Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. "The nightingale of Psalms," somebody has called it — filling the night; flooding it with its song when every other song is hushed. "The pearl of Psalms," another has called it pure, beautiful, and beyond price. "The Pleiades," says a third, among the constellations into which these ancient singers have mapped the heaven of love and hope and peace which bent over them. Hero is a man who believed in God, believed in Him in no fictitious sense. David had in his mind a personal Being of infinite love, wisdom, and beneficence whom he had made his own — "my Shepherd." What has such a man to say of life? Four things. I. THE WEALTH, COMPLETENESS, FULNESS OF IT. It is something worth possessing. A new science has been developed of late — the science of being miserable. Side by side with this there is a mistaken and exaggerated pietism, which, in the name of religion, takes hold of everything by the wrong end. Things are what you make them to be. Life is what you make it. Take the man who has a personal hold of God. See in him the wealth, completeness, fulness of life. Full provision is made for all the necessities of man's nature. Life is a feast: "Thou preparest a table for me." I will tell you how life looks to me. 1. I am — personal existence is mine. I have a being, the integrity, the sanctity of which even God respects, the boundaries of which even my Maker does not trench upon. 2. The world is mine. The heavens and the earth are mine. 3. Then there is the world of ideas, which come greeting you like troops of angels, from the books of gifted souls, from the mystic recesses of your own heart. 4. Friendship has been yours. The joy of serving, the joy of charity, the joy of dispensing sympathy, of bearing burdens which are not your own. 5. The happiness and ennoblement of benefiting the world. II. HERE IS THE SENSE OF PERFECT SECURITY, OF ABSOLUTE FREEDOM FROM ALL ANXIETY. "Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." What a load would be lifted off some minds if they could only say that, and be sure of it. Many are spoiling their life through the dread of what may be somewhere in the future. III. YOU HAVE THE RECORD HERE OF DELIVERANCES, RESTORATIONS. "He restoreth my soul." The Psalm does not give an altogether rose-coloured view of life. Perils, fears are implied, if not plainly stated. They are the background of the Psalm, but that only brings out the Psalm into brighter relief Take the dark side first. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." That is not the valley of death. It is the valley of doubt. It is the sorrow into which you can put no meaning. It is the agony of remorse. But from these things God restores us. Very graphic is this language. Engulfed, overwhelmed in these things, He giveth back my soul to me. Shall I speak of forgiveness, or of sorrow, or of doubt? IV. A DETERMINATION ARISING FROM THIS EXPERIENCE OF GOD. "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." It means, I will live in free intercourse, in frank fellowship, in unbroken friendship with God. That is the first meaning; but it does mean the material house also, — the temple of the Lord, where we meet to renew our vows, and to remind ourselves in concert of the God who is the inspiration of our life. (J. Morlais Jones.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. |
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