“Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me . . all the days of my life.” Psalm 23:6 NLT
“God pursues you with hands full of goodness and heart overflowing with unfailing love.”
My thoughts today consider “love’s pursuit.”
Have you ever felt pursued? Like someone or something was right on your heels, getting closer with every step? Usually, that feeling comes when a person is running from their memories of past mistakes, or the repercussions of poor judgment, or the consequences of wrong behavior. David had made plenty of those. David, perfect? Far from it! Read Psalm 32:1-4 NLT. As a teen, I remember the sobering warning of this Bible verse, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out!” Numbers 32:23 NIV. The sin that plagues you, also relentlessly pursues you. David however wrote of a far different and more benevolent pursuit.
You might think of a number of things you need to be happy, things either valuable or trivial. That list would likely vary with individuals, and, depending on their circumstance at the moment, could differ at times with even the same individual. I would suggest that two indispensable things every individual will need most are what David found in the Lord. Among the things David was extremely confident he “will not lack,” he was absolutely certain he would receive a sufficient and satisfactory supply of “goodness and mercy . . every day of my life.”
If you were sure of those every day, would you live more courageously and boldly? I think you would. I will only speak for myself, but I want goodness expressed over my life every day, the more the better. Who would want badness pursuing them every day? And I cannot forget that I will need much mercy shown to me most days of my life, if not every one of them.
Let me give you a simple, working definition of goodness that I learned a long time ago; “Goodness is shown you when you are given what you do not deserve.” Goodness is a gift, not a paycheck. If you worked for it – if you earned it – what you received may have been good, but it was not goodness. So many good things and good people have touched my life with favor and kindness, more than I could ever have deserved. God has been gracious and people have been generous. For both I thank God. “For God satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 107:9 NKJV. My life has been full.
My definition of mercy is similarly simple, “Mercy is shown you when you are not given what you do deserve!” Mercy in this verse is variously translated as “love, lovingkindness, and unfailing love.” I am more grateful for what I was spared, as I am for what I have shared. Psalm 103:8 NKJV.
Don’t look now but Someone is following you, not your past to haunt you, nor your mistakes to taunt you. It’s the Shepherd, pursuing you with hands full of goodness and His heart overflowing with unfailing love. “The Lord God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6-7 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is to have goodness and mercy behind you, and Heaven ahead.