The Shepherd’s Promise

Psalm 23 is a poem about God as our Shepherd. It’s all about how God knows what's 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...

"Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Psalms 23:6 NIV

What does it mean that God’s goodness and love 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.

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.

It also means that nothing can take God’s love from us. God’s love will always be there, just like Paul says in Romans 8:38-39. We don’t have...

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And ...