This sermon is from the series WHAT FAITH KNOWS ABOUT GOD and was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on February 9, 2014 by Pastor Paul Mims. You can hear this sermon at www.csbccl.org

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Psalm 23:5
A fourteen-year-old high school dropout’s life was changed forever when he met an old bum in El Paso. The boy was hitchhiking to California from Houston. The old man asked him if he were a runaway. John replied, “No. I am going to California to surf the biggest wave I can find. My father gave me a ride to the freeway in Houston and gave me his blessing. He told me how important it is to follow my dream. I have learning disabilities and I wasn’t doing well in school. So I decided to try something else.”

The bum asked the boy if he could buy him a cup of coffee. The boy said, No thanks, but I’d love a coke.” They found a corner deli not far away and talked for a few minutes. Then the bum said, “Come with me I want to show you something wonderful.” The boy agreed and soon they were walking up the stairs of the El Paso Public Library. A smiling lady at the information booth said she would watch the young man’s things while he looked around.

The old bum walked the aisles gathering books. Soon they found a quiet place and he began to speak. “There are two things that I would like to teach you,” he said. “First, never judge a book by its cover, for the cover will fool you. I bet you think that I am a bum don’t you?” The boy nodded. “Well, I’m not. In fact, I am one of the richest men in the world. I can buy anything I want. I thought that was enough and then my wife died a year ago and I realized that there was more to life than money. I wanted to experience some things that I have never done before so I decided to become a bum for a year. So don’t judge a book by its cover, for it may fool you.”

“The second thing is to learn to read. There is one thing that people cannot take from you and that is wisdom.” He placed in the boy’s arms the writings of Plato and Aristotle – immortal classics from ancient times. “Read these,” he said.

As they parted, the old man reminded the boy to always remember what he had taught him. And the Reverend John F. Demartini has!

Something similar is what David says that he learned about God and about himself.

There is a shift in the imagery of the Psalm at this point. Heretofore, David has seen God as his Shepherd and himself as a sheep. Now the image shifts to real life. God is now seen as the Divine Host and he is seen as God’s guest in life.

I. A DIVINELY PREPARED TABLE.
The lesson of the table is that what God places thereon can make us adequate to sustain the pressures of life.

Make no mistake about it – we do have our enemies. David had political enemies that were trying to overthrow him as King from within and without Israel. Our enemies are physical, emotional, and spiritual. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

The Divinely Prepared Table has several purposes.

First, it offers protection in the midst of distress. In the East it was customary to defend a guest at your table with your own life. The image is that of a wayfaring pilgrim sitting at the table of a host who has invited him. The traveler is being pursued by villains who want to rob him. When they approach the home of the host he defends his guest even putting his life in danger.

We are the wayfaring pilgrims being pursued by villains who want to rob us of our meaning in life and of our very souls. But God invites us to His table where He defends us from the evil one by the life of His Son which he offered on our behalf.

Do you feel that you are being pursued? If you eat at God’s table, you are assured of His protection.
Second, the Divinely Prepared Table speaks of sustenance in the midst of conflict.

Look at what the Lord has placed on the table before us. There is the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35) There is a spiritual hunger and thirst in all of us. When the conflict grows strong, we need to be nourished in our souls.

Helen Smaw wrote:

We worship round this table spread,
Pondering your love with cup and bread.
We thing of Calvary’s gift complete,
O Lamb of God, O mercy seat.

You have our Fellowship restored
With Father God, Creator, Lord.
This cup of You overflow,
Abundant bread of life bestow.

Yes, one with us in human prayer;
Yet one with God in will and care.
Risen, You bid us claim Your power
In prayer, in work each hour.

We’ll form a church of earth’s embrace
To be Your bride adorned with grace.
So let our fellowship proclaim
Our true intent to bear Your name.

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is
Your name throughout earth’s extent
Shall we, as all with one accord
Rise up and hail You, Christ the Lord.

Third, the Fruit of the Spirit is on the table. The Bread of Life and the Water of Life and the Fruit of The Spirit provide the Christian will all the sustenance that is needed. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self -control.” (Galatians 5: 22)
The Divinely Prepared Table also offers us fellowship in the midst of loneliness. We generally can cope with a loneliness for our loved ones. But when we are spiritually lonely, there is only one place to find fulfillment and that is at the Lord’s Table.

