“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Picture this…its Taco Tuesday, you’ve sat down, and with a street taco in each hand, you look across the table, and just a few feet away, there your nemesis sits, giving you that certain hangry look. Or perhaps, without a care in the world, you are about to cut into that perfectly cooked steak, and there, across the dinner table, sits your foe. Not a very pleasant image, is it?
As a boy, George Washington copied a list of Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, originally published by French Jesuits. It is an interesting read if you get past the old English vernacular. There are 110 rules to live by, ranging from how to talk to others, to general etiquette. Among the 110, there are 19 rules that deal specifically with eating and drinking in the presence of others. Here are a couple of them (copied as they are written):
Rule #97 – Put not another bit into your Mouth til the former be Swallowed; let not your Morsels be too big for the Gowls. (**In other words, don’t be a chipmunk and stuff as much food in your mouth as you can.)
Rule #91 – Make no Shew of taking great Delight in your Victuals, Feed not with Greediness; cut your Bread with a Knife, lean not on the Table, neither find fault with what you Eat.
And my favorite:
Rule #90 – Being Set at meat Scratch not neither Spit Cough or blow your Nose except there’s a Necessity for it. (**Yeah, no one wants to sit next to an individual blowing their nose, so don’t be that person.)
Would Washington have held to the same dining standards during a meal with Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia as he would with British General Cornwallis at Yorktown. Since people lived by a different code in his days, there is no doubt that yes, he would have treated enemies at the table just as he did friends.
At the very core of this image of eating in the presence of one’s enemies though, is that God is providing protection in one of our most vulnerable moments. He is in the personal bodyguard business. In David’s time, the host of the meal was responsible for the well-being and safety of all guests. So, David is saying that God, who is the host, will provide that protection while gathered around the table…the guest is not to be worried.
In an environment today where it seems some people cannot possibly get along with each other, perhaps we should start gathering around the dinner table and let God bring us together. Let food be the common ground…and again, don’t be that coughing, spitting, nose-blowing complainer with food-stuffed cheeks. Just don’t.
Faith, Leadership, and History 