Blessed in the Presence of My Enemies-Psalm 23:5

There’s nothing I lack when “the Lord is my shepherd” (Ps 23:1). Unless my shepherd brings me back to him (Ps 23:3), I’m lost. He’s with me when I’m in the valley of deepest darkness (Ps 23:4). He prepares a table for me—and you too—in the presence of our enemies (Ps 23:5). Enmity, animosity and hostility are the enemies of a pleasant life. David’s enemies desired his demise–Saul, the Philistines, Absalom. In “civilized” societies “enemies”–whom Christians should love (Mt 5:48)–are those who hurt, wound and traumatize you [and dislike, disrespect, mistrust, malign, undermine, undercut, marginalize, control, manipulate, slander you]. Such people in your community, family or church are cringe worthy. But when God is your shepherd, the psalmist says that He will publicly bless you in the presence of your enemies–a not oft preached on promise.

Imagery shift to a festive meal with a host and a guest (Ps 23:5). Is the psalmist still talking about a shepherd and his sheep? A strong consensus among commentators is around the second option. They argue that “preparing a table” refers to a diligent shepherd who finds some flat pasture land and before leading his sheep to that place he goes ahead of them, digs up the poisonous plants and kills the snakes. The “enemies” are then the wild animals. This view doesn’t fit the geography of the Holy Land, where there is no high “table land” such as is in Switzerland and Kenya. Also, the arguments that anointing and overflowing cup refer to a shepherd’s care for his sheep are not convincing. The shepherd treats scratches on his sheep with olive oil, but “the overflowing cup” does not fit a shepherd and his sheep. The text is enriched and better understood when refering to a generous host with his guests. How?

Shepherd to host(ess). In unit 2 the psalmist speaks of food and drink for animals (Ps 23:2). In this corresponding unit, the subject is food and drink for people (Ps 23:5). This shift in a discussion between animals and people is well known in stories about Jesus (Lk 13:15-16 [the “ox and the ass” vs. the woman with a bad back]; Lk 14:1-5 [the man with dropsy vs. the ass and ox]) to defend himself against his critics. In units 1-5 the metaphorical use of the shepherd and his sheep is rich and meaningful. In Luke 15 Jesus moves from animals and coins to people by starting with parables of a lost sheep (and a lost coin) and then to two lost sons (Lk 15:1-32). The psalmist’s presentation of the nature of God is enhanced through the use of the image of a host and his guests.

Hospitality. In Psalm 23, the language is freighted with meaning. Hospitality at meals is a critical aspect of traditional Middle Eastern culture. Lamsa writes, “In the East, a man’s fame is spread by means of his table and lavish hospitality rather than by his possessions. Strangers and neighbors alike discuss tables where they have been guests. Such tales spread from one town to another and are handed down from one generation to another. There is considerable gossip as to how guests and strangers are entertained.”

Hospitality in the east vs. possessions in the west. In traditional Middle Eastern culture, when you want the community to know that you have acquired wealth, you do not buy an expensive car or a large house with acres of grass around it. Rather, you host meals with 3 times as much food on the table as the numerous guests can eat. The modern Western way of showing off possessions assumes isolation and distance from the community. It is enough that you drive by, note my palatial house and see my expensive car parked beside it. The psalmist’s imagery has to do with community life that is strengthened and solidified by shared meals. But there is more.

“Prepare a table” means to “prepare a meal” (Ps 78:19; Prov 9:2; Is 21:5; 65:11; Ezek 23:41). In traditional Middle Eastern society people eat without individual plates or utensils. People tear off a small piece of flat bread and use it to lift food from the common dish. Each bite starts with a fresh piece of bread. The master of the house provides the food, he doesn’t prepare it. Servants and women prepare the food, as shown in Prov 9:1-5: “Wisdom has built her house… She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, She has also prepared her table… she says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.’”

Women prepare the meals, not the man. Similarly, with Abraham, when his angelic visitors (Gen 18:1-8) arrived, Abraham insists that they rest and eat. The angels accept, whereon Abraham hurries to his tent and tells Sarah to take some fine meal and “make cakes.” He then selects a calf, which he at once gives to a servant with orders to “prepare it.” Abraham, in good Middle Eastern style, offers the food, prepared by Sarah and his servant, to his guests. In a gesture of high respect, Abraham, stands while his guests eat, but Abraham does not prepare the food. The father in the parable of the prodigal son orders a banquet. He orders the servants to do the work (Lk 15:22-23). No one imagines that the father will prepare the food.