II. A DIVINELY ANOINTED LIFE
This is the second image in this verse. The lesson that David is saying he has learned is “I have learned to enjoy my relationship to God.”

David certainly had a Divinely Anointed life. It was God’s will that he be King of Israel. But the glorious truth is that every believer has a divinely anointed life.

“You anoint my head with oil.” The anointing of the head meant an act of honor as the father would anoint the heads of his sons and daughters. In the time of David this was done to show the father’s blessing. He is saying that he feels that God gives him His blessing as the sits at His table.

Do you crave a divinely anointed life? We want the blessings of God upon us. That will make all the difference in life.

Anointing was also an act of love. Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus with her precious box of alabaster and He accepted it as an act of love.

Anointing was also an act of equipping as in the anointing of the Holy Spirit for service. Billy Graham said, “If God had removed His anointing from my life, my lips would have turned to clay.’

Anointing was also an act of healing. In James 5:14 it says, “Is any one of you sick? He should call for the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

David had so much that he needed to be healed about. Physical healing is a great miracle. Spiritual healing of the soul is a greater miracle.

Oil in the New Testament is an emblem of the Holy Spirit. So in Christian thought this verse means that the Lord anoints believers with the healing power of the Holy Spirit.

All of this leads to a deep enjoyment of our faith. We have something to rejoice about. We are proud to be Christians.

III. A DIVINELY FILLED CUP
David is saying that he has learned that God more than satisfies his deepest longings. “My cup overflows.”
God’s abundance is seen as over against our poverty. How foolish we are to go on not entrusting all of life into the Lord’s hands. Are we afraid that He will ask more of us than He will give us?

God’s provision is seen as over against out need. A little bit of what God offers is more than we can use in a lifetime.

God’s blessings are seen as over against our present position. What do you need that God can supply to you today?

The song writer has put it like this:
Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy;
And then I heard my Savior speaking,
“Draw from My well that shall never run dry.”

So, my brother, If the things this world gave you
Leave hungers that won’t pass away
My blessed Lord will come and save you,
If you knell to him and humbly pray:

Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord
Come and quench the thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven
Feed me ‘till I want no more –
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

A review of this Psalm shows what make our cup to overflow. Someone has penned like this:

The Lord is my Shepherd — that’s Relationship!
I shall not want — that’s Supply!
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures — that’s Rest!
He leadeth me beside the still waters — that’s Refreshment!
He restoreth my soul — that’s Healing!
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness — that’s Guidance!
For His name sake — that’s Purpose!
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death — that’s Testing!
I will fear no evil — that’s Protection!
For Thou art with me — that’s Faithfulness!
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me — that’s Discipline!
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies — that’s Hope!
Thou anointest my head with oil – that’s Consecration!
My cup runneth over – that’s Abundance!
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life – that’s Blessing!
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord – that’s Security!
Forever – that’s Eternity!”

It is said that when Charles Spurgeon was asked to speak at the opening of the Crystal Palace, London, he went over a few days before to test the acoustic properties of the great building. He sent one of his deacons to the farthest recess of the gallery. They thought they were the only persons in the building. Then slowly and distinctly Spurgeon repeated the scripture:

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:15.

No other word was spoken, for the deacon had signaled that he had heard distinctly, and they both hurried away, as they were busy men.

Twenty years passed by, and Mr. Spurgeon received a call to visit a dying man. He dropped his work and hastened to the man’s address with the idea in mind that some poor soul was seeking salvation.
But when he got there he was surprised to find a radiant Christian, happy and rejoicing in the Lord. He told the great preacher that he did not want to die without telling him how he had been converted. “Twenty years ago,” he said, “I was up in the cupola of the Crystal Palace, finishing a little glazing. Everything else had been completed, and all the other workmen had gone. Suddenly I heard a voice saying, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.’

“I dropped my tools and looked up to heaven, and answered, Yes, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) Certainly it was the voice of God. No other word was spoken. It was then and there that I gave my life to Him.”

No Christian can doubt that God did speak that day to the sinner away up in the lonely cupola–He spoke by the lips of Mr. Spurgeon and pointed a needy soul in this dramatic and unusual way to the Lamb of God who came into the world to save sinners.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!