Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

An Honoured Guest

Psalm 23v5 “You anoint my head with oil.”

You and I would probably feel pretty insulted to have someone pour a bottle of oil over our heads. But in the ancient Middle East is was a blessing and a sign of honour. And so, Jesus critiques his host in Luke 7v46, “You did not pour oil on my head …”. Maybe an equivalent today is for you to go to someone’s house and they break open a bottle of bubbly for you, or their best malt whiskey, or lay out the red carpet …

In this Psalm, we have moved from the shepherd-sheep metaphor to a host-guest metaphor. The host has provided a table of food (last week), and now the host honours you as his favoured guest. This idea of God’s favour for us is picked up by Jesus in his story of the return of the “prodigal son” for whom the Father lays on a party and kills “the fattened calf” (Luke 15). Such favourable treatment that it makes others envious! We see favour again as the angels declare at Jesus’ birth, “peace to men on whom his favour rests” (Luke 2v14).

The fact is that you are a favoured guest in the kingdom of God. God is delighted to have you in his family. He speaks words of favour over you. He even chooses to live in you by His Holy Spirit. This is good reason to be filled with joy! Turn your eyes from all your issues and focus on the favour of God towards you. “He has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1v3)

With love and blessing,

Roland