At just nineteen-years-old
Bruce Olson left for the mission field deep in the mountainous jungles of
Columbia. He felt called by the Lord to attempt a breakthrough with the hostile
and superstitious Motilone Indians, a group deemed by other missionaries as “unreachable.”
Because the Motilone were
infamous for acts of violence, Olson could not find any mission organization to
support him in this endeavor. So he was on his own. During his quest to the
Motilone village he was captured by another group of unfriendly Indians, shot
with arrows and imprisoned for several days. Olson was able to escape in the
middle of the night, but he was badly injured and lost in a maze of thick
jungle.
He trudged for days
following a river downstream hoping it might lead to civilization. Fever sapped
his strength and made him delirious. He hadn’t eaten much for four days and he
was barely hanging on by a thread. Olson cried out to God for a miracle and
here’s what happened:
“On the afternoon of the
fifth day I wearily dropped into a seat between two huge boulders. I looked at
my fingernails, blue from the cold water and my hands pale as a sheet. My whole
body groaned with pain; my stomach ached with hunger. I started to shake and
couldn’t stop. Could I go on any further? I didn’t see how. I needed food and
rest. As I looked into the distance, something bright yellow seemed to be
waving up and down on the surface of the water. I thought I was delirious. I
rubbed my eyes. Then it came into focus. Bobbing along in the current was a
stalk of bananas. I grabbed them as they floated by. I couldn’t believe it. They
were ripe too. I ate them slowly and I felt them giving me strength and a new
hope. I remembered the words of Psalm 23:5, “Thou preparest a table before me
in presence of mine enemies.” God had given me a table in the middle of the
jungle, a table of ripe bananas.”[1]
Olson got up, walked another
half mile, and stumbled into a village. He was nursed back to health and eventually
did reach the Motilone Indians with the Gospel.
If you study Psalm 23:5 in
context, it’s a picture of the hard work that the shepherd must exert in order
to prepare a barren land for his sheep to graze upon. There are rocks to disgorge,
briars to clear, predators to be driven away and channels of water to be cut. Yet
the shepherd sweats and toils so that he can guide the flock to a safe and
verdant pasture that is surrounded by wilderness.
As our Good Shepherd,
Christ promises His sheep this kind of protection and provision. Our Shepherd
meets our needs even in the most remote places and amid predatory foes. Spurgeon
commented on this verse, “The Lord prepares for his children, just as a servant
does when she unfolds the tablecloth and displays the ornaments of the feast on
an ordinary peaceful occasion. Nothing is hurried, there is no confusion, no
disturbance, even though the enemy is at the door. Yet God prepares a table,
and the Christian sits down and eats as if everything were in perfect peace.
Oh! the peace which Christ gives to his people, even in the midst of the most
trying circumstances!”[2]
-DM
[1]
Bruce Olson, Bruchko (Lake Mary, FL:
Charisma House, 2006), 75-76.
[2]
Charles Spurgeon, Treasury of David,
Psalms 23:5 <https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/treasury-of-david/psalms-23-5.html>
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