23:5a - You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.

At this point in his reflection of what it means to live with God, David seems to have exhausted his metaphor of the shepherd, and switches over to the picture of the Lord as a host, who has prepared a banquet for him,1 a banquet, additionally, where he is anointed2 on the head and his cup overflows.3 Here, then is a picture not of mere provision but of largess and honour.

That much is clear. What is not clear, however, is why the feast should be held "in the presence of my enemies." For one thing, not many of us would be happy to have our enemies seated at a feast laid out for us.

Derek Kidner offers this suggestion about the enemies' presence at the banquet that it:

probably anticipates a victory celebration, where the enemies are present as captives; or an accession feast with defeated rivals as reluctant guests.

Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentary; Downers Grove, Ill./Leicester, 1973) 112.

Samuel Terrien proffers a different take on the matter. He thinks that the metaphor of the shepherd is still maintained in these verse, because the table in:

its Arabic equivalent, even in modern times, continues to mean, not a piece of wooden furniture, but an animal skin or a woven rug thrown on the ground to keep food away from sand.

Moreover, the verb means not "to prepare," but "to arrange in order." Yet, what do the words "in the presence of my enemies" mean? In the early part of the twentieth century, for Lebanese and Syrian as well as Palestinian shepherds—there was no frontier. During the Ottoman Empire they spoke of "arranging" a meadow ahead of their flock for the safety of the sheep. The meant uprooting poisonous herbs and thorny bushes, exterminating scorpions, vipers, and other "enemies" of the sheep.

Terrian continues with this train of thought into the anointing and overflowing cup thus:

At the end of the day, they [the shepherds] would examine the animals, one by one, and anoint with oil the heads of those wounded or scratched. They would even offer from a goblet some fermented drink those about to faint from exhaustion. The Hebrew verbs means, not "runneth over," but "is intoxicated" (Isa 34:5). At critical moments the shepherds is a nurse.4

Samuel Terrien, The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary (Eerdmans Critical Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003) 241.

Robert Davidson, though not explaining why the enemies should be present, suggests that their presence should:

not be taken as a [sic] expression of vindictiveness; rather, it is a sign that all those who threatened the psalmist have now been proved wrong. This point would be underlined even more strongly if this banquet were a thanksgiving sacrifice in the temple. Such a sacrificial meal, and God's sharing in it, would be proof, if proof be needed, that the psalmist was accepted by God.

Robert Davidson, The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids/Edinburgh: Eerdmans/ Handsel, 1998) 85.

We can think of another scenario based on scenes of hospitality reported in the OT. The one that illustrates this quite well is Lot's entertainment of the two angels when he was living in Sodom (Gen 19). Most of us think little of Lot, especially when the men of Sodom came to demand he surrendered the two men to them so that they could "know" them, and he offered them his two virgin daughters to "do what they liked with them" (v8). And yet, it is puzzling, Peter called him "a righteous man" (2 Pet 2:7).5 How, indeed, could a man who offers up his daughters to be ravaged by a mob of sex-crazed sodomites "as they liked" be righteous is, at first sight, difficult to understand!

Perhaps re-reading his conversation with the men of Sodom may help:

⁵They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

⁶Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him ⁷and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. ⁸Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."

⁹"Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

The conversation reveals a most significant fact about Lot most of us overlook. He was righteous. His motivation for offering up his daughters was simply this: "these men have come under the protection of my roof" (v8). He took care, as he went out to meet the men of Sodom, to "shut the door behind him." Lot was serious about protecting his guests. If we are prepared to put aside our prejudice about Lot, we would see that he would probably have been prepared to lay down his life for his guests; that is what a righteous host would have done. "Over my dead body," is what a righteous host would have done. But, before he laid down his life, he gave up two lives that — as any father would tell you — were more precious than his own to safeguard his guests from their enemies hankering down on them just beyond the door.

Was this the idea of hospitality that David had in mind when he spoke of banqueting "in the presence of my enemies"? Is God not a more righteous host than Lot? Would God not say to David's enemies who hanker at the door of the banqueting hall, "Over my dead body?" Would He not give up any life more precious than His own to protect David? We, who have come to Christ, know for a fact that God did say to our Enemy of Enemies, "Over my dead body!" Yes, He did, and it was the body of His One and Only Son whom He loves.