Rev. Alan J. Meenan
In 1872, Lord Wolseley, an English Lord, wrote in the Soldier’s Pocketbook these words, “In all siege operations, it is most important that all possible advantage be reaped of every hour of darkness.” This idea of taking “advantage of every hour of darkness” struck me. Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, also spoke about treasures of the darkness. So what I want to say right from the outset, while I should be speaking on Psalm 27 today, I just couldn’t let go of Psalm 23. It’s such a beautiful Psalm.
I would like to review the last two verses of this Psalm with you this morning. Psalm 23 was not written at a time of idyllic ease. It was written when life was difficult, complicated, and burdensome. Otherwise, David would not have penned the words, “Thou hast prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” This was probably not written when he was a young boy tending sheep in the Judean hills. There probably was a great catastrophe in his life. The reality is that we would long for life to be trouble-free. If life were trouble-free, then we wouldn’t need something like Psalm 23.
When we long for a trouble-free life, where you can simply soak in the sun and do nothing but relax and enjoy yourself, we forget the old Arabian proverb: “all sunshine makes a desert.” It is probably not in our best interest to have a life that is truly trouble-free. (It’s all academic anyway, because no one experiences such a life.) Life is full of all kinds of trouble.
Some of you, while you are listening to me, are going through difficult, dark moments. You’re here this morning hiding a lacerated heart. Some great travesty, injustice, disappointment or something else you’re trying to overcome here. God bless you in that process. So those of us who are not going through dark times, rest assured, guaranteed, you will. Even if you have, it does not preclude the fact that you will again.
That’s why Psalm 23 is so pertinent to any Christian living and breathing at all. Jesus Christ never suggested that we escape life. The Christian is never encouraged to try to escape life. People today, all around us, are trying to escape life. That’s what drugs are. They are simply an attempt to escape the realities of life, to move to a different, higher and supposedly better plane. One’s fascination or involvement with some kinds of music, books, or movies, or whatever the case might be, often is an escape from reality, because reality is so difficult to cope with.
Jesus never suggested that we try to escape from life. He taught us how to live life, how to cope with life—even when it is incredibly difficult! When worse comes to worst, and the uphill climb becomes a struggle, Isaiah’s words are very significant. He talks about the treasures of the darkness. Can it possibly be that even in the darkness, there are treasures?
The apostle Peter talks about it in I Peter verse 1, “It is God’s power that guards us through faith for salvation.” So we are guarded. Those of us who follow Christ are guarded through faith.
Psalm 23 is a reminder that God cares for us even in our darkness. So we come to verse 5: “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” God’s blessing is so sure that even though your enemies may gather around and watch, there is nothing they can do to stop the blessing of God from reaching the one that He loves and wants to bless.
The tragedy today is that so many Christian people, young and old, tend to think that when the storms beat upon their lives, they are no better off than people who don’t believe. They look at their situation and ask, “What advantage is there to being a follower of Christ?”
The apostle James, the brother of Jesus, writes on one occasion, “the reason why so many Christians don’t have is because they have never asked.” If we are reluctant to ask God for miracles in our lives, we shouldn’t be surprised when we never receive one. But if we dare to ask, dare to believe, dare to lay hold on the promises of God, and say “Lord, this is what I need for your glory,” then he will rise to meet whatever needs we might have. This God that we deal with is a God who rains bread from Heaven. He’s a God who sent ravens to feed a prophet. He’s a God who takes a few morsels of food and multiplies them so they can feed a multitude.
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself reminded his own disciples, as he would remind you today, “don’t be like the non-believers.” The difference between a non-believer and those who follow Christ is your heavenly Father knows everything that you need. He has promised to supply your needs according to the riches of his glory. His timing may be different from yours, and that’s always a frustration!
For example, a couple of days ago this week I was trying to sync my Palm Pilot with my computer. It wouldn’t work. I got boggled and upset. Sometimes God’s timetable and our timetable don’t quite “sync.” That can be frustrating. But believe me, He will never come a moment too soon and He will never come a moment too late.
