What Binds Me
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies Psalm 23:5
Enemies – Who is my enemy? Is he the one who stands against me with sword in hand? Is he the one with a bomb concealed in a bag? Is he the one with a finger on the trigger? Or the one who threatens my job or my family? When Jesus prepared His table, was the enemy a man named Judas? Or does this word point us in another direction?
The Hebrew tsarar is a root word that means “to show hostility toward.” In one form, it is certainly about an adversary or oppressor. But it has another form where it takes on the nuance of being bound, distressed, hemmed in, confined and troubled. In other words, there are enemies outside and there are enemies inside. Freedom from outside oppressors does not guarantee liberty. Liberty is freedom from a distressed and bound heart. Liberty is first a inside job.
When God prepares a table that satisfies, He does it in the presence of those things that prevent my enjoyment of His nourishment. God does not ask me to help in the preparation because He knows that I am bound, confined and constrained. I can’t help. I am tied up by my enemies. But that doesn’t stop God from inviting me to watch Him work, making a meal fit for a king. And when it is ready, He invites me to sit and eat with Him, to display His liberating power right where it matters most, in the presence of those enemies that have swallowed me up.
God’s meal is liberty. God serves up redemption. His finest wine is the blood of forgiveness. His greatest entrée is the body of restoration. Nothing else satisfies like the meal that brings me peace. When God serves, He unties me and sends my enemies away.
At God’s Table, I discover freedom. At God’s Table, I experience grace. At God’s Table, my tongue learns the taste of praise. I drink favor and eat the fruit of obedience. I learn to be poured-out wine and broken bread, and in the process I am fed. All in the presence of my enemies.
There is no other table in the world that satisfies like God’s table.
