https://odb.org/MY/2022/07/29/followed-by-his-goodness
“Surely Your goodness and love will follow me for the rest of my life” as proclaimed by David in Psalm 23:6. Other translations use the phrase, “goodness and mercy”, a phrase I’m more acquinted with for Psalm 23. Surely this is what we as believers want for our lives as we give our hearts to God. That the quid pro quo for us entering into the family of God, besides the eternal and everlasting life, is a life where the goodness and mercy of God follow us for the rest of our lives. He is our God and we are His people. We obey His percepts and He protects us. He is our King and our Shepherd. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
I recall when young and a non-Christian, the Chinese, in general including my own extended family, were preoccupied with the concept of luck. Praying and hoping for good luck and good fortune. That’s why the blessing for Chinese New Year is always about prosperity and good health. We hope that bad luck will not follow us. Instead we hope that we will have good luck. It usually is but not necessarily meant for gambling as good luck can be for all areas of our life. Good luck means good fortune and that can be for our studies, our business, our work, our company, our family etc.
The difference now as a believer is that goodness and mercy of God is the personal involvement of God Himself in our lives. Goodness and mercy is like good luck and good fortune except these are not independent concepts of reality. Goodness and mercy are realities that come with the person of God Himself. In our context, it is the goodness and mercy of God, not just goodness and mercy alone or good luck and good fortune. In other words, we have goodness and mercy because the Lord willed it for us and it is His goodness and mercy. Not just goodness and mercy, but the goodness and mercy of the LORD, our God. It is therefore NOT good luck and good fortune – alike but not the same thing. It is a life where we dwell in the presence and peace of God, the giver of true rest as mentioned in my post the day before on Looking At The Right Place. In other words, we may or may not have good fortune but we are assured that God is with us for the rest of our lives and that actually is what matters most. That is why I believe David also proclaimed in the following sentence in Psalm 23:6 that he will dwell in the house of the LORD forever, meaning to say, that he will be in the presence of God even as the goodness and mercy of God follow him for the rest of his life.
Ronnie's Thoughts 