The lovely book of the Bible, The Song of Solomon, is a beautiful love poem between lovers. The people say to the bride in front of the groom, “he brought you into his banqueting hall. He prepared a table before you. He placed a banner over you. The banner said, ‘This is my love.’”
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The Lord promises, there will never be a time in your life while you are a follower of Christ that your needs will go unmet. There will never be a time when the table will be bare. He is going to take care of you. No matter what the enemy may threaten to do, you are safe and secure. That’s the great confidence that exudes from these verses in Psalm 23. What glorious words are these!
David goes on to say in the second part of verse 25 that not only will “He prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies,” but “He anoints my head with oil. My cup overflows!” What David is telling us is that not only is God willing to provide for us and take care of us, he gives us the confidence and the hope that as a follower of Jesus Christ, you will always be in the palm of his hand! We will never have to worry that every need will be supplied. That’s His promise; He will do it in abundance!
“You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows!” You see, one of the things that I love about the Scriptures is the superlative language. For example, in the wonderful story of the Prodigal Son, it’s not just the calf they kill. No, it’s the fatted calf! It’s not that he will just give us peace, but it will be a peace that will pass all understanding! It isn’t just joy, but it is joy unspeakable and full of glory! It is grace abounding! You see, almost in every way David alludes to the fact that when God supplies our needs, he will do it in abundance. There is always that note of bounty in the provision of God. Jesus came not to give life, but to give more abundantly. Jesus spoke, not that he might give us joy, but that our joy might be full!
When you conceive of God and his provision for you, it’s a picture of the great divine shylock in the sky measuring out the pound of flesh drop by drop and pound by pound. No! No! No! He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows. In the overflowing cup, what David is saying is that He gives you more than you need. He not only meets your needs, he gives you more than you need. Then, what overflows from your cup might fall into the cups of other people. So it behooves us to be like Christ: to be equally generous, to commit that cup to overflow into the cups of others.
There is something about traveling in Africa and coming back from Nigeria that helps me to realize that we in America are blessed beyond what we deserve. We are the most blessed nation in the entire world. Coming back from Africa, one realizes afresh the immense affluence and wealth that is here.
As Oprah Winfrey said in her interview with Diane Sawyer this week, that when people say to her that the need is here in America as well, her response was, “You have no idea.” That is not to say that there are no needs in America, but you have no idea how people are living in other parts of the world. They are living on garbage dumps. Their homes are made of cardboard. They are giving birth nowhere near hospitals or doctors. They are dying of AIDS.
I love what God is doing with Oprah Winfrey and also with Bono of U2 in trying to raise the awareness of the western world to the plight of the orphans, in particular in Africa, whose parents have died of AIDS and many of who are dying of AIDS themselves.
As Americans, we must learn to give in a measure that we have been given. We must be generous if we would seek to be like the Christ whom we follow. We are instructed Biblically as followers of Christ to give one-tenth of all our income to the work of God. I hope that you are endeavoring to do that. When I look at the immense need of the world, even a tenth is a paltry amount compared to the amazing need that is all around us.
Even though I am thankful for Oprah and Bono in raising awareness, I am very cognizant of the fact that in many ways what they are saying and doing is trying to meet the need of Africa at its surface level. In other words, we are applying band-aids to the folk in Africa. But it is only by investing in the Church in Africa that we will begin to solve the root problem, the source of the problem dealt with. As the Church seeks both to educate the people of Africa and also by preaching a higher standard of morality so that the problem that is AIDS today in Africa can be addressed.
My cup overflows. Verse 6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” David is saying is that there will never be a day throughout the rest of your life when you will not have two heavenly escorts. Every moment of every day following close behind there will be these two escorts: Tove and Hesed. Tove is the glorious goodness of God and Hesed is the loving kindness of God. The old versions of Psalm 23 interpret Hesed as mercy. The new versions translate it as love, mercy, grace, goodness, kindness and all those things. They are all wrapped up because there is no English word that describes this Hesed of God. Still, they are right there by your shoulder following you all the time.
I have a little dog at home. Everywhere I go she is by my feet. I change direction and she’s there. I sit down she sits at my feet. She’s always getting in the way. She is always there. That’s what David is saying. Every now and again you want to take a look over your shoulder, because right there will be goodness on the one hand and kindness on the other. It’s always following you.
