“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6).

Because the LORD is our Shepherd, God’s goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives.

To properly understand what the psalmist meant, I want us to pay attention to three words: goodness, love, follow.

Goodness

• The Hebrew word is towb – pronounced as tove
• This word means good, pleasant. But this word has a heaviness to it that the English word “good” cannot communicate. This isn’t just being happy. The good that this word refers to is a good that is not shaken for it is rooted down, it is heavy, it has substance
• This is a goodness that is unshakable

Love

• The Hebrew word is hesed
• This word means goodness, kindness
• When we learned this psalm as a young person we would have memorized it as mercy
• Hesed is one of the most important words in the Hebrew Bible. It refers to God’s goodness and love
• Unlike human love, God’s love is not finicky. God’s love is constant and consistent
• We call it steadfast love for there is nothing that can shake God’s hesed, love, goodness, kindness.

Follow

• The Hebrew word is radaph
• The English translation is way too tepid. The Hebrew word literally means to chase after, to pursue
• Follow is so weak compared to chase after or pursue

Putting it all together. The psalmist tells us because the LORD is our Shepherd God’s unshakable goodness and God’s steadfast and never-ending love will chase after and pursue us all the days of our lives. As long as the LORD is our shepherd, we will live in God’s unshakable goodness because God’s steadfast love for us. Our Shepherd will chase after us and pursue us to make sure this is our reality.

Wow! That’s great news! Don’t you just love God’s word?!?! It reveals God’s character and nature. And it’s awesome!

“You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5).

Sheep are terribly sensitive animals. In “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23” by Phillip Keller, he writes:

Sheep are especially troubled by the nose fly. These little flies buzz about the sheep’s head, attempting to deposit their eggs on the damp, mucous membranes of the sheep’s nose. If they are successful the eggs will hatch in a few days to form small, slender, worm-like larvae. They work their way up the nasal passages into the sheep’s head; they burrow into the flesh and there set up an intense irritation accompanied by severe inflamation. For relief from this agonizing annoyance sheep will deliberately beat their heads against trees, rocks, posts, or brush. They will rub them in the soil and thrash around against woody growth. In extreme cases of intense infestation a sheep may even kill itself in a frenzied endeavor to gain respite from the aggravation. Often advanced stages of infection these flies will lead to blindness.

A wise shepherd applies oil and ointment to keep flies away. But this isn’t a one time application. The shepherd applies oil and ointments to the heads of his sheep throughout summer.

What bugs you? There are irritants in life that keep us from living fully into God’s grace. Our wise shepherd gives us his Holy Spirit to keep irritants at bay. Just as with sheep, the application of the Holy Spirit is to be a daily exercise. We are to apply the Holy Spirit through God’s word and prayer so that we don’t allow irritants to drive us batty!

When we apply the Holy Spirit daily, our cup overflows. The reason why God doesn’t just fill the cup to the brim is because we are selfish. But because God fills our cups to overflowing all those around people who’s cups are overflowing benefit from the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

The key is the daily application of God’s Holy Spirit through the reading of God’s word and prayer. This is a daily exercise. And when we do, our cups overflow with the blessings of God and all those around us are blessed as a result.

You’re off to a great start! Get in God’s word and be a blessing to those around you!!!

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5).

When I picture the 23rd psalm I picture an Eden-esque scene:

• green pastures on a bright and sunny day
• a stream of calming, cool waters

It’s so calm. So pleasant.

That’s nice. But that’s not life.

We certainly have our moments where life is Eden-esque. But there are also plenty of moments when life feels like hell. Life can be really hard. Thank goodness that most of life is experienced somewhere in between.

As you look at the structure of the 23rd psalm, it starts out with a faith declaration: The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

And then there are three settings and descriptions of when life is good and pleasant:

• He makes me lie down in green pastures
• He leads me beside still waters
• He guides me along the right paths

Then, there are three settings and descriptions of when life is hard:

• Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
• I will fear no evil
• You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies

From highest of the highs in life to the lowest of the lows, the LORD is our shepherd. We shall not be in want.

There is never a “there” where the LORD is not there. There is never a “there” where the LORD is not our Shepherd.

I am grateful that God is present in good times. But when I need God the most is when life is hard and I am surrounded by the enemies of faith.

Even there, the LORD is there to prepare a table for you and me in the very midst of the presence of our enemies. There is nothing the enemy can do to take us away from the presence of God. He is, after all, our LORD and Shepherd.

Thanks be to God!