Psalm 23:5-6 (NKJV) 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.
We have spent a good deal of time looking at Psalm 23. In this Psalm David tells us that God wants to restore our souls. We have looked at various aspects of this “soul restoration” and today I want to finish looking at this section of scripture. In verse 6 we find a powerful promise for those who allow God to restore their soul. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. This part of verse 6 applies to our lives here on earth. We will look at the second and eternal part in a moment.
Remember, this is what God wants for us and this is the result of a restored soul. If you have not yet done so, please read the rest of what I have posted on Psalm 23. When we walk with our soul restored to what God intended it to be, we can expect both goodness and mercy to follow us for our entire life. This is in contrast to what most people think will follow them. Have you ever heard someone say, either in real life or in the media, “Trouble follows me everywhere I go.”
Even if we do not say those words, we are taught to expect the worst in life. We prepare for trouble. We have life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, home insurance, and retirement insurance. It is wise to be prepared, but I also think it is valid to ask the question how much time, money and energy to we spend on things that never happen? What is our mindset if so much of our time is spent preparing for bad things? What does that say about our souls? Jesus had something to say about this.
Matthew 6:33-34 (NKJV) 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Again, I do not believe Jesus is saying we should not have insurance or make other preparations. I am saying that we need to balance that with the knowledge that he reveals here. The Father knows what we need and promises to provide it. Much of the stress we feel in life is about what might happen. We often fail to enjoy what is happening as we worry about what might happen. Balance is the key to life. I think it would behoove us to allow faith in God’s power and provision to temper our need to try and control the future. No matter what steps we take, we usually find that we have not covered sufficiently every possible scenario. God, on the other hand, can.
The restored soul knows this to be true. He knows God is with him. He knows God’s power is there to protect him and God’s wisdom is there to guide him. We live in a world that is influenced by an enemy called the devil. Until Jesus comes and this age ends, we will always have trouble. However, the restored soul knows that we have a shepherd who is greater than any trouble we may encounter.
In this psalm, David tells us that goodness and mercy is what follows us. It does not follow us sometimes but all the days of our lives. When trouble seems to be around every corner in life, God’s goodness and mercy are right there to meet it. Sometimes that means bad things do not happen. Sometimes it means solutions that are beyond our capabilities will overcome the trouble after it occurs. Either way, according to David, goodness and mercy are always there.
The word “shall” is interesting. Shall is the strongest word of assurance in the English language. The use of this word leaves no doubt. There is no “maybe” in the word shall. There is no question of our worthiness. The only question is whether we will allow the Lord to renew our soul. We must allow him and his Word to be the controlling influence in our thinking. If we do, we will see all of the benefits listed in Psalm 23 including this one.
What is God’s goodness? In Exodus 33 and 34, Moses has an encounter with the Lord. To save space, I will let you read the context of this encounter, but for our purposes let me point to verses 18 and 19. Moses asks God to show him his glory. Glory is God’s power and presence in manifestation. God’s response to Moses is that he will show him his goodness. The goodness of God is the essence of his power.
God’s goodness is not what we normally think of when we hear this word. Good people are often portrayed as weak in literature or movies. They are nice people. They are often naive people who do not really understand how things are. This is not a picture of God’s goodness. His goodness is a powerful force that consumes evil. Goodness will swallow darkness. Goodness obliterates the power of sin. Goodness brings healing to disease, provision to poverty and joy to depression. Wherever goodness goes, we see the best of life.
Jesus was the physical manifestation of God’s goodness. Acts 10:38 tells what goodness does wherever it goes.
Acts 10:38 (NKJV) 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
The restored soul expects goodness to follow him wherever it goes and for all of life. When trouble comes goodness is around the corner. As we grow in our faith in God’s goodness, we begin to see it manifest before the trouble can take hold. That has been my experience. No wonder David says in verse 4, “I will fear no evil.”
The other thing that follows us is mercy. Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. That is powerful. However, before we can receive what we do not deserve, we must be delivered from what we do deserve. All of us make mistakes. All of us sin. All of us do things that deserve consequences. We need to do our best to limit those things, not so much to avoid the consequences as to honor our Father and the one who gave his life for us. In this case, Father really does know best!
When we fail, it is comforting to know that mercy follows us. God is always ready to keep us from things we may deserve. That does not mean there are never consequences for actions. It does mean that God’s mercy is always looking for a way to mitigate those consequences and bring us back to the paths of righteousness. When we fail, God’s mercy is always there.
Finally, David shows us the most important thing the restored soul knows. We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That is what Christianity is all about. Whatever we face today will end. When it does, there is a home waiting for us. It is far more real and more “home” than anything we have here on earth. Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives, but that is really not very long. No matter what we face here, something better awaits us. We will dwell there forever.
I travel quite a lot. I love doing so, but there is a time when I just want to be home. It is hard for us in our humanness to look at the “house of the Lord” as home. We have never been there but when we get there, we will know it is where we were always meant to be. As our souls are restored, we begin to see life through these realities and not the negative orientation with which so much of what we see as important leaves us. Do the “wisdom” things as God leads you. Just do them knowing that “Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
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