The man will not cook his own food. He gives it to a woman to prepare it. In the Middle East, as in many cultures around the world, the important task of preparing meals has traditionally been carried out by women and servants. In Psalm 23 God is a shepherd (who leads his flock) not a servant, and thus Ps 23:5 most naturally refers to the work of a woman. In the light of related biblical texts, this is not surprising. Gen 1:27 reads: “So God created mankind in his own image, In the image of God he create him [singular], Male and female he created them [plural].” Both male and female are created in the image of God. God is spirit and is neither male nor female, but the characteristics of both come from God, who created both genders “in his image.” Thus, for God to act like a woman in Ps 23:5, is in harmony with the biblical tradition.

God is “like“ a man and woman. In Isa 42:13 God acts “like a mighty man,” and in Isa 43:14 God acts “like a woman.” In Psalm 23 God is described as a good shepherd who cares for his sheep. He is also acts like a woman by preparing a meal for the guest at his table. Psalm 23 is a story of a good shepherd and a good host. The Hebrew verb “you prepare” is masculine. But it is a male who engages in activities traditionally seen as the work of females. The phrase prepare a table is clearly attached to the work of a female in Proverbs 9:2-5, as previously noted.

This inclusion of both male and female components in the “good shepherd psalm” disappears for 1,000 years and then reappears in Jesus’ matching parables of the good shepherd and the good woman (Lk 15:3-10). Note that themes are introduced in the psalm, ignored in the subsequent prophetic discussions of the good shepherd and then resurrected by Jesus. “…in the presence of my enemies”–the difficult phrase–needs examination. This can best be understood to mean: He demonstrates costly love to me irrespective of who is watching. People hostile to me will observe what he is doing and he knows that their hostility against me will be extended to him as a result. He doesn’t care. He offers that love anyway.

Hostility to the one blessed. In the old American South (and in many places in the American North) a European American who invited an African American as a guest to an expensive restaurant in a white section of town would subject himself to intense hostility from the community by doing so. In the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32) the community hates the prodigal, and on his return would have thrashed him were it not for the costly intervention of the father in public on the road (Lk 15:20). The celebratory party that evening is not a gesture of welcome to the return of the prodigal. It is a celebration of the success of the costly efforts of the father in reconciling his son to himself. The community despises the prodigal because he offended and shamed the family on his departure and now has come back in rags after losing the family’s money. The community will come to the banquet to show honor to the father for his costly efforts at restoring his son. They will not attend a banquet in honor of the prodigal. Thus the son could say to himself, “My father has ordered a banquet [as a gesture of restoration] in the presence of my enemies. The village does not like me. My brother hates me. My father, on the road, in full view of the village, demonstrated great love for me in spite of the hatred of family and community against me.”Similarly, in the story of Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10), Jesus spends the night in the house of Zacchaeus the tax collector. The crowd is angry and murmurs, “He has gone in [i.e., for the night] to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Again and again Jesus engenders hostility because of the people with whom he chooses to eat his meals. He demonstrates costly love to his table companions by eating with them “in the presence of their enemies.” Jesus provided a banquet for 5,000 people in the presence of their enemy (Herod) in Mark 6. David would have understood.

Anointing in Scripture took place for a variety of reasons: Consecration and inauguration (Is 61:1), wounds and sores were anointed with oil (Lk 10:34), along with the sick in general (Jas 5:14). But here anointing is an act of hospitality. Ps 23:5 focuses on anointing at a banquet where the host anoints the head of the guest. In the Middle East, oil used for such anointing is usually perfumed. The clearest biblical example of this is in Lk 7:35-50, but the practice is of great antiquity.

