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You Prepare A Table For Me
Brian Mashburn
March 25, 2012
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God's Preparation
Psalm 23:5 - "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies."
In the summer, when the sheep can be taken up to higher ground in order to graze, shepherds go up into the hill or mountain country in advance looking for mesas - patches of flat ground that are often covered by green grass.
The word "mesa" means "table". A good shepherd, on behalf of his sheep, will go and find these table-lands and prepare them for rich grazing by his flock.
This is no small task. One sheep-man remembers having to painstakingly weed out poisonous plants all across a mesa, costing him countless hours and days on his hands and knees. Sheep have a tendency to eat anything, even if it will kill them in the end. He has to prepare the table.
And once the table-land is prepared, and he successfully leads his sheep there to graze, he must be diligent for predators that are out there in the wild, oftentimes invisibly watching from cliffs and shadows above this table-land where his sheep are, looking for an opportunity to strike.
The sheep need not worry. Their shepherd has prepared a table for them in the presence of their enemies. Is there real danger? Yes. But is there real security that is up to the task?
If God is your Shepherd...yes.