It was Francis Thompson that was inspired by this verse to write his poem The Hound of Heaven. Dale Evans, Roy Rogers’ wife, is brought back to God through that poem. This is what she writes:
I saw that it [Psalm 23] told my own story of running and hiding from God for over 18 years, of sunshine and shadow, toil and treasure, success and defeat—trying hard to get out of my life the sound of those steady strong haunting feet that followed me everywhere.
David adds the very first word of the verse there: surely. This isn’t just that goodness and mercy will follow me, but surely it will follow me. I ask David, why are you so sure that it’s going to follow you every moment of every day. You will never be able to escape it, no matter what! Looking over your shoulder is the loving kindness of God. How can you be sure that there will never be an instant when he’s not there when the presence of God is not with you? He responds, “Because God is God! God is everlasting. God is unchanging. God has pledged himself and promises goodness and kindness to me. God has set his love upon me and will not forget me in eternity.
Even though there will be days when you may be downhearted, days when you are sad, days when you feel lonely, days when life will seem dreary and sunless. This is not about your feelings—it stands a sentinel to the soul. This is the reality. This is the walk of God beneath our feet. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me every moment of every day of every year of my life—this persistent unending love of God! It’s not just that you are loved. I’m embarrassed just how much you are loved. God lavishes his love upon you and he never gives up—never. Even when others have given up on you or when you have given up on yourself. Even then, God, the Hound of Heaven, has not given up.
Did you ever see the movie Mutiny on the Bounty? Christian Fletcher was the gentleman on the Bounty that led the mutiny against Captain Bly. Captain had set out from England with his crew to find rare fruit trees. He finished up in Tahiti. The women in Tahiti were very accommodating to the men. The men wanted to stay in Tahiti. But eventually Captain Bly got pried away from Tahiti, and a short distance out, Christian Fletcher led the mutiny. Captain Bly and a few loyal sailors were given a little boat. It’s an incredible miracle that enabled them to sail across 4,000 miles of Pacific Ocean to the East Indies to safety. In the meantime, the mutineers had turned back to Tahiti and persuaded 12 Tahitian girls to be with them. Obviously they couldn’t stay in Tahiti because the wrath of the British Empire would have been down on their heads. (That’s when the British Empire was an empire!) So they sailed away to the first place they could find. They found an uninhabited island and decided to live there. But one of the sailors got into making whiskey. He got everybody drunk. Some of the men went out of their minds. At least one committed suicide by throwing himself off a cliff. The rest went over to bestiality. The women and the children born of the unions moved to another part of the island. This, by the way, is where the movie ends.
But I’m going to tell you the rest of the story. They moved to another part of the island and had nothing to do with the men. One by one, the men died until there were only two left; Alexander Smith and Edward Young. Edward Young was older. He knew he was going to die. So he decided to teach Alexander Smith to read. As he rummaged through the possessions of the bounty, which had since been scuttled, burned, and sunk in the bay, he found the bounty’s Bible. He started with Genesis. He taught Alexander Smith to read word by word. As they read word by word, the revelation of the goodness and kindness of God dawned upon their souls. They began to pray as they had never prayed before. Unfortunately, Edward Young died before they ever got to the New Testament. But Alexander Smith went on to read even the New Testament. He got the full revelation of God’s forgiveness, love, and pardon. When an American ship first set sight on the island, the women by this time had recognized the change in Alexander Smith and moved back. The Captain of that American ship brought news back to the United States saying there was one mutineer who survived 19 years after the mutiny itself. He added these words: “Never in all my life have I seen such a perfect Christian society as the one I encountered there”. That’s the persistent goodness and kindness of a God who never gives up.
As if that isn’t good enough, even great enough to be able to say surely goodness and infinite loving kindness will accompany me, will watch and guide my steps every moment of every day of my life. Wow!
David even adds that he’s going to enjoy a nice forever. The last part of verse 8, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord gives abundant life in the present and a glorious inheritance in the future. Now here he writes, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord not only all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, but I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever to behold the beauty of the Lord.
