Last night as I was praying I felt the Lord leading me to Psalm 23, One of my mother and my mother-in-law’s favorite psalms (Praise God for our faithful heritage!). The words were flowing in my spirit before I arrived at the scripture in my Bible. I knew the words, but God wanted me to read them this time.
“…I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Then, here it is…“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Again, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The words had new meaning each time…God Himself is preparing His abundant table before us in the presence of our enemies. Our ultimate enemy may be working overtime with his flaming arrows flying at us seemingly non-stop with health issues, distractions from the world, conflicts within, conflicts without…BUT… then I looked at the NIV text notes:
‘God is pictured as caring for my needs in the midst of the evil forces that attempt to destroy my life and soul.’ The notes also referenced Romans 8:31-39, verse 37: “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” ….MORE THAN CONQUERORS!
The text note explained: The entire phrase ‘we are more than conquerors’ is just one word in Greek (hupernikomen). “Huper” means ‘over, above’. In Latin it means ‘super’. So Paul is saying here that we are not just barely getting by in these trials. In Christ we are “overwhelmingly – over and above” more than conquerors, WE ARE SUPER CONQUERORS! Praise God! The victory is ours!
But that’s not all…back to Psalm 23. “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” My text notes here explained that in the Hebrew ‘my cup overflows’ is not a verb, but a noun meaning ‘an abundant drink’. What David is talking about here is a ‘shepherd’s cup’. On the road to Bethlehem is a well with a shepherds cup. A shepherd’s cup is a large stone hollowed out next to the well. It holds 30 or 40 gallons of water for the sheep. 30 or 40 gallons of water and this cup is OVERFLOWING!
Through these trials God is preparing our table in front of our enemies to abundantly bless us more than we can contain! Praise God! Only He can send the rainbow in the midst of storm!
What an incredible word of encouragement!
Kristy McCabe