By Phil Wood
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
Psalm 23:5
Last night, I awoke in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep – too many things on my mind. My normal response to this is to squeeze my eyes shut even tighter and try to will myself back to sleep. This, of course, never works, so I determined to use the time to practice a spiritual discipline: meditating on Scripture.
The 23rd Psalm came to mind, as it's one of the few passages I actually know by heart and it has always been among the most peaceful and comforting to me. I slowly repeated the verses over and over, remaining open to whatever new understanding God would reveal to me.
When I came to the part about the table being prepared before me in the presence of my enemies, I stopped and wondered, what is this verse saying to me? I'm not like David, the author of the psalm. I'm not a king with people ever plotting my downfall. I'm not a warrior in the field of battle with someone behind every rock waiting to kill me. And that's when the aha moment came. I think I gasped right out loud there in the darkness, though Marianne remained in slumber.
What I realized was that my enemies are everything and everyone standing between me and a deepening relationship with God. And these enemies are indeed hiding behind every rock.
The "head enemy" will do anything to keep us from growing closer to God and finding out about the amazing joy that comes with that. He doesn't want us to know that being transformed into the image of Christ ignites God's love within us. He would much rather we continue blindly along thinking we're good little Christians just as we are.
While Mar and I were on our "vacation with God" (see April 9 devotional), our enemies were here piling up things for us to do when we got home – things that heaped coals on the hurry sickness we thought we had defeated while on vacation. Sure enough, these things have gotten squarely in the way of spending time with the Lord now that we're back. And there I was, wide awake in the middle of the night with too many things on my mind.
Who is our enemy? For some the enemy is over-commitment and hurry sickness and all the ways the enemy uses to feed that sickness.
For some the enemy is our own selfish hearts (Pogo: "I have met the enemy and he is us.") For all of us the enemy is sin and all those minions of the enemy who willingly purvey opportunities to turn from paths of righteousness.
For some the enemy is alcohol or drugs, or hours in front of the mind-numbing television.
For some the enemy is the never-ending quest to amass wealth and make their futures financially secure. We all have to work and provide for our families. But when these pursuits take over our lives to the point where we have no time for God, you can be sure the enemy is in there, slugging away.
Our enemy is everything and everyone who stands between us and a growing, deepening, loving relationship with the one who loves us beyond measure.
What God was teaching me last night as I listened to his Living Word was this. With the Lord as my shepherd, I am in need of NOTHING! Right there in the presence of my enemies, with all their guile, all their clever temptations, my Lord has prepared a table for me. Everything my heart truly desires is on that table. My cup overflows.
And with these reassuring thoughts, I soon drifted back to sleep.
My God, my Shepherd, lead us each into sweet, peaceful, loving communion with you. Nothing else compares.
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