Category: 2020 – Psalm 23

When I started 2020, I was convinced that the Lord was leading me to focus on Psalm 23 for the year (for more on that story, check out my post from January 1).  Throughout the year, the Psalm has been a source of encouragement.

Then, my father-in-law passed away in October.  At his memorial service, the pastor used Psalm 23 on the bulletin (pictured above)!  So, our focus on the final verse is especially encouraging, as I consider “Pop”—as our kids called him—“dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.”

As Dr. Robert McQuilkin wrote, “When a believer dies, his spirit is so instantaneously in the presence of the Lord that he may feel with Paul that he knows not whether he is in the body or out of the body” (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

Click here for more on the last verse of Psalm 23 from Philip Keller, Robert Morgan, and Max Lucado

Throughout Psalm 23, continuous emphasis has been put upon the care exercised by the attentive shepherd.  Now all of it is summed up here by the Psalmist in one brave but simple statement: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life”!

This may be one of the sweetest phrases ever penned.  Consider it from a few other translations:

• New English Bible:  Goodness and love unfailing, those will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole long life.
• Today’s English Version:  I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life; and your house will be my home as long as I live.
• The Message:  Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.  I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.

Not only is this a bold statement, but it is somewhat of a boast, an exclamation of implicit confidence in the One who controls the writer’s career and destiny.

Click here for more from Keller, Morgan, and Lucado