One thing that I’m beginning to notice with the passing of the years is the recognition that our nature is not keyed toward the temporal. It’s really keyed towards the eternal. There is within the human heart this longing for a sense of permanency and a sense of home, because life at times seems, at best, transient. It’s hard to hold in your hand, it’s like a vapor, like water running through your fingers. The days pass so quickly. You wonder if there is anything more permanent than this.
David is telling us that there is goodness, mercy, love, and kindness will attend to us every day of our lives. As if that isn’t good enough, when he dies, he says, it gets even better: we will enjoy the company and the presence of God for all time—for we will be home with God, a place that death cannot invade, where our friendships will not be impaired by time—a place of permanent abode. It’s with this that the minstrel closes his song. I will dwell in the house of the Lord. I will be at home forever more.
What is it about home that is so compelling to us? It was a few years ago when I found myself back in my hometown in Ireland, in the city of Belfast. I was passing through the city and stayed the night in a hotel right in the heart of the city. I remember I went out for walks on familiar streets. Even many of the stores I had passed daily were still familiar after decades of being away. I remember standing by the spot where my brother was killed in a road accident when he was a young man of 20. I remember going to see the street on which I was raised, past the Church that I used to attend—a place where I discovered Jesus Christ as the Savior of my life. Yet as I walked those familiar streets and felt that beautiful Irish soft morning where the rain almost hung in the air and the sun was hidden by the clouds, I listened to the accents that were strange accents that I recognized but couldn’t understand. But I realized as I stood there, that it was no longer home. My parents were no longer there. My brother was dead. Many of my friends have died. My sister had moved away from the city. It was the strangest feeling to be in a familiar place and not feel at home, because home is not a familiar place. The appeal of home is not in bricks and mortar. It’s in being with people you love.
That’s why Heaven is ultimately and finally the home of all who believe. Where the entire family of God will one day be gathered and we will never know separation again. Surely goodness and loving kindness will dog my every step. “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This is the confidence that I encourage you to hold fast. This is a God who is going to take care of you no matter what. This is a God who will protect you. This is a God who would bless your going out and your coming in. Even when we come to leave this world, what he has prepared for us will be beyond our imagination.
Let me finish with a little story that I always found amusing. You will understand when I start that you are not to take this story literally. It’s a once upon a time story of twin boys conceived in the same womb. As the weeks passed, and as their awareness grew, the boys laughed with joy. “Isn’t it great to be conceived? Isn’t it wonderful to be alive?”
Together the boys explored their world. When they found the mother’s cord that gave them life, they sang for joy. “How great is our mother’s love,” they said, “that she shares her own life with us?”
The weeks stretched into months. The twins noticed how much the other was changing. “What does it mean?” asked one. “It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end,” said the other. “I don’t want to go, said the first. I want to stay here always.” “We have no choice,” said the other. “But maybe there is life after birth.” “But how can there be,” asked the first. “We will shed our life cord and how is life possible without it? Besides, there is the evidence that others were here before us and none of them have returned to tell us that there is life after birth. No, this is the end.”
So the one fell into deep despair, saying, “if conception ends at birth, what is the purpose of life in the womb? It’s meaningless. Maybe there is no mother after all.” “But there has to be!” protested the other. “How else did we get here? How did we remain alive?”
“Have you seen our mother?” asked the first. “Maybe she lives only in our mind. Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good.” So the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fears.
Finally the moment of birth arrived. When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and they cried, for what they saw exceeded their wildest dreams. The author of the story adds these lovely words: “Eyes have not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it so much as dawned upon humanity what God has prepared for those who love him.”
My beloved, He has set a table before you. He has brought you into his banqueting hall and he has set a banner over you and the banner says, “This is my love.” He has anointed your head with oil, has blessed you far more than you can even contain. And will continue to do so. As a result, it is certain that his infinite mercy and glorious loving kindness will dog your every step for the rest of your life. When life comes to an end, it will even be better. This is not pie in the sky by and by, this is God’s word to his people today—to bring this confidence and hope as you live out the Christ life—as you live it out generously, as you live it out lavishly!
