Goodness, Love and Mercy
You make me lie in fields of green
You lead me by the still waters
You restore righteousness to me
Though I walk through the valley
I will fear no evil thing
For You are with me
And You comfort me
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Will follow wherever I go
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Will follow wherever I go
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Will follow wherever I go
I’m gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever
I’m gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever
I’m gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever
I’m gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Will follow wherever I go
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Will follow wherever I go
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Will follow wherever I go
Bear Rinehart / Bo Rinehart / Chris Tomlin / Ed Cash
© Capitol CMG Publishing, Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group
You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg7K0-Cd4i8
We continue a series that seeks to take inspiration from the words of newer hymns and songs. In the last instalment, I introduced us to ‘King of Love’ which was the first of three songs we shall be looking at based upon Psalm 23. Here is the second.
It is co-written and originally recorded by Chris Tomlin who is responsible for many of the worship songs sung in churches today. The words take us fairly quickly through the Psalm, emphasising particularly its final verse:
Surely your goodness and love (translated as mercy in some translations) will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This is done through the repetition of two lines, ‘Surely goodness, love and mercy
will follow wherever I go’ and ‘I’m gonna dwell in the house of the Lord forever’. We sing out the truth that we are loved and protected both in life and in death.
You may we wondering the significance of the photo above. I took it recently on a trip to Cork and it’s a picture of my father’s house, at least the one recorded on his birth certificate. It’s a corner building on South Mall in the centre of Cork where his parents were renting rooms at the time he was born.
What comes to mind when you hear that phrase, ‘My father’s house’? Most likely you are thinking of John 14 where Jesus speaks about going on to Heaven ahead of us to prepare a place for us there. If that is so, you’re doubtless not thinking of it as a physical building, like my father’s house in Cork, but as an eternal spiritual reality. It might surprise you, therefore, that there probably was a physical building in the mind of whoever wrote Psalm 23.
Most people in Old Testament times didn’t have the expectation of an afterlife that we do now. Notice that the writer of the psalm only speaks of their own earthly lifetime – ‘all the days of my life’. Most likely they were thinking of staying close to the Temple (or the Tabernacle) which was said to be the dwelling place of God on earth. They had no expectation of that continuing in a meaningful way after death.
What a privilege it is that we have New Testament truth to add to Old Testament truth. What a privilege that our vision and understanding can be enlarged and our faith strengthened. What a privilege that we have Jesus to widen our expectations and give us the assurance that, when we put ourselves in the care of the Good Shepherd, it’s a relationship that will never be broken.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I long for that day when you will lead me on to your Father’s house where there is a room and welcome for me. Until then, may I find goodness, love and mercy in my daily walk with you to such an extent that it overflows into the lives of all those that I meet. Amen.