Friday: The Host

Psalm 23:5

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

The final section of this psalm changes metaphors from the shepherd and sheep to the host and the guest. Note that David is still speaking in the more conversational, intimate, second person.

His precise meaning in the first sentence is a bit uncertain. It kinda depends on the type of banquet table he has in mind. He could be referring to simply provision in a threatening place, hospitality, thanksgiving, or a royal feast, etc. With the many possibilities and little contextual clues to come to a precise meaning we should simply take it generally to refer to God's hospitality and provision.

At this banquet he honors his guest by anointing his head with oil. He gives generously, so much so that his cup overflows. It is one thing to do this in the comfort of one's home, but quite another do do it in the presence of one's enemies.

Whatever the precise meaning of verse 5, the theological summary of verse 6 gives us the meaning David is driving at in these verses. The word used for love, hesed, is often translated as mercy. This word carries the connotation of God's unfailing love, his covenant faithfulness towards the people of Israel. The word for good also expresses God's character of goodness. Both of these harken back to verse 3 and God leading the psalmist in the right paths for his name's sake. These are aspects of God's character so he cannot but act in goodness and love. The psalmist personifies these attributes as following him all the days of his life. The translation follow is perhaps a little weak. The verb usually carries the idea of pursuit. The image here is not of goodness and love casually following behind the psalmist, but of them actively pursing him forever. This idea is captured well in Francis Thompson's poem, The Hound of Heaven. I've linked you to a modern rendition of it in the video below.

In this poem we see YAHWEH as the shepherd leading the psalmist in v. 1-3 and here as personified goodness and love pursuing him. The psalmist is hemmed in on both fronts by YAHWEH himself. It is precisely God's presence on all fronts that brings comfort and courage even through the darkest valley and peace and rest in the green pasture.

Ultimately in this poem we see the destination to which YAHWEH is both leading and pursuing the psalmist towards is nothing less than Himself. It is in the presence of God, in his house, that the psalmist will dwell forever.

I don't think his meaning here is an end of life, go to heaven thing, or a sitting in church (in David's case the tabernacle) all the time sort of thing. Remember the settings in the poem so far have been in nature or in the presence of enemies. I think his meaning is that wherever he goes, whatever he does throughout his life, he is dwelling in the presence of the LORD.

Additional Resources

This video is a bit long and dramatic but it's a more understandable adaptation of the Christian classic poem The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. It's a beautiful poem of Christ's relentless pursuit of us in spite of us fleeing him and clinging to other things looking for satisfaction, which can only truly be found in Jesus.