In 1872, Lord Wolseley, an English Lord, wrote in the Soldier’s Pocketbook these words, “In all siege operations, it is most important that all possible advantage be reaped of every hour of darkness.” This idea of taking “advantage of every hour of darkness” struck me. Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, also spoke about treasures of the darkness. So what I want to say right from the outset, while I should be speaking on Psalm 27 today, I just couldn’t let go of Psalm 23. It’s such a beautiful Psalm.
I would like to review the last two verses of this Psalm with you this morning. Psalm 23 was not written at a time of idyllic ease. It was written when life was difficult, complicated, and burdensome. Otherwise, David would not have penned the words, “Thou hast prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” This was probably not written when he was a young boy tending sheep in the Judean hills. There probably was a great catastrophe in his life. The reality is that we would long for life to be trouble-free. If life were trouble-free, then we wouldn’t need something like Psalm 23.
When we long for a trouble-free life, where you can simply soak in the sun and do nothing but relax and enjoy yourself, we forget the old Arabian proverb: “all sunshine makes a desert.” It is probably not in our best interest to have a life that is truly trouble-free. (It’s all academic anyway, because no one experiences such a life.) Life is full of all kinds of trouble.
Some of you, while you are listening to me, are going through difficult, dark moments. You’re here this morning hiding a lacerated heart. Some great travesty, injustice, disappointment or something else you’re trying to overcome here. God bless you in that process. So those of us who are not going through dark times, rest assured, guaranteed, you will. Even if you have, it does not preclude the fact that you will again.
That’s why Psalm 23 is so pertinent to any Christian living and breathing at all. Jesus Christ never suggested that we escape life. The Christian is never encouraged to try to escape life. People today, all around us, are trying to escape life. That’s what drugs are. They are simply an attempt to escape the realities of life, to move to a different, higher and supposedly better plane. One’s fascination or involvement with some kinds of music, books, or movies, or whatever the case might be, often is an escape from reality, because reality is so difficult to cope with.
Jesus never suggested that we try to escape from life. He taught us how to live life, how to cope with life—even when it is incredibly difficult! When worse comes to worst, and the uphill climb becomes a struggle, Isaiah’s words are very significant. He talks about the treasures of the darkness. Can it possibly be that even in the darkness, there are treasures?
The apostle Peter talks about it in I Peter verse 1, “It is God’s power that guards us through faith for salvation.” So we are guarded. Those of us who follow Christ are guarded through faith.
Psalm 23 is a reminder that God cares for us even in our darkness. So we come to verse 5: “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” God’s blessing is so sure that even though your enemies may gather around and watch, there is nothing they can do to stop the blessing of God from reaching the one that He loves and wants to bless.
The tragedy today is that so many Christian people, young and old, tend to think that when the storms beat upon their lives, they are no better off than people who don’t believe. They look at their situation and ask, “What advantage is there to being a follower of Christ?”
The apostle James, the brother of Jesus, writes on one occasion, “the reason why so many Christians don’t have is because they have never asked.” If we are reluctant to ask God for miracles in our lives, we shouldn’t be surprised when we never receive one. But if we dare to ask, dare to believe, dare to lay hold on the promises of God, and say “Lord, this is what I need for your glory,” then he will rise to meet whatever needs we might have. This God that we deal with is a God who rains bread from Heaven. He’s a God who sent ravens to feed a prophet. He’s a God who takes a few morsels of food and multiplies them so they can feed a multitude.
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself reminded his own disciples, as he would remind you today, “don’t be like the non-believers.” The difference between a non-believer and those who follow Christ is your heavenly Father knows everything that you need. He has promised to supply your needs according to the riches of his glory. His timing may be different from yours, and that’s always a frustration!
For example, a couple of days ago this week I was trying to sync my Palm Pilot with my computer. It wouldn’t work. I got boggled and upset. Sometimes God’s timetable and our timetable don’t quite “sync.” That can be frustrating. But believe me, He will never come a moment too soon and He will never come a moment too late.
