"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me..." - Psalms 23:6 (Part 1)

"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me..." - Psalms 23:6 (Part 1)

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Watch your back around that guy?” Or maybe you've heard somebody say, "She'll stab you in the back as soon as you turn around.”

People are unpredictable. We’ve all heard stories about betrayal and distrust that shock and scare us. Loyalty is hard to find and that creates uncertainty in our relationships. It‘s a true joy to find a friend that you know you can trust.

Psalms 23:6 is about the ideas of goodness and mercy. At the core of those qualities are loyalty and trust. They take us right to the heart of the very nature of God. What King David understands is that the goodness and mercy of God are certain. They will always be there.

We don’t have to worry about them going away and we don’t have to hope for them to show up because they are a part of who God is. God will always be good and God will always be merciful. David is as certain of that as He is that the sun will rise again the next day. Here’s how Jeremiah describes that certainty:

Lamentations 3:22-23

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

God never changes and He never fails us. Malachi 3:6 tells us, “For I, the Lord, do not change.”

In this last verse of Psalm 23, the words goodness and mercy jump off the page but the key to really figuring out this verse is the word "surely.”

Surely, God never fails. Surely, His goodness and mercy will always be there for me. Surely, they will follow me ... always.