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.
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for ...
“Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD's servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, ...