PSALM 23- The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 23 is a favorite of many, if not all Christians. It details the loving care of our Lord, the Good Shepherd. Grieving believers throughout history and today found and find this a safe haven of rest in the many storms of life. And rightly so. We are taken into the heart of God in the Shepherd’s Psalm. Satisfaction, contentment, guidance, peace, restoration, courage and more flow from the Psalm to the often weary and troubled souls of the Lord’s sheep. There is something else in the Psalm too. Maybe it is something we haven’t spent much time considering but will prove to be a tremendous source of encouragement in the many and inevitable times we fail in the Christian life. It appears in the last verse of the Psalm – Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
As a boy growing up, I remember many times my mother saying something like this, “Put stuff where it belongs. My job is not to follow you around and pick up after you.” Maybe you heard similar “orders” or gave them to your children. Well, aren’t we glad God does the opposite? He does “pick up after us” and He does so in those times we fail Him, According to the last verse in the Psalm, what follows us all the days of our lives? God’s goodness and mercy. What do we need when we fail Him and leave behind sin and the messiness of it? Exactly what God is full of and gives freely–goodness and mercy. Mercy leads to forgiveness and goodness keeps us keeping on even in the midst of our failings.
Yes, it is a good lesson to teach our children accountability and responsibility by not following them around and picking up after them. By the way, it is also a good lesson for “big people” too, who may be tempted not to not clean up after themselves! But when it comes to living the Christian life, we need our Heavenly Father to follow us around with His goodness and mercy; a following that picks up the pieces of our failings and puts us back on the straight and narrow path through the restoring power of His goodness and mercy.
PRAYER: “Father, I so praise You for being my God full of goodness and mercy all the days of my life.”
QUOTE: “When looking at your past, don’t focus on the failings but God’s goodness and mercy picking up the pieces.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim