Table: Five Minute Friday

Prompted but unscripted, a "free write" for five minutes with no edits, no re-writes. Every Friday (or Thursday night if you're at the Twitter party), we receive the week's prompt and write. Sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and usually spontaneous, this community has grown so much and now means a lot to me! Join us, it's so much fun! Here's the link to Kate's page.

Go!

Table.
"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
We just had a prompt last week on the word "dwell". As I've been journeying through the Psalms one chapter at a time for the last three months, it's difficult not to call a Psalm to mind when I hear a word.
Psalm 23 especially has been sung in many versions and with many flavors.

As a high-school choir student, I had the opportunity to participate in the honors event "All-State Chorus and Orchestra" twice. One of the two years we sang "The Lord is my Shepherd."
Here is a youtube version of a choral group performing that song.

That version may put you to sleep, especially if you never sang in choir. It's nostalgic for me. Especially singing the praises of God with 1,000 high school students, most of us from public schools.

My journey in the Psalms has been in the 40s and 50s recently. And so many of the chapters focus on "no matter what comes against me, the Lord will prevail." And that my eyes should be on Him.


So as I think about what my mind "dwells" on or "feasts" on, I see that life is a Table. Before me are many things that I can feed on. I have a myriad of choices. Some sweet, some savory, some salty, some bitter, and all will taste different. They will all affect me differently. There will be things I have no choice but to swallow it quickly. (Brussels sprouts, anybody?)
Other things I can delight in and savor. We need a balance of all of these things. Just like our emotions. Without sadness, we do not appreciate "joy" nearly as much. And in contrast of fear and anger, the peace and love of God would not be so brilliant or appealing.


I'm pretty sure my time is up for tonight. When my time is up on earth, I know whose banquet table awaits me. I want to be sure that I'm not wasting time at this table, though. It's bad manners to sit and play with my food. ;)

~Tammy

And, for a livelier version of Psalm 23, here's Keith Green. Another childhood LP favorite!