of generosity from God, but we can’t wrap our minds around the actual generosity we encounter in Scripture. We might be able to wrap our minds around enjoying the new creation for twenty or eighty years but we can’t wrap our minds around enjoying it forever.
We are usually able to wrap our minds around the generosity we encounter in our own hearts and in that of others, but we are unable to wrap our minds around the generosity we encounter in Jesus. Arguably the most terrifying statement that could be made about humanity is that God’s generosity as seen in Jesus was too much for the human race. Humanity saw the best that God could offer and killed the best that God could offer. We don’t seem all that comfortable with true abundance. We don’t seem all that comfortable leaving our sin-made cages to enjoy the spacious freedom that God offers. It takes a work of the Holy Spirit for any of us to recognize God’s Son as the best that God has to offer. It takes a work of the Holy Spirit for any of us to believe that God is generous.
If you have recognized the generosity of God, be thankful that your heart has been born again to enjoy what is best. It is a gift. God wants you to enjoy His Son. He wants you to enjoy all sorts of abundance. He wants you to enjoy this abundance that David explained by way of this table, oil, and cup. He offers it for the world to enjoy.
God offers this abundance in the midst of enemies. To this point we’ve only studied the abundance. We’ve studied Margaret Carnegie laying the foundation stone and riding in the carriage so to speak but we haven’t studied what it meant for her to do that among the people who had written her and her family off. Now, of course, the people of Dunfermline weren’t her enemies, but that just makes the point all the more powerful. How much more powerful would it be to be honored in the midst people who actually were your enemies? It is to that, that David now turns his attention and David had a good deal of experience with enemies. We turn our attention to that now in our second point: the watching enemies.
David had enemies. Saul tried to kill him. The Philistines tried to kill him. His own son tried to kill him. Friends betrayed him. David wanted those people to know, just like Margaret Carnegie wanted the people of Dunfermline to know, that he was honorable, as in worthy of being honored. More importantly, God wanted David’s enemies to know that David was worthy of honor, just as Andrew Carnegie wanted the people of Dunfermline to know that his mother was worthy of honor. God honored David in the midst of his enemies. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Now God might do that for you in this life. God honored Joseph in this way. His brothers attempted to kill him and wound up selling him but in the end Joseph was second in command of Egypt and they came to him for help. God honored Mordecai in this way. Haman tried to kill him but in the end Haman had to honor Mordecai before dying on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. God honored Jesus in this way. The people clamored for his death and unlike with Joseph and Mordecai they did succeed. In the end however God vindicated Jesus, resurrected him, and sent Peter to these same people saying, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Jesus was certainly honored in the midst of his enemies. In the end, he will be honored by all, “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is YHWH.”
In the end, God does vindicate all His servants. He makes this vindication clear to their enemies. He did it for Moses with Pharaoh. He did it for Mary who anointed Jesus’ feet when the naysayers said that she should have sold the perfume. He did so for Paul when the Corinthians called him crafty and deceitful. He certainly did it and will do it for Jesus about whom the crowds said, “he is demon possessed,” and “out of his mind.” The final judgment will be the vindication of Jesus before the entire world as everyone stands before him. God vindicates His servants. The message is clear: be God’s servant.
He will vindicate you before those who wrong you. He will vindicate you before the world. The history of the people of God in the world is one long fleshing out of verse 5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” You see that in God honoring Abel in front of Cain. You see that in God honoring Noah in front of the unbelieving world as the rains began. You see that in God blessing those who blessed Abraham and cursing those who cursed him. You see that in God making a distinction between Israel and Egypt through the plagues. You see that in the Canaanites’ hearts melting with fear before the invading Israelites. God honors His people in the midst of their enemies.
You see that in the envy with which the Pharisees and the Sadducees treated Jesus and his disciples. You see that in the advance of the church throughout the book of Acts. You see that in the astounding promises that Jesus makes to his church in the midst of persecution in the book of Revelation. This is all a fleshing out of verse 5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
God will vindicate you before the devil, who of course, is the enemy behind all enemies. Satan tells you, as Deon taught last week, that, “you don’t have what it takes. You need to be more—fill in the blank. No one is going to really love you. You are only worthwhile if you—and you know how your brain fills in that blank.” He tells you that, “you are on your own in this world.” Satan is a liar and a murderer. He is your enemy. If you are a child of God, you know that. If you aren’t, you don’t yet know how much the devil hates you. Children of God can read verse 5 as, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of Satan. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Satan doesn’t want anyone to become a child of God and he wants those who are children of God to be miserable children of God. He doesn’t want them to know the reality of verse 5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
One of the best ways that you can deal with Satan is by enjoying the realities of verse 5. One of the best ways that you can deal with Satan is by recognizing that God is as generous as God says. God wants you to defy Satan in this way. This is one of the reasons He gives such generosity in the presence of enemies. He wants these enemies to see you honored. He wants you to see these enemies see you honored. The new creation will not be complete until Satan is eternally shamed and the children of God are eternally vindicated.
This vindication is important because in this life Satan gets in your head. The world gets in your head. You start to see yourself as something other than a beloved of child of God. God knows that which is why He tells you that you will be vindicated.
Andrew Carnegie thought his mother was wonderful. He said, “Perhaps someday I may be able to tell the world something of this heroine, but I doubt it. I feel her to be sacred to myself…” He wanted her to see what he saw and so when he saw her crying he said, “Someday, I’ll be rich, and we’ll ride in a fine coach driven by four horses.” He wanted others to see what he saw and so he took her through the streets of Dunfermline in a fine coach.
The Father takes greater delight in His children than Andrew Carnegie took in his mother and He is far more able to display it. He says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” He wants you to see yourself the way He sees you. He wants others to see what He sees and so He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies. He anoints your head with oil; your cup overflows. Remember that today because you live in the midst of your enemies. Remember that you won’t always live in the midst of your enemies. One day it will only be the prepared table, anointing oil, and overflowing cup. One day it will be the new creation. One day it will be God and all that is right. Amen.