…you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5 (ESV)

Do you sometimes read a familiar passage and glimpse something new? Here’s a short video I saw recently: her cup overflows.

What did you see: a sticky stain and a horrible mess to clean up – a waste of an expensive beverage – a patient parent unafraid to allow a child to learn? Maybe all of these?

Psalm 23:5 not only speaks of God’s ability and intention to provide everything we need but of his patience and grace toward us when we either don’t do it right the first (or tenth) time or we mess up entirely and have to start over. He’s got an overflow of patience to see us through.

Discovering ways God speaks to us through our daily quest for nourishment is a rich biblical topic. Here’s how God provided for the prophet Elijah, a Sidonian widow, and her son during a time of extreme drought and famine.

‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said.’ …She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.
I Kings 17:13a & 15 (NIV)

How rich are those words, “Don’t be afraid.” Do you envision future material shortages and allow yourself to fear that God is unable or unwilling to provide for you?

Here’s yet another example in a servant’s description of the kind of wine Jesus provided when the wine supply ran out at a wedding.

Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. John 2:10 (ESV)

What do you say to God’s impractical abundance? Are you his child? Are you his servant? How does he provide for his servants to succeed?

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)

As a way of reminding yourself that God wants to pour you an overflowing cup, ask him to show you how to go “over the top” with a meal this weekend. Yes, you may include honored guests!