You Prepare a Table Before Me

I worry about what’s ahead, but I have a shepherd who prepares a table before me, so I wait, trust and see.

A friend recently sent a job offering to me.

It was to come to a town called Echuca in Victoria Australia and be a snake catcher.

Yes, you read it right. Snake catcher.

My friend works in a local school as a caretaker and part of his job is to make sure the school grounds and buildings are safe for the children.

So he regularly is on the lookout for snakes.

He clears away areas that snakes might want to live in. Nets and fences are installed to stop snakes from entering the school grounds.

He prepares a safe place for little children.

I like this illustration. It’s a picture of providential care.

Have you ever had someone prepare somewhere safe for you?

Say you are going to visit Aunt Mildred and you’re going to stay the night.

She will most likely prepare in advance.

She may make the bed, prepare some food, and get rid of any snakes! (especially if you live in Australia)

When you arrive, you are welcomed into what they have prepared. You may feel a little embarrassed by the fuss they have put into this welcome.

But you feel cared for, loved, and welcomed.

You prepare a table before me

Probably the most read Psalm in the Bible is Psalm 23.

It has brought comfort and hope to millions of people ever since it was penned by a shepherd boy in Israel.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
    I 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 overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long. Psalm 23

At the time of writing, this pastoral scene of shepherding care would have been familiar to the listener.

But few of us now have any direct connection with sheep.

Facial Eczema

My very first job, from leaving school, was to work on a sheep farm.

The farmer asked me to monitor the level of the fungus Pithomyces chartarum growing in the pasture.

This fungus grows in the base of the pasture when the weather is warm and moist.

The fungus release spores containing a toxin called sporidesmin.

When taken in by the sheep, the spores damage the animal’s liver. The facial skin peels off and there is facial swelling, droopy ears (particularly sheep) and restlessness.

It’s a horrible sight to see sheep with this condition.

My task was to go out to the pastures, collect samples of soil/ grass, bring them back and put them under a microscope. Then I would count the number of spores.

I would then be able to say whether this particular paddock was safe for the sheep to be shifted into.

In essence, I was checking for snakes (microscopic ones). I was preparing a place for vulnerable sheep to graze.

I was preparing a table.

The Shepherd goes ahead

A popular understanding of Psalm 23:5 ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies’ is that the table refers to what we would normally sit down to eat our dinner at.

Yet, I have never seen sheep sit at a table!

I wonder if David, the shepherd boy, was playing with words.

Because he also would have known the word ‘tableland’.

Table-lands in the Bible often symbolize stability, abundance, and divine provision.

Their elevated nature can represent a place of closeness to God, as seen in the Psalms where the psalmist speaks of God setting a table in the presence of enemies (Psalm 23:5).

This imagery conveys a sense of security and blessing, akin to the fertile and protected nature of a plateau. Table-lands Bible Hub

A good shepherd would go ahead and ‘prepare the table’.

Water holes cleared, poisonous weeds removed, snakes and predators removed or prepared for.

In full view of those predators, the shepherd prepares.

I’m not looking for the table covered in food and drink that I hear from prosperity toxic teaching.

I’m looking for the simple provision of what is needed for the day.

What has the shepherd prepared in advance to meet my sheepy needs?

What is he doing today for my tomorrow?

Open your mouth and taste,
open your eyes and see—
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.

Worship God if you want the best;
Worship opens doors to all his goodness. Psalm 34:8-9

Poem

You go ahead

You go ahead
A pathway to clear
You go ahead
A table to prepare

It’s a flat place
Where I can rest
Free of all predators
Table land souls request

You’re freeing that place
Of wolves and snakes
You’re going ahead
There’s no mistake

You’re right beside
Rod and staff comfort still
I look back
And see where you’ve been

It’s a millimetre walk
To change my point of view
I’m stubborn and resistant
Old Ram Old Ewe

May I see
In evidence today
How you’ve stepped out in front
Preparing me the way

I will focus my attention
On gifts given today
Thanking you for manna
Left along the way

Help me to trust
You’ve got it all in hand
You’re going ahead
Predator free flat land

You go ahead
You prepare a place
Help me see today
Your providential grace

Questions?
Comments?
Email me 🙂📨
barry@turningthepage.co.nz

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Quotes to consider

Augustine says: ‘You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’ Spirituality is about what we do with our unrest. Ronald Rolheiser
Control eventually gives way to mystery and the letting go of control. Suddenly, we are not in charge. Richard Rohr
Comfort is the absence of tension; growth requires a swim in murky, dangerous waters. Dan Allender
Any approach to life that doesn’t center in trust eventually produces misery. Larry Crabb
Too often, our version of trusting God carries with it an expectation of what God should do. We are, of course, to trust God to do all that He tells us in the Bible He will do. But this is where we sometimes get off-track. Without noticing it, we tend to trust God to do what we think a loving God ought to do. An honest look at what we mean when we use the word trust would likely turn up a subtle demand, a stubborn sense of entitlement to whatever good things we’d like God to give us. Larry Crabb
In trust, we open our hearts and experience God’s love, which overcomes fear and enables us to give rather than constantly seek to get. Timothy R. Jennings
[From God to Job] When you stand before Me [God] in mystery, you will eventually rest within Me in trust. When you can’t figure Me out, you will give up the illusion of predictability and control and discover the joy of freedom and hope. Larry Crabb 66 Love letters – Job

Questions to answer

What would it be like to have someone go ahead of you and prepare a place for you where you can eat, drink, rest, and sleep in perfect safety?
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, said these words.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Do think Jesus might be using Psalm 23 as another sign of his providential care for us?
Going ahead, preparing a place. When someone is coming to visit you, do you prepare in advance? Why?

Formation exercise

Looking back, how has the Good shepherd prepared a table for you in the now? You can count your blessings, name them one by one, but more so notice the little ways God has provided the simplest of things.