“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.” (Psalm 23:5).
As I sit down to write, there’s a table before me with many interpretations of this well-known Bible verse. One of my favorite attempts to unravel this Scripture comes from Elizabeth, age 8: “Be kind to your enemies, and I’ll make you a king.”
King David treated his enemies with kindness and became a king. But I think he had something else in mind when he wrote this psalm.
“God prepares a life with enemies in it for us,” says Jessica, 9. Well, this also has possibilities. David was an unknown shepherd boy until he heard Goliath taunt the armies of Israel. Certainly, the Lord can use enemies to test us and to teach us how to trust Him. As David said when facing Goliath, “The battle is the Lord’s.”
“The enemy is around you, and God can help you,” says Scott, 10.
Some experts believe the scene shifts to the banquet table of the king; however, I’m going to stick with the shepherd and his sheep. The summer grazing ranges in the high mountains are known as tables. In Spanish, the word for such a place is “mesa,” which means “table.”
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