David’s enemies observe the festivities of his public meal. This infuriates them. The host is “pulling out all the stops.” To change the metaphor, “no stone is left unturned” in the host’s efforts to assure the guest that he or she is welcome, honored and beloved. Also, the waiters are “hovering.” Every time David takes a sip, one of them quickly rushes over to fill his cup. They are so eager to “do things right” that his cup overflows. David knows full well that this treatment is extraordinary. In Psalm 31:11 he writes, “I am the scorn of all my adversaries/enemies, A horror to my neighbors, An object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me.”

These enemies/adversaries see him as an object of dread, and the neighbors flee from him in the street. Amazingly, these adversaries/enemies are the same people that the good shepherd ignores as he hosts the psalmist at a banquet in Ps 23:5.

Ps 23:5 has a NT connection. In 1 Cor 10:16-21 the “table” and the “cup” are prominent (1 Cor 10:21). Paul is discussing the Eucharist and the Corinthian assumption that they can participate in the sacraments related to the idols and in the sacrament of Holy Communion. To discuss this critical topic, he invokes the language of Ps 23:5 with its reference to the “cup” and the “table.” Paul looks at Ps 23:5 and asks himself, What is the “table” that the Lord prepares for me at great cost, and what is the “cup” that he offers? Paul concludes that this language finds its fullest expression in the “table and the cup” of the Eucharist. Next, the psalm continues with its final unit (Ps 23:6).

Reference:

1. Bailey, Kenneth E. The Good Shepherd: A Thousand-Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament. IVP. Downers Grove, IL 60515. 2014. [Bailey’s greatest strength is the investigation of the original Middle Eastern context of each passage. Besides his own experience and knowledge, he employs commentaries on Psalm 23 written by Middle Eastern authors (M. P. Krikorian, Faddoul Moghabghab, George M. Lamsa, Stephen A. Haboush, Abrahim Mitri Rahbany, Nerses the Graceful of Lambron) as well as Western missionaries to the Middle East (William Thompson and Eric F. F. Bishop), 4 Arabic NT commentaries (Ibn al-Tayyib [d. 1043], D. Ibn al-Salibi [d. 1164], Ibrahim Sa‘id [1970], Matta al-Miskin [1999]), and 20 Arabic translations of the Bible (translated into English by the author).] {Trouble and rebellion arise not only from the lost sheep, as in the original metaphor, but also from the hired human shepherds (Jer 23) and the sheep who never strayed from the flock (Ezek 34). Zechariah 10:2–12 also elaborates the political interpretation of Psalm 23 by depicting sheep as soldiers.} [Turning to the NT, the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:4–7) recasts the sinner–represented as a sheep-in an active position, being able to turn back from wandering by one’s own choice. By contrast, Mk 6:7–52 weaves the literary motifs of Psalm 23 through the context surrounding Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, John the Baptist’s death and the political disorientation that ensues. In this context, Jesus plays a multifaceted shepherd’s role for Israel. Mt 18 adds to the Markan account a focus on the “little ones” as the object of the shepherd’s particular interest. From a different perspective, Jh 10 makes the most of the close relationship between sheep and shepherd and envisages the shepherd as sacrificially protecting his sheep. The book’s last chapter tackles 1 Peter 5:1–4, where the apostle applies the great qualities of Jesus the Great Shepherd to the elders, the shepherds entrusted with the church of Christ.] {Several improvements could have sharpened the book. 1st, Bailey’s preference for new terms which replace some classical terminology may confuse the reader, such as “ring composition” for chiasmus and “cameos” for chiasmus components. 2nd and following Bailey’s own criteria for selecting the texts, he left aside important texts such as 2 Samuel 7:8–16, Psalm 80, Zechariah 11:4–17, and Acts 20:18–35.} [Bailey shares his experiences of watching and asking questions to shepherds with their sheep for 50 years in Egypt, Lebanon, and near Bethlehem in the west bank, Israel/Palestine; preaching 10 years with rural churches of the Egyptian Evangelical Church in the Minya province; teaching 20 years at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon, and 10 years at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Bethlehem. He is fluent in Syriac, Armenian, Arabic, Hebrew and cites obscure sources from the 11th to 13th centuries C.E. and 19th and 20th centuries containing compelling concepts. His sensitive, penetrating, profound, perceptive, unexpected, unique insights and comprehension of the functions and roles of shepherds and sheep motivate thinkers to gain fresh understandings of the good shepherd and his flock.]