The Table of My Inheritance

O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.

(Psalm 16:5-6)

This morning I took of the Table of the Lord using this passage. Everything I need — forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, freedom from bondage, and even prosperity — is in the atonement, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ given and shed for me. And it is symbolized in the communion elements of the bread and the wine.

The significance that the use of “cup” in this verse has for me in regard to the Lord’s Table is pretty apparent. At the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus took the cup, blessed it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Lord 22:20).

In Bible times, a covenant was marked by the shedding of blood, so that the two parties did not just make a covenant, they cut a covenant. At the cross, Jesus instituted a new and better covenant between God and man, and it was cut with the shedding of His blood. The cup of the Lord’s Table is the symbol that quickens us to that reality.

Now, the essence of covenant is in exchange: All we are and have belongs to God; all He is and has belongs to us.

• Jesus took our sin; we receive His righteousness.
• He took our sicknesses; we receive His healing.
• He took the chastisement that belonged to us; we receive His peace.

All we have is His; all He has is ours. That is why Paul calls us joint-heirs with Christ: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Paul talks about this often:

If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. (Ephesians 1:11)

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:18)

It has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:6)

That having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:7)

All that the Lord Jesus Christ receives from the Father, He shares with us, holding nothing back.

Lord Jesus, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance!

(See also Yahweh, the Portion of My Inheritance and My Cup)