They Shall Be Satiated

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are promised that they will be filled. (https://wp.me/p22zu5-dv)

The promise of fulfilment is explicit in Psalm 23 where David experienced the significance of that filling.

A Table in the Wilderness

David was a fugitive on the run, living in caves with desperadoes, twice betrayed, enduring constant war, and carrying deep personal failures. Into this desperate landscape breaks the raw cry of a life facing daily death: “HELP! I have no refuge; no one cares for my soul!” (Psalm 142, a prayer David prayed while hiding in the cave). 

Reflecting on his life in Psalm 23, David concluded that God had been his shepherd, enriching the metaphor from his own experience as a shepherd and a fugitive. He concluded, in v 5, that God always prepared a table for him. 

(emphasis on personal pronouns added)

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

Yea, 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 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. (NKJV) 

“Yahweh! My Shepherd!” 

The Creator who spoke the universe into being, who exists outside time and space, stoops down to walk beside one man and tend him as a shepherd tends a single sheep. That is the astonishment behind David’s opening line. The verb is missing in the original, so it could be read as an exclamation, David bursting out with the personal pronoun in the first person throughout: “MY shepherd,” “MY soul,” “YOU prepare a table for ME.” It is a deeply intimate relationship. “The LORD” is a respectful translation of God’s personal name, Yahweh, which means “I AM”: the self-existent One, the Ever Present One, the source of all being. David can hardly believe it himself: 

Yahweh! My Shepherd!

David is signalling that God is not some impersonal Force, an absent landlord. He is deeply and personally involved in his daily walk. It would be the equivalent of a man entering the Oval Office and addressing the occupant, “Mr. President,” and getting the response, “Call me Abe.” The gap between the Majestic Creator and us is bridged by God’s invitation into intimacy. Like a child bypassing a stern secretary to speak directly to a father, we are invited to say, “Yahweh! My Shepherd!”

The sheep are totally dependent on the shepherd for sustenance in the searing heat, needing green pastures, quiet waters, the protecting rod, and the guiding staff. He restores the soul, individualizing His attention even to the point of breaking the leg of a wayward lamb and carrying it until it heals. The deep bond that this action created turned a wayward lamb into a devoted follower.

a feast in the presence of my enemies

Psalm 23 concludes with a vivid and striking climax: “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” (NLT)

This word picture has profound significance to an Eastern mind, evoking a pilgrim through a lonely wasteland who has become a fugitive fleeing from a marauding gang of murdering thieves. In full and isolated flight before an enemy of great strength, the fugitive reaches an oasis and finds a caravan, the size and wealth of its accoutrements telling a story of great resources. The fugitive approaches the main tent, obvious by its opulence, and the patriarch immediately sums up the situation.

Will the patriarch deny the fleeing man access to his resources, forcing him back into a gruesome death in the desert at the hands of cruel thieves? If, however, the patriarch claps his hands for a table and provisions, the fugitive is safe. The host takes the burden of repulsing the robbers personally, rallying his men while the fugitive partakes of abundant and lavish refreshment until his enemies are defeated. When the triumphant host returns, the guest is anointed with oil. In the ancient Near East, anointing a guest’s head with fragrant oil was a customary act of welcome and respect, especially at a banquet. It signaled that the host considered the guest worthy of special honor. Refusing to do this, as Jesus points out in Luke 7:46, was a notable social slight. and has his cup constantly replenished to overflowing.

And notice whose table it is, whose cup, who is the Host. The Host personally doing the anointing of honor and watching to replenish my cup.  The personal pronoun that opened the psalm is still persistent.

The host is God Himself, promising absolute satisfaction and a fullness beyond describing. The Greek word that is used (chortazesthai) describes entertaining a person with good things until they are completely satiated and sighing with satisfaction.

You are that fugitive. A posse of peace-robbing thieves pursues us all: guilt, shame, fear, anguish, anxiety, and regret. Their lances have pricked us, and we bleed from many wounds, with death leading the pack. Now the words “fear” and “evil” that lurk in our hearts and can be dismissed. The great shout of triumph rings in our ears: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where then your victory? Where then your sting? For sin, the sting that causes death, will all be gone; and the law, which reveals our sins, will no longer be our judge.” (1 Corinthians 15:54f)

Christ entered our wilderness, faced down our foe, and fills our cup. He restores, replenishes, rejuvenates, and brings healing to our many wounds. This table is spread right in the presence of our enemies. The danger has not disappeared, but neither has God’s welcome nor His protection. In the very place where we are surrounded, threatened, or afraid, God sets a table before us and invites us to sit down and eat. Here we receive the bread and wine that point us to Christ, to His life given for us and His death on our behalf. We are reminded that our security does not depend on the absence of enemies, but on the presence of God.

David’s psalm does not stop at the table. It ends looking forward: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Yahweh for ever.” 

Thus are all our days ordained.  It all depends on a personal pronoun: Yahweh! My shepherd.

The Be-Attitudes magnify God’s glory, and as John Piper noted, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied.” 

So Far: Be-Attitudes Contents https://wp.me/p22zu5-ce

Next: The Bliss of Single Mindedness (Purity of Heart)