Yahweh's 'Promotion' of His People (Psalm 23:5)

¹Yhwh is my shepherd…⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

The song to the Great Shepherd continues.  Yahweh provides (23:1-3); Yahweh protects (23:4) and here, Yahweh ‘promotes’.  David sees a relationship between himself and the Great Shepherd which moves from simple dependency towards sublime intimacy.  The image of the table, the oil and the cup all point towards relationship, friendship and favor.  Yahweh has looked upon David and ‘promoted’ him into this special place of relationship.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 

David is invited to eat at Yahweh’s table as a confirmation of the friendship he shares with Yahweh, and he sits, no less, in the presence of all those who have stood against him.  God invites each believer into this relationship of intimate friendship.  As the believers sit to enjoy the banquet of God, enemies are forced to stand mute and humiliated as they watch the faithful enter into the joy of fellowship with God which the wicked have rejected for themselves.

 

The present reality is that each of us may enjoy a communion with God that cannot be taken away even if surrounded by foes.  There is also a hint of a future feast (see Revelation 19) at which those who once mocked and ridiculed hope and faith in God will be judged by their exclusion from this table (see Luke 14:1-24).

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Yahweh anoints David with oil, symbolic of a special choosing of David to rule with Yahweh’s authority.  This anointing also represents a great display of hospitality, affection and love.  The ‘cup’ overflows with blessing and favor reminding us that in the presence of God there is abundance with no end (refer also to Luke 6:38; 7:46; Ephesians 3:20; 1 John 2:20, 27; Hebrews 1:9).

How beautiful for God’s people in Christ!  Though we are His sheep (Luke 12:32) we are privileged to be called His friends (John 15:15).  We are invited to eat with Him (Revelation 3:20).  He has anointed us in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:21-22) and has overflowed our ‘cup’ with blessing (Ephesians 1:3).  We are not simply dependent sheep, but intimate friends with our Shepherd.  We are ‘promoted’ to this place through the love and mercy of God through faith in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. 

To Him be the glory!