The psalmist praises God because God prepared a table for him in the presence of his enemies. Surely this would include the presence of the great enemy, death. Now rightly understood, this table is the central example of that gracious provision, and rightly understood, this table is one of the great weapons in the arsenal of the kingdom of God.
As noted in the call to worship, our task in the modern world is to identify the idols that our modern culture has established, and to make a point of worshipping Jesus at just that point. This table is one means of doing that.
Of one danger of doing this is of course the danger of syncretism, mixing our worship of Jesus with the worship of idols. But it does no good to avoid the sin of syncretism by falling into the sin of dualism, thinking somehow that Jesus is the Lord of your private thought world only. No, we are partaking of a table at which we commune with, and partake of, the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, King of heaven and earth.
So the great danger of doing this thing, this challenging of the idols is that the idols might decide to fight back. Well, let there be no doubt—they will fight back, they are fighting back. And when we shrink from the consequences, this is usually the reason—although as Christians we cannot afford to say that this is the reason.
In the words of institution, we are told that in partaking of this meal we proclaim Christ’s death until He comes. This proclamation is triumphant. This proclamation is clear. We commemorate a death, certainly, but a death in the context of resurrection. This resurrection means that this was not just any death, one death among countless billions. This death marked the death of death in the death of Jesus Christ. Death, the great enemy, death the great devourer, is now devoured.
Before the gospel, death devoured life unto death. Now, in the light of the gospel, life devours death unto life.