You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou hast anointed my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
18 sermons cite this verse
… so you can live in victory despite it not being totally gone. This is what David said. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He didn't say my enemies are going to go away. He said they're going to switch positions. They're going to become a footstool. Their presence may still be there, but their power is gone. They don't control you. They don't dictate your joy. They don't stop your purpose. They are under your feet Now the question is are you letting something be over you that you're supposed to put under you? God has given you power to reign in life Reign means there's opposition. There's people that do you wrong a sickness you're dealing with a child that's off course Sometimes we think god when are you going to get rid of these things? When will these feelings go away and I not have this worry and negativity Here's the key. It's not up to God. It's up to you. He's given you power to reign. You get to choose what's on the throne of your mind, what you think about, what thoughts you give attention to. …
I love the way David put it. Psalm 23, verse 5. God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. That means God will not only avenge you, He'll not only make your wrongs right, but He will bless you in front of your enemies. He could promote you anywhere, but He'll promote you in front of the people that were trying to make you look bad. He'll give you favor, honor, recognition in front of the people that were trying to bring you down. That person that stabbed you in the back, betrayed you, tried to keep you from rising higher. Don't worry about it. One day they'll be watching you receive the credit you deserve. When people talk about me, I don't get discouraged. I know God just sent the angels to the grocery store. Somebody lies about you, no big deal. I can see Gabriel setting the table. Somebody spreading rumors, somebody criticizing. I'm not upset. I know God just turned the oven on. …
… smooth, giving me that desires of my heart. This is what David did. He declared it in Psalm 23 verse 5. God anoints my head with oil. You know what oil does? It makes things flow. Whenever there's friction, something gets stuck, you put oil on it to lubricate it, to make it more fluid. That's what God is doing for each one of you. He anoints your head with oil. When he does that, notice what happens. David said, because God anoints me, because I walk in his favor, surely goodness and mercy will follow me everywhere I go. That means things are going to be easier. People are going to go out of their way to be good to you for no reason. You're going to have creativity, wisdom, good ideas. You don't even know where it came from. It's because of the oil God put on your life. It represents his anointing. And when you're all oiled up, somebody offends you, it's no big deal. It can't stick. …
… You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now I want you to notice first that this psalm begins and ends with the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd. And it ends with, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This psalm is all about God. It's all about his goodness to you. If you missed any in this series, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the 12 things that God has said he wants to do for you because he is a good God. Now, today we look at this last verse. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. That's a promise. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's heaven. That's future. Now, any time you start worrying, you need to remember the last verse of Psalm 23. …
… 12 different metaphors, 12 different pictures of the way God is good to us. And today we come to the fifth verse, Psalm 23, verse 5, and we're just looking at one phrase where he says, talking about the goodness of God, you anoint my head with oil. Now what in the world does that mean? You anoint my head with oil. This was written 3,000 years ago. How in the world could it possibly have any relevance to my life today and the goodness of God? Well, you've got to understand what anointing is. What does it mean to be anointed? Well, that depends on who's doing the anointing. If you had your next-door neighbor come over to you tomorrow, to your house, and walk in, and they had some oil, and they anointed you, and they said, I now proclaim you the king of the universe. Would that change your life? No. Why? Because they don't have any authority to do anything about it. They could say, you're the king of rock and roll, or whatever, and it wouldn't make any difference because it depends on who's doing the anointing. …
… You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Thank you. Now there are a lot of metaphors in this passage. David is a shepherd and he's using the shepherd motif, talking about all the ways that God wants to bless your life. And today I want us to focus on the meaning of verse 4, which is this phrase, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Now what in the world does that mean? Your rod and your staff. These are clearly two kinds of sticks. How in the world can they bring comfort to your life? How does that bring comfort to you at all? What in the world does this mean? It raises all kinds of questions. And of all the verses in Psalm 23, this little phrase, your rod and your staff comfort me, requires the most explanation. …
… There's another part of this psalm that says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. I don't know that that's a spiritual warfare type verse. I'm going to use it that way. I love this verse. You prepare a table before me. A table is a place of communion. It's a place of eating. It's a place of fellowship. It's dining. It's celebrating. It's family. And what he does is he says he prepares a table for him to sit down with you and he makes the devil watch. Now, if you're distracted by the devil, you won't discover who's at the table with you. Come on. So good. If you're distracted by the accusations, the lies, the intimidation, all he can do is study Nehemiah sometimes, and look at the tools he uses, accusation, manipulation. He uses these kinds of tools to try to get people to lose sight of the gold, of the gold, of the presence. and in this moment just coming through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies it's a place of rich connection with God Almighty in the most awkward place and if you won't be distracted by the enemy you'll find the presence in a measure you've never known but I want to add one more element and that's concerning we were all born for a battle. …
God of mercy, as we enter into Lent, may your spirit guide us to places we might not necessarily want to go. We turn to you because you, O Lord, have the words of life. Help us to hear what you have to say and grant us the courage to live it out. This we pray in Christ's name. Amen. repent and thou shall be saved. Is that what you came here to hear today? I mean, is life going well with you? When you look out at the world, is it as it should be? Do you find yourself crying out to God in fear or because of injustice? Do you hope that God would finally come and fix all that is broken? You wonder, when will the day of the Lord get here so that we can have peace and justice for all? be careful what you wish for the prophet Joel proclaims that the day of the Lord is coming and is near however he goes on to describe the day as one of darkness and gloom on that day there will be a great and powerful army but it is not to bring liberation and freedom to the oppressed. …
… shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the truths that are contained in this psalm, this powerful and simple declaration of who you are. Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes today to see just how you want us to enjoy you, to interact with you, and to be led by you. I pray that you would speak through me and touch lives and change lives today. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. We've titled this message, hold on wait for it a rested development that's very important the space is very important a rested development some of you heathens are like oh arrested development like the tv show and you could quote bees and banana stands and all of that not today not today it's a rested development. And we came up with this title because of just how God wants to work in your life. It's so easy to think it's about you and incumbent upon you to do the things that would make you a better disciple or follower of God. And in this scripture, we learn that it isn't …
