"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." This is a fact as indisputable as it is encouraging, and therefore a heavenly verily, or "surely" is set as a seal upon it. This sentence may be read, "only goodness and mercy," for there shall be unmingled mercy in our history. These twin guardian angels will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer. Goodness and mercy follow him always "all the days of his life" the black days as well as the bright days, the days of fasting as well as the days of feasting, the dreary days of winter as well as the bright days of summer. Goodness supplies our needs, and mercy blots out our sins. "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." "A servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever." While I am here I will be a child at home with my God; the whole world shall be his house to me; and when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my company, nor even change the house; I shall only go to dwell in the upper storey of the house of the Lord for ever."
---Charles Spurgeon regarding Psalms 23
Wow...need I say more? I so love the insight of Charles Spurgeon and love to see his thoughts on various topics and scriptures especially regarding the Psalms. I remember as a child we had a painting of two small children in the dark walking and the atmosphere looked scary and bleak but in the background was a angel with her wings spread out like a mother hen would be protecting her chicks. I always loved to look at that picture and smile. So many times in life we find ourselves in precarious situations and we "feel" so lonely but if only our physical eyes would be opened to what was truly going on in the spiritual world...we would FREAK out.
In this scripture of Psalms 23:6 I so claim the thought of two constant companions...goodness and mercy. If these two are following me all the days of my life...how can I go wrong? I want the Goodness and the Mercy of God to always be at my "back and my beck". Now I had to look up "beck" and I was thinking it meant the "front" of me but actually it means to be "at my beck and call...at my summoning or beckoning". WOW. I got excited! So goodness and mercy is just a call away! Not only will they make sure that goodness and mercy is backing me up in all I do but that if I find myself in a quandry needing some help that it is just a call away! Also the word "follow" in Hebrew means to 'pursue as if a hunter tracks his pray'.....this furthers that thought process that we are NEVER EVER going to get very far from HIM...he will always know where we are at!
Just as royalty is never in a situation "unattended" we the children of the King have protectors who look after us. They make sure that we are safe and experience favor as well as have access to any resource that we need. We have the 'seal' of "surely" that I picture as a big ball of wax that is finalized with a stamping of a ring of royalty...representing an order or a final order! We aren't just inhabitants of a house but we are going to live in the upper chambers of a palace where we DWELL forever as only kings/queens or prince/princess live....peasants and servants would abide in the basement/dungeon areas.
Short prayer: Father, thank you for forgiving me of my sins and giving me goodness and mercy with a new batch available every morning! Thank you for dying in my place to give me eternal life. Help me to show goodness and mercy to everyone I know and meet and to freely give it away just as it has been given to me. I want to live a life of obedience that makes you smile. Thank you for never giving up on me and having so much confidence in who I am that you have already prepared a place for me. I love you and thank you for the opportunity to represent you. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
Adjust that Crown!
Jonna