The lovely book of the Bible, The Song of Solomon, is a beautiful love poem between lovers. The people say to the bride in front of the groom, “he brought you into his banqueting hall. He prepared a table before you. He placed a banner over you. The banner said, ‘This is my love.’”
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The Lord promises, there will never be a time in your life while you are a follower of Christ that your needs will go unmet. There will never be a time when the table will be bare. He is going to take care of you. No matter what the enemy may threaten to do, you are safe and secure. That’s the great confidence that exudes from these verses in Psalm 23. What glorious words are these!
David goes on to say in the second part of verse 25 that not only will “He prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies,” but “He anoints my head with oil. My cup overflows!” What David is telling us is that not only is God willing to provide for us and take care of us, he gives us the confidence and the hope that as a follower of Jesus Christ, you will always be in the palm of his hand! We will never have to worry that every need will be supplied. That’s His promise; He will do it in abundance!
“You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows!” You see, one of the things that I love about the Scriptures is the superlative language. For example, in the wonderful story of the Prodigal Son, it’s not just the calf they kill. No, it’s the fatted calf! It’s not that he will just give us peace, but it will be a peace that will pass all understanding! It isn’t just joy, but it is joy unspeakable and full of glory! It is grace abounding! You see, almost in every way David alludes to the fact that when God supplies our needs, he will do it in abundance. There is always that note of bounty in the provision of God. Jesus came not to give life, but to give more abundantly. Jesus spoke, not that he might give us joy, but that our joy might be full!
When you conceive of God and his provision for you, it’s a picture of the great divine shylock in the sky measuring out the pound of flesh drop by drop and pound by pound. No! No! No! He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows. In the overflowing cup, what David is saying is that He gives you more than you need. He not only meets your needs, he gives you more than you need. Then, what overflows from your cup might fall into the cups of other people. So it behooves us to be like Christ: to be equally generous, to commit that cup to overflow into the cups of others.
There is something about traveling in Africa and coming back from Nigeria that helps me to realize that we in America are blessed beyond what we deserve. We are the most blessed nation in the entire world. Coming back from Africa, one realizes afresh the immense affluence and wealth that is here.
As Oprah Winfrey said in her interview with Diane Sawyer this week, that when people say to her that the need is here in America as well, her response was, “You have no idea.” That is not to say that there are no needs in America, but you have no idea how people are living in other parts of the world. They are living on garbage dumps. Their homes are made of cardboard. They are giving birth nowhere near hospitals or doctors. They are dying of AIDS.
I love what God is doing with Oprah Winfrey and also with Bono of U2 in trying to raise the awareness of the western world to the plight of the orphans, in particular in Africa, whose parents have died of AIDS and many of who are dying of AIDS themselves.
As Americans, we must learn to give in a measure that we have been given. We must be generous if we would seek to be like the Christ whom we follow. We are instructed Biblically as followers of Christ to give one-tenth of all our income to the work of God. I hope that you are endeavoring to do that. When I look at the immense need of the world, even a tenth is a paltry amount compared to the amazing need that is all around us.
Even though I am thankful for Oprah and Bono in raising awareness, I am very cognizant of the fact that in many ways what they are saying and doing is trying to meet the need of Africa at its surface level. In other words, we are applying band-aids to the folk in Africa. But it is only by investing in the Church in Africa that we will begin to solve the root problem, the source of the problem dealt with. As the Church seeks both to educate the people of Africa and also by preaching a higher standard of morality so that the problem that is AIDS today in Africa can be addressed.
My cup overflows. Verse 6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” David is saying is that there will never be a day throughout the rest of your life when you will not have two heavenly escorts. Every moment of every day following close behind there will be these two escorts: Tove and Hesed. Tove is the glorious goodness of God and Hesed is the loving kindness of God. The old versions of Psalm 23 interpret Hesed as mercy. The new versions translate it as love, mercy, grace, goodness, kindness and all those things. They are all wrapped up because there is no English word that describes this Hesed of God. Still, they are right there by your shoulder following you all the time.
I have a little dog at home. Everywhere I go she is by my feet. I change direction and she’s there. I sit down she sits at my feet. She’s always getting in the way. She is always there. That’s what David is saying. Every now and again you want to take a look over your shoulder, because right there will be goodness on the one hand and kindness on the other. It’s always following you.
