A brimming cup

You prepare a banquet for me,
where all my enemies can see me;
you welcome me as an honoured guest
and fill my cup to the brim.
I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;
and your house will be my home as long as I live. (verses 5,6)

Read Psalm 23

The picture in this well-known psalm changes in these last two verses. The psalm writer is no longer thinking of shepherd and sheep. Now he sees himself as an honoured guest on whom his host lavishes the utmost hospitality, laying on a real feast, constantly filling his cup to the brim, and saying, ‘Make yourself at home. My house is your house—always.’

It’s probably not the way that most people picture their relationship with God. Most people, if they think of God at all, see him as a distant and forbidding figure. They would say it is presumptuous to think that the almighty God would have, or even want to have, such an intimate relationship with us insignificant human beings.

Yet that’s the promise of this word from God. It’s a promise that came to reality when Jesus, the Son of God, lived on this earth. It’s exactly how Jesus pictured life with God for his followers: a never-ending feast.

Thank you, God, for declaring your eternal friendship with me and for giving me all the goodness of this world to enjoy. Amen.

by John Vitale, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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