(This is the transcript of a talk I gave several years ago to the women at Grace PCA, Douglasville)
Since our time together is so close to Thanksgiving, and as I was thinking about what to share
with you all, it came me that it might be helpful to prepare for Thanksgiving in a spiritual sense. If you are like me, and are hosting the meal
this year, you have probably already given some serious thought to the menu,
how you’re going to seat everyone, and how to decorate the table. But what about preparing to do the thanking itself, or better yet, how to cultivate in our hearts an attitude
of thanksgiving and gratitude that governs what we do and say, and how we
look at the world around us?
Another way to ask the question would be, how can we view our lives in such a way
that when we look around us, we see gifts everywhere – packages of love from
our Creator and Redeemer?
Well, the idea of life
as a gift is actually the main premise of a book I recently read on
Ecclesiastes, which I used to think of as rather depressing, and even
unbiblical in a way, as if it didn’t fit with the rest of Scripture. But – the title of the book intrigued
me: Living
Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End. In this book, the author, David Gibson tells us that “the main message of
Ecclesiastes in a nutshell: life in God’s
world is gift, not gain” (37).
Now, this premise has all sorts of implications, and we don’t
have time to go into them all – especially what Gibson means by “not gain.” (Hint: Book closes with Phil.1:21.) What we
will be doing is looking at Psalm 23 this morning in light of the message of
Ecclesiastes. The idea of Psalm 23 came to me when Gibson referenced another
book on Ecc. called A Table in the Mist,
and I was reminded of the table that God prepares for us, even in the presence
of our enemies. We’re going to come back to those verses and talk about the
table, but we’ll start at the beginning of the Psalm and try to identify some
of God’s gifts to us:
Here we have God leading and guiding us, and “making us” lie down in green pastures. In Eccl. 5, we are told that when we go to the house of God we are to “guard our steps” and “draw near to listen.” In talking about this chapter, Dr. Gibson reminds us first of all that “the ear is the Christian’s primary sense organ” and that “listening to what God has said is our main spiritual discipline.” He goes on to say that
“life is a gift, and God’s Word is the most precious of gifts, to be honored and loved and treasured above all others, It is a fallen world, and interpreting it to our satisfaction cannot be done. You cannot always read it. But you can read the Bible. And as you read, God is speaking. So listen” (81-82).”
So – back to Psalm 23 – we can see that the
“green pastures” could represent God’s Word, as both the place where we
feed spiritually, and the place where we rest.
It’s funny to think that the sheep would have to be “made” to lie down
in the green pastures. They sound so
lovely – they are peaceful, restful and the very source of their life. But
sheep tend to wander, as do we, so we
can be thankful, not only for the gift of God’s Word, but for the ways in which
He guides us back, sometimes nudging, sometimes forcing us to stop and rest in it.
🎁 Vs. 5 “You prepare a
table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with
oil; My cup overflows.” There’s so much here to unwrap – so many
packages!
·
We have the gift of God’s protection and sovereign care. In a fallen world, where we
are often overwhelmed by the opposition we face as Christians, both from within
(our sinful nature), and without, God tells us to sit down at a meal that He
has prepared – to be at peace knowing that He will fight for us.
·
We also have the enjoyment
of the meal itself – the flavors, the food, the colors. God still wants us
to enjoy these things for what they are in themselves.
·
The psalm doesn’t specifically mention this, but the
idea of feasting at a table does imply more than one person being there, so
especially in light of what Ecclesiastes says, God gives us people as
gifts. Ecc. 4:9-10 says, “Two are better
than one…for if they fall, one will lift up his fellow,” and Eccl 9:9 tells us
to “enjoy life with the wife whom you love.”
In other words, the people in
your life are a gift to you from the Lord. When we delight in them as a gift
from the Lord, we are delighting in the Lord.
·
We have the reminder
of our glorious future with our Savior whenever we eat a meal. As Gibson says, “We eat and drink as we
vanish from the earth like a vapor.
But one day we will eat and drink in the city of the King, where death will
have vanished from the earth forever (116).
Right now, we are the ones who will “vanish from the earth” because of
the curse of death. (Eccl. 1:1 – “Vanity of vanities…all is vanity!” (“vanity”
= hebel = “breath). But one
day, death itself will vanish like a vapor.
One day we’ll eat and drink, not
in presence of our enemies, but in His very presence. Gibson says that
“those w/o Christ often abandon themselves to eating and drinking because
sometimes it looks as if that’s all there is to do before we die. But those who
love Christ cherish eating and drinking because it looks a little like what we
will do after we die” (117) -- and David, (the writer of Psalm 23), seems to be in this same frame of mind as he sits at the table, for he says,
“Surely
goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