It was Francis Thompson that was inspired by this verse to write his poem The Hound of Heaven. Dale Evans, Roy Rogers’ wife, is brought back to God through that poem. This is what she writes:
I saw that it [Psalm 23] told my own story of running and hiding from God for over 18 years, of sunshine and shadow, toil and treasure, success and defeat—trying hard to get out of my life the sound of those steady strong haunting feet that followed me everywhere.
David adds the very first word of the verse there: surely. This isn’t just that goodness and mercy will follow me, but surely it will follow me. I ask David, why are you so sure that it’s going to follow you every moment of every day. You will never be able to escape it, no matter what! Looking over your shoulder is the loving kindness of God. How can you be sure that there will never be an instant when he’s not there when the presence of God is not with you? He responds, “Because God is God! God is everlasting. God is unchanging. God has pledged himself and promises goodness and kindness to me. God has set his love upon me and will not forget me in eternity.
Even though there will be days when you may be downhearted, days when you are sad, days when you feel lonely, days when life will seem dreary and sunless. This is not about your feelings—it stands a sentinel to the soul. This is the reality. This is the walk of God beneath our feet. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me every moment of every day of every year of my life—this persistent unending love of God! It’s not just that you are loved. I’m embarrassed just how much you are loved. God lavishes his love upon you and he never gives up—never. Even when others have given up on you or when you have given up on yourself. Even then, God, the Hound of Heaven, has not given up.
Did you ever see the movie Mutiny on the Bounty? Christian Fletcher was the gentleman on the Bounty that led the mutiny against Captain Bly. Captain had set out from England with his crew to find rare fruit trees. He finished up in Tahiti. The women in Tahiti were very accommodating to the men. The men wanted to stay in Tahiti. But eventually Captain Bly got pried away from Tahiti, and a short distance out, Christian Fletcher led the mutiny. Captain Bly and a few loyal sailors were given a little boat. It’s an incredible miracle that enabled them to sail across 4,000 miles of Pacific Ocean to the East Indies to safety. In the meantime, the mutineers had turned back to Tahiti and persuaded 12 Tahitian girls to be with them. Obviously they couldn’t stay in Tahiti because the wrath of the British Empire would have been down on their heads. (That’s when the British Empire was an empire!) So they sailed away to the first place they could find. They found an uninhabited island and decided to live there. But one of the sailors got into making whiskey. He got everybody drunk. Some of the men went out of their minds. At least one committed suicide by throwing himself off a cliff. The rest went over to bestiality. The women and the children born of the unions moved to another part of the island. This, by the way, is where the movie ends.
But I’m going to tell you the rest of the story. They moved to another part of the island and had nothing to do with the men. One by one, the men died until there were only two left; Alexander Smith and Edward Young. Edward Young was older. He knew he was going to die. So he decided to teach Alexander Smith to read. As he rummaged through the possessions of the bounty, which had since been scuttled, burned, and sunk in the bay, he found the bounty’s Bible. He started with Genesis. He taught Alexander Smith to read word by word. As they read word by word, the revelation of the goodness and kindness of God dawned upon their souls. They began to pray as they had never prayed before. Unfortunately, Edward Young died before they ever got to the New Testament. But Alexander Smith went on to read even the New Testament. He got the full revelation of God’s forgiveness, love, and pardon. When an American ship first set sight on the island, the women by this time had recognized the change in Alexander Smith and moved back. The Captain of that American ship brought news back to the United States saying there was one mutineer who survived 19 years after the mutiny itself. He added these words: “Never in all my life have I seen such a perfect Christian society as the one I encountered there”. That’s the persistent goodness and kindness of a God who never gives up.
As if that isn’t good enough, even great enough to be able to say surely goodness and infinite loving kindness will accompany me, will watch and guide my steps every moment of every day of my life. Wow!
David even adds that he’s going to enjoy a nice forever. The last part of verse 8, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord gives abundant life in the present and a glorious inheritance in the future. Now here he writes, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord not only all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, but I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever to behold the beauty of the Lord.
