The Shepherd’s Promise
Psalm 23 is a poem about God as our Shepherd. It’s all about how God knows what is best for us. He knows who we are and the paths we should walk in life. Because He is our Shepherd, He also is our Protector, guarding us from evil.
At the end of Psalm 23, there is a promise for us. For those who follow God and listen to His guidance, the writer says that goodness and mercy will follow us.
What does it mean that God’s goodness and mercy will follow us?
It doesn’t mean that life will go according to our plans. It also doesn’t mean life will be free of pain and problems. Psalm 23:4 tells us that we will still have to walk through dark valleys in life.
Here’s what it does mean: God will always be with us. God will always be good to us. Life may not always be easy, but God promises to always be good.
Because of these truths, the writer of this Psalm says that his desire is to be with God in God’s house forever. We ought to desire the same thing as well. It’s because of God’s goodness and mercy that we will one day join Him in heaven to be with Him forever.
Take some time today to consider God as your Shepherd, who cares for you and protects you. Thank Him that His goodness and mercy will never end but will follow you every day of your life.
Psalm 55
English Standard Version
Cast Your Burden on the Lord
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil[a] of David.
55 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3 because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and ...