… I'll fear no evil, for you are with me. you will prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies you will anoint my head with oil and my cup will overflow goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life you will restore my soul wait a minute wait a minute we claim those promises but don't realize the context the context is in Psalm 23 and 1 where it says the Lord is my I wish somebody would catch it to say the Lord is my shepherd is to confess that I am a nomad To say the Lord is my shepherd is to say I am bought with a price. My life is not my own. I have a leader. I have a guide. That's why he says you will lead me in the path of righteousness for my name's sake. So we claim the promise without the posture. You can't claim goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life without claiming that the Lord is your shepherd. …
… they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What a powerful phrase. I will fear no evil. Listen, I'm telling you, I've been shaken up this week. I'm not Superman. but I'm coming through this week saying even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. I certainly don't fear death, not one shred of fear of death, but I want to come through these days and say, and I don't fear evil, and I'm staring right at it. I know that this spiritual war is real. but I don't fear it because you are with me. Help me, God, not to be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, to present my request to you so that your peace, which transcends all understanding, will guard my heart and guard my mind in Christ Jesus. Prayer is posture. …
… 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 you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows you you you the pronouns have changed but the direction is the same we're still talking about the Lord we're talking about the shepherd and what the shepherd does. We've identified the shepherd and now we're speaking to the shepherd and speaking to the shepherd about his protection. You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So here in this valley of the shadow of death, there is the rod and the staff. The rod and the staff refer to his means of fending off enemies and his means of guiding us even in the most difficult times and places. This idea of the valley of the shadow of death taken from the shepherding theme is an idea, some commentators say, and I believe it's the best explanation, that if you think about sheep being moved from one place to another, and basically you have to move sheep to find green pastures. And sometimes when you are moving to find green pastures, it's interesting, predatory animals know where their prey is coming from and where their prey is going to. And if there's no more green grass over here, but there's now green grass over there, they know that their prey has to come from there to there, …
… Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You will prepare a table in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So, Lord, back that weak enemy up, up off me, for Satan's power is limited. but your power is immeasurable in Jesus' name, in Jesus' mighty name. Family, it works. The principle works. In Jesus' name, it works. And speaking of Jesus, yes, speaking of the Son of God, you know I've introduced you to the principle of the divine, however. Now let me leave you by introducing you to the person. Because the divine, however, is not simply a principle. The divine, however, is also a person. And that person's name is Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus embodies every component in this principle. He is the divine, however. And the divine, however, is him. You see, it may be hard to see it now, but let's find it. …
… that there are some texts that are familiar but it's one thing to be familiar and it's another a thing to find out about the text. And for some of us, we are familiar with thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. But for some of us, we found out when God came and blessed us in front of people who didn't want to see it happen. It is one thing to be familiar with, if I ascend to the heavens, thou art there. And if I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there. but it's another thing to watch God show up in the mess of your life and stand up with a broom and a mop and for some of us some bleach it's another thing to find out about the scripture but when I get to Proverbs 3 5 and it says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding I had some difficulty because in my life I remembered praying for my best friend to get better and then watching them lower her casket. I remember praying for a job and hoping and then getting to the final interview and getting an email. Y'all probably got this email before. Miss Anderson, we're sorry, but we've gone in another direction. Y'all know that email. …
… It says, me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So first of all, as we look at verse 1, we see what I'm going to call the sovereign God, Jehovah, the great, great, great I Am, the one who rules the universe. Now notice in contradistinction what David is saying, the great Jehovah is my shepherd. Now we move from the sovereign to the shepherd. Learn this, that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. When we say Jehovah, we speak of his deity. But when we say shepherd, we speak of his humanity. In John chapter 10, the Lord Jesus unlocked the mystery of the 23rd Psalm when he said, I am the good shepherd. …
… Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me. In the presence of mine enemies, Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. A beautiful psalm. We're only going to look at the first verse. And it will be a marvel really if we even touch on the truth that's in the first verse. We could take every word in the first verse and just emphasize each word. The Lord. Not a Lord, but the Lord. When David wrote this, the Egyptians had 360 primary gods, one for every day of the week. The Canaanites, in whose land the Israeli came to live, they had many gods. But David knew there is but one God, the Lord. We could put the emphasis on the word Lord, the great sovereign, the eternal God, the one who rules over all. The Lord is. …
… death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou noughtest my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness or mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, what I'd like to do is I'd like for us to look at this passage of Scripture in the light of that whole idea that God is a caring God, that He cares for us, and He cares for every single detail of our life. There's not anything about you that is not important in the eyes of God. There's nothing about you that He will neglect, nothing He's going to overlook. He is indeed a caring shepherd. Now, let's begin in this first verse when He says, the Lord is my shepherd. What I'd like for you to do is to look at it in this light. …
… Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou notice my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness or mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now, how many times have you read that passage of Scripture? Where did you usually stop when it says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil? Well, what about this table? And what about the anointing of my head? And what about goodness and mercy following me all the days of my life? This passage of Scripture is God's psalm to us, showing us and demonstrating to us how much He cares for us. It's very difficult for us to feel, to sense, to be aware, and to experience, and to walk in the very spirit of realizing that God has said, I'm your shepherd, and I'm going to treat you like a shepherd treats sheep. …