One thing that I’m beginning to notice with the passing of the years is the recognition that our nature is not keyed toward the temporal. It’s really keyed towards the eternal. There is within the human heart this longing for a sense of permanency and a sense of home, because life at times seems, at best, transient. It’s hard to hold in your hand, it’s like a vapor, like water running through your fingers. The days pass so quickly. You wonder if there is anything more permanent than this.
David is telling us that there is goodness, mercy, love, and kindness will attend to us every day of our lives. As if that isn’t good enough, when he dies, he says, it gets even better: we will enjoy the company and the presence of God for all time—for we will be home with God, a place that death cannot invade, where our friendships will not be impaired by time—a place of permanent abode. It’s with this that the minstrel closes his song. I will dwell in the house of the Lord. I will be at home forever more.
What is it about home that is so compelling to us? It was a few years ago when I found myself back in my hometown in Ireland, in the city of Belfast. I was passing through the city and stayed the night in a hotel right in the heart of the city. I remember I went out for walks on familiar streets. Even many of the stores I had passed daily were still familiar after decades of being away. I remember standing by the spot where my brother was killed in a road accident when he was a young man of 20. I remember going to see the street on which I was raised, past the Church that I used to attend—a place where I discovered Jesus Christ as the Savior of my life. Yet as I walked those familiar streets and felt that beautiful Irish soft morning where the rain almost hung in the air and the sun was hidden by the clouds, I listened to the accents that were strange accents that I recognized but couldn’t understand. But I realized as I stood there, that it was no longer home. My parents were no longer there. My brother was dead. Many of my friends have died. My sister had moved away from the city. It was the strangest feeling to be in a familiar place and not feel at home, because home is not a familiar place. The appeal of home is not in bricks and mortar. It’s in being with people you love.
That’s why Heaven is ultimately and finally the home of all who believe. Where the entire family of God will one day be gathered and we will never know separation again. Surely goodness and loving kindness will dog my every step. “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This is the confidence that I encourage you to hold fast. This is a God who is going to take care of you no matter what. This is a God who will protect you. This is a God who would bless your going out and your coming in. Even when we come to leave this world, what he has prepared for us will be beyond our imagination.
Let me finish with a little story that I always found amusing. You will understand when I start that you are not to take this story literally. It’s a once upon a time story of twin boys conceived in the same womb. As the weeks passed, and as their awareness grew, the boys laughed with joy. “Isn’t it great to be conceived? Isn’t it wonderful to be alive?”
Together the boys explored their world. When they found the mother’s cord that gave them life, they sang for joy. “How great is our mother’s love,” they said, “that she shares her own life with us?”
The weeks stretched into months. The twins noticed how much the other was changing. “What does it mean?” asked one. “It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end,” said the other. “I don’t want to go, said the first. I want to stay here always.” “We have no choice,” said the other. “But maybe there is life after birth.” “But how can there be,” asked the first. “We will shed our life cord and how is life possible without it? Besides, there is the evidence that others were here before us and none of them have returned to tell us that there is life after birth. No, this is the end.”
So the one fell into deep despair, saying, “if conception ends at birth, what is the purpose of life in the womb? It’s meaningless. Maybe there is no mother after all.” “But there has to be!” protested the other. “How else did we get here? How did we remain alive?”
“Have you seen our mother?” asked the first. “Maybe she lives only in our mind. Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good.” So the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fears.
Finally the moment of birth arrived. When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and they cried, for what they saw exceeded their wildest dreams. The author of the story adds these lovely words: “Eyes have not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it so much as dawned upon humanity what God has prepared for those who love him.”
My beloved, He has set a table before you. He has brought you into his banqueting hall and he has set a banner over you and the banner says, “This is my love.” He has anointed your head with oil, has blessed you far more than you can even contain. And will continue to do so. As a result, it is certain that his infinite mercy and glorious loving kindness will dog your every step for the rest of your life. When life comes to an end, it will even be better. This is not pie in the sky by and by, this is God’s word to his people today—to bring this confidence and hope as you live out the Christ life—as you live it out generously, as you live it out lavishly!
