Psalm 23Authorized (King James) Version
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth 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 for ever.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
One of the great hymns of the faith is “Surely Goodness and Mercy.”
In its verses, this hymn summarizes what is taught in Psalm 23.
The chorus, of which I’m sure you are familiar, simply quotes verse 6.
Please read Psalm 23, then sing along with this hymn (at least verse 1):
A pilgrim was I, and a wandering—In the cold night of sin I did roam
When Jesus the kind Shepherd found me—And now I am on my way home.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life;
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life.
If you want to keep singing, then you’ll have to look up the other verse in your hymnal or online, but please wait to do so until after you have finished reading the rest of this devotional.
Of all the words that David could have used to describe the blessings of God, he chose “goodness and mercy.”
In this brief study of this Psalm, we have previously talked about our Shepherd providing for us, about restoring our souls, leading us, comforting us, securing us, anointing us with oil, fattening our lives, and overflowing us with blessings.
David sums all this up as “goodness and mercy.”
Goodness supplies all of our needs, and mercy saves us from our sin.
What wondrous blessings our Shepherd has lavished upon us!
Yet, the focus of this final verse is not on the blessings of goodness and mercy, but on their temporal extent—how long will they last – they will last forever!
God’s goodness and mercy will follow me “all the days of my life.”
This means that God is good and merciful when the days are bright and sunny, and when the days are dark and grey.
God lavishes me with goodness and mercy in the days of feasting and in the days of fasting.
God shows me goodness and mercy when I am in the prime of life, and when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!
But God’s goodness and mercy are not limited to this life only!
They will be shown to me “forever!”
When I pass from this life to the next, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord.”
I will not be condemned to destruction.
I will not be made to pay for my sins.
I will not be isolated from my Lord. I will dwell in His house forever!
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, all the days of my eternal life!
What Does ‘Surely Goodness and Mercy Will Follow Me’ Mean?
This verse appears in the beginning of 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 forever.”
King David wrote this Psalm.
It very eloquently an passionately speaks of the goodness of God.
One of the rewards of being a Christian is the love that God shows to us.
He loves all His creation.
However, submitting to God and accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior affords us special benefits.
As Christians, God’s goodness and mercy are available to us even when we miss the mark.
We have access to Him through Jesus Christ.
We can ask for forgiveness, and it is like we have a clean slate.
You will not receive this sort of treatment from man.
Man keeps a record of our faults and is quick to remind us of who we were.
Sometimes it is hard to imagine someone just forgetting about all the stuff that you used to do, but that’s God. God sees our worth.
He sees the brighter picture.
Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
I pray that God will help you to grasp what it means to know that goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.
The goodness and mercy of God especially follows you when you are hurting.
Psalms 34:18 says, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saved such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Contrite means to show remorse or be filled with guilt.
You can feel the presence of God draw near to you best when you are in tears.
That is a comforting feeling.
Even when no one else wants to listen, God will draw near to you.
You might say goodness and mercy have not always followed me.
The Bible says that “in this life you will have tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
God’s peace will allow us to remain stable in an unstable world.
His peace has already overcome the world.
What is the Context of Psalm 23?
Most Christians learned Psalm 23 in Sunday School, or your parents made you read it at home until you memorized it.
In the Kingdom of God, people are often referred to as sheep.
The church leader or pastor is referred to as the shepherd.
Here King David uses the imagery of a shepherd to show God’s blessing and protection of His people (The KJV Study Bible, Barbour Publishing, 2011).
You might ask, why does my pastor care about what I am doing?
As much as we do not like people in our business, pastors are shepherds.
Ultimately, God will hold them accountable for how they tended the sheep.
We are sheep.
If you go line by line, you realize that since the Lord is your shepherd; you shall not want for anything.
I have heard some Saints say that they do not want for nothing.
Think about your life.
You have everything that you need and many things that you want.
You have so much stuff until you must give it away annually.
I know people with some incredible wardrobe closets.
A lot of people would be happy with just two week’s supply of the clothes in someone else’s closet.
God gives us what we need and much of what we want.
When God makes us to lie down in green pastures, that is symbolism for basic needs.
Verse three says “He restoreth my soul.”
God restores you when life or the enemy seeks to depress you and worry you about the cares of this life.
All humans sleep and should wake up refreshed.
I remember the host of times when I have felt that I had a difficult day, all I would desire to do, is to just go to sleep where ever, when ever convenient.
When I would awaken, I would feel refreshed and just have a different outlook on things.
It is a trick of the enemy to make us feel like our situation is the worst that it could be.
That is why you and I need to discipline ourselves to read the Word of God every single day, pray the Holy Spirit, and find out what God says about the situation.
God as shepherd also guides us.
Psalms 23:4 says “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
We should not be fearful living this life.
God is our shepherd.
Many times the wife and I I have driven by the scene of an accident and thought that if we had been five minutes earlier, that could have been us.
