Devotional | Shannon Miller.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever,” (Psalm 23:6, KJV).
Have you ever felt as if God’s goodness and mercy must be following you at a distance? Sometimes my daily experience doesn’t feel like my idea of a shepherd’s tender care. But when I reach the other side of a valley of shadow, I find that my feelings weren’t telling the truth, and more and more I listen instead to the voice of my Shepherd.
A few years ago I learned something about just one word in the twenty-third Psalm, that is now a comfort to me when I am “not feelin’ it.” Using the Hebrew resources on biblehub.com, I found that the word widely translated as follow, is loaded with more meaning than that. The Hebrew verb is radaph, which means “to pursue, chase, or attend closely upon.” In other contexts it is even translated “to hunt” or “to persecute.”
What a comfort, to know that no matter how I may wander in unbelief like a wayward sheep, His goodness and loving kindness are chasing me down! “If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is,” (2 Timothy 2:13, NLT). I pray that you will rest in His care today, and be able to say with joy, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever,” (Psalm 23:6, NLT).
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