If you cannot feel it now, the Lord is still with you in the valley. He will still walk with you without fail all your days, and one day it may be that you look back on the worst of experiences, the most dreadful of times, the deepest of dark valleys, and you will be able say, “I see it now: God’s goodness and God’s mercy never left me, even then.”

Secure Travel

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
      all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
      forever. (Ps. 23:6).

I’m sure you have seen a police escort of an important dignitary where some armored vehicles go ahead and some follow, with the special person in the middle, and there are usually police escorts on either side as well. Is there any safer way to travel? Complete security, perfect protection, full provision: ahead and beside and behind. The sense of Psalm 23 is exactly the same as Psalm 139:

You hem me in, behind and before,
      and lay your hand upon me. (Ps. 139:5)

But now see something else that elevates these words to a stunning vista. Notice the modifier that begins the verse: “Surely.”

Richard Briggs is right to say of this translation that “there is a hint of gathering up the earlier lines of the poem”1 so that it is a way of summarizing the effects that will certainly follow in the wake of the Lord’s shepherding and hosting. “Surely” is an intensive, affirmative word: this will definitely happen.

But I wonder if this penetrates deeply enough to the profundity of what David is claiming about this shepherd’s care. The same word can, in fact, be rendered “only” (as the ESV footnote recognizes). Translated like this, it has a restrictive sense (which necessarily includes the intensive sense) but goes beyond it and says more.

The meaning is that David is looking back over his shoulder at all that has gone before, and he is able to confess that he can see the goodness and the steadfast love of God in every single circumstance of life, the valley of the shadow of death as much as the green pastures and still waters. “In all that happens to me,” David is basically saying, “I see only his goodness and loving-kindness.” As commentators who offer this translation recognize, quite simply, “The expression is remarkable.”2 It is an astonishing confession of faith that the changing scenes of life, which are full of evil, pain, and suffering, never indicate a bad God. Rather, in all that happens—despite all that happens—those who are led by the shepherd and walk with the shepherd all the days of their lives can see that God is only ever good and only ever loving to his sheep all the time. In Davis’s words, “There is a certain chemistry in believing faith that can combine brute facts with buoyant faith.”3

“Always”

Just pause to feel the intensity of this. The intensity is not just in the circle it draws around all that happens but so too in the line it draws through all that happens: the Lord is “only” like this “all the days of my life” (Ps. 23:6). Every. Single. Day. Always. He has no off days and no half-hearted days. No days where instead of pursuit he dawdles in his goodness or forgets to follow in his mercy. No days where he drops the ball and sends badness and hatred instead of goodness and love. “You are good and do good” (Ps. 119:68).

If you have ever had a heated argument with a close family member, then you have heard yourself say, or heard it said, “You always do such and such.” It is usually a telltale sign that all sense of proportion and balance has been lost in the heat of the moment. Such language indicates we would do well to retreat to calm down and regain perspective!

“You are forever doing this . . . you are always doing that . . . always.”

But, dear friend reading this, can you see what David is saying? He is using this kind of language about God, but in reverse. It is intense, it is personal, it is so direct in telling God what he always does, but it is the reverse of a heated outburst. Instead, it is a love song: “You, Lord, you always do this: you are always good to me, you are always only ever merciful to me.

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