A TABLE … MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

It would be helpful to look at the surroundings in which this festivity is set. The matter is of significance, for, generally speaking, everyone looks for a very pleasant setting for a cele­bration. To say the least, it is somewhat shocking to find out that the whole celebration takes place in the presence of the psalmist’s many enemies! Thank God that we learn, right at the beginning, that the Lord can set up the sumptuous ban­quet table in the most ominous setting. God is not a prisoner to ideal circumstances. Dealing with adverse circumstances that grieve us, Peter points directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose presence creates within us ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’. While we wait for His coming, there really is a banquet right now, whatever the circumstances may be in which we find ourselves, 1 Pet. 1. 7, 8.

The Lord prepares the table! What a spread of good things are set out for David. To try and bring into focus what this means for God’s family today, Paul is a great help, for he writes that God has ‘blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’, Eph. 1. 3. Now, that is a loaded table! Teachers have wres­tled with this statement. It gives the impression that nothing was held back. Would God offer a skimpily prepared banquet to those for whom He willingly gave His only Son in order to bring them into His family? Totally impossible!

The Lord also anoints the poet’s head with oil, usually olive oil mixed with perfumes. It is the sign that you are expected and accepted at the banquet. You are not an intruder. You belong in that eternal realm and there you will dispense the fragrance of the Host who has anointed your head with aromatic oil.

David’s cup is overflowing. ‘Is it too good to be true?’ It is true. The cup that overflows is not a sign of waste, but of opu­lence, consistent with God’s will which is ‘good, and acceptable, and perfect’, Rom. 12. 2. Drawing from Isaiah, Paul writes, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’, 1 Cor. 2. 9. Now and forever, we, by God’s grace, are part of the eternal celebration!