Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. (KJV)
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. (NLT)
You’ve got to love the sense of certainty in this verse….’Surely…’
- God is always good.
- God is always merciful.
If we truly believed these, would we fear any evil? I know it’s harder to put into practice than to say, but it’s something we should always come back to.
We must put faith into constant exercise, and trust in God, whatever our feelings may be. E.G. White Lift Him Up p332
How about this goodness and mercy following us all the days of our life? What about even when we’re unfaithful….? Thankfully even in those situations He is faithful. Let’s remember the wonderful stories where Jesus follows up the wayward person:
- The Prodigal Son
- The Lost Sheep
- The Story of Jonah
- There would be many others…
And finally, the pinnacle of the Psalm, that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever…what a promise! But how easy is it to lose sight of this in our day to day lives! At least for myself, it can be so natural to slip into the minutae of life such that the whole other reality can be temporarily forgotten.
What a challenge to remember always the future that awaits…as well as the reality of the Shepherd guiding and protecting us in the present!
This is the end of the lesson for this week. I hope you’ve found it valuable and come back next week. Let’s conclude with a last thought from Spurgeon:
May God grant us grace to dwell in the serene atmosphere of this most blessed Psalm!
Amen.
Back to the start.