God is going before us and making the crooked places straight (Isaiah 45:2).
We have been, by measures and degrees ill and perhaps even sometimes close to death, but our ever vigilant God sets his rod and staff, keeps us here on purpose.
There are twists and turns on this walk called life, but God is always near us.
Verse five says “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over.”
I have been in both enlisted in the Navy and an Officer in the Army.
I have completed both of their Basic Trainings.
During marches from this point of some place to that far off place called “somewhere else, who knows where,” we sang cadences to keep in step.
I have often marched to the song;
“You dig one ditch, you better dig two.”
“You never know whose coming for you!”
Often, your blessing is in the presence of your enemies.
Everyone is not your friend, and you are a nice person.
Different people have different motives and intents, but the plan of the Lord prevails (Proverbs 19:21).
Like a Lion lurking in the brush, the enemy of mankind is wily and persistent- constantly looking to redirect our steps away from where God requires us to be
It is important to note that if you know the purpose that God has for you, you need to stick with the plan, aware of the plan and let Him work out the kinks.
You can talk to God about issues and ask Him to fix it.
Sometimes, I am amazed at what He will do if you just ask Him.
It is even better when you can hear that He is listening.
So I try to be careful about what I say and do because I know that He is listening, and we can always on the fact that He will at the most inconvenient of time (for me anyway) “drop a dime” on you and a quarter on me and on those around us.
God also gives us integrity checks.
So step up to the test.
God, your Shepherd is with your every single “pilgrim” step of the way.
What is God’s Goodness?
God’s goodness is His love.
God is love and, God is good.
Many of us can say that we do not deserve to be here.
Sometimes people do not want God to have mercy on people that have done some awful things.
I remember a soul chilling phrase from the movie Chicago when the defendant was asked why she killed someone. She said, “He had it coming.”
I am still amazed about who God chooses to use.
He is not calling us up and asking for permission to use certain people.
God looks at the heart and sees how repentant people are (1 Samuel 16:7).
His Word says that He is married to the backslider (Jeremiah 3:14).
When we sin, we must repent.
God knows that we are not perfect.
He knows that temptation and trials are all around.
We must get in the Word so that we have some help for what we face.
Look to Luke 15:11-32.
Read about the prodigal son.
He came in like a spoiled brat and demanded what he thought was his.
You normally get these things at the reading of the will.
His still living father gave him his inheritance early.
The younger son went away, lived his life as he saw fit and best for him and in the midst of all his presumed joy and happiness, things did not go as planned.
He ended up broke, wishing he could eat any food with the pigs.
He stood up, took a long accounting of himself in his mirror, returned home, presumably by the longest and the narrowest and the safest paths possible.
Amazingly, Radically, His father waited at home, treated him well at his return.
Sometimes, God will allow us to learn, earn our Doctorates in Life, through the “long way around the barn” school of hard knocks, but in His goodness and in His mercy He remains steadfast, waiting at home, stands ready to receive us.
How Can We Know Goodness and Mercy Will Follow Us Every Day?
Episode by episode, long experience, David knew God’s record of faithfulness.
Episode by episode, experience by experience, we too can know God’s record.
If you have been around for any length of time, you have experienced God’s goodness and his mercy and probably never even fully realized it every day.
If you need confirmation, become the prodigal son as he turns away from the smells and sights of the pig sties, turns around, determines that at no matter what the cost in time and effort and risk, steels himself, and just goes home.
Become that prodigal son and on the “journey home” just search the scriptures.
Look at the scriptures from beginning to end and the many clouds of witnesses.
Read the stories, as much as humanly possible, pray the scriptures, purposely become the people of the scriptures – become like Abraham, leave it all behind.
Pick everything up, go to that far off, unknown place where God is sending you.
Where step after step, meal after meal, day after day, trial after trial, tribulation after tribulation, God is setting up your table of abundance in full sight of every single enemy who will seek to stop you in your tracks from going home to God.
How long did it take for the prodigal son to finally crest the hill where he finally saw, took a glance of home – the Lord who is our Shepherd, guided every step!
Along the way, how many fields and meadows and still waters did the prodigal take his rest in, refresh and bathe himself by and long gulps, slaked his thirst.
Most importantly, look at Jesus who God sent as a sacrifice and atonement for our sins – because ultimately – that prodigal son – made it all the way home.
Hard steps?
Absolutely to be expected ….
Yet by Psalm 23, we must not allow ourselves to give up on the goodness of God.
Because our Father awaits us at our eternal home ….
“AND WEI SHALL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD OUR GOD, FOREVER ….”
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 24 The Message
24 1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
laid it out on River girders.
3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
women who won’t seduce.
5-6 God is at their side;
with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
to God-seekers, God-questers.
7 Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.
8 Who is this King-Glory?
God, armed
and battle-ready.
9 Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.
10 Who is this King-Glory?
God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
he is King-Glory.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 