All this Life and Afterwards (Psalm 23:6)

In the previous verses David has given two picture examples of how his Shepherd will ensure that he will not lack spiritual provision. His descriptions of a calm day and a difficult day describe the kinds of day a believer will experience as the flock of God is led to glory by the good Shepherd. In both kinds of day the common factor is that the Shepherd is present with provisions for his sheep, whether the provision is given beside the still waters or somewhere on the journey through the valley of the shadow of death. And he closes the psalm by saying that the experiences of those two days tell him how he can view all the days that he will yet live on this earth.

It is astonishing claim to make, but Christians by experience prove that it is true. Divine goodness and mercy does follow them all the days of their lives. It is not too much to say that each day is an opportunity to focus on three things: (1) what goodness and mercy came my way yesterday? (2) what goodness and mercy am I experiencing today? and (3) what comfort and assurance do I have about receiving goodness and mercy tomorrow?

David could have selected other divine attributes, but he chose to mention goodness and mercy. His combination highlights something wonderful for Christ’s sheep. Holy angels can say about their experience that divine goodness follows them, but they have no need of divine mercy, a reminder we might say of a difference between the songs of the redeemed and the songs of the angels. In the Book of Revelation, the angels in praising God sing about the mercy he has shown to his people. But they do not sing about personal mercy.

The term that is translated as mercy is one that describes God’s covenant attitude towards his people even while they are converted sinners. It can be translated as his ‘steadfast love’ and covers more than forgiveness of their sins. Indeed, it includes all expressions of divine compassion that are available for those whom he has made a covenant with.

When reading this couplet of goodness and mercy, we can enter into the comment of Andrew Miller about them when he wrote, ‘And when faith has said this, what more can it say?’ 

Goodness and mercy

When we speak of the attributes of God, we are not speaking of things separate from him or indeed separate from one another. This should not surprise us because this is how we speak of people. Sometimes we say that someone is wise and kind, and when we say that about him we are not separating those two details from other aspects of his personality. Instead we may mean that everything about him shows itself to us through those two very visible features. So when the psalmist says here that God is marked by goodness and mercy, he is saying that it is through those attributes that we mainly see the Shepherd at work in our lives.

I don’t think David means that some things the Shepherd does are good and other things are expressions of mercy. Instead in all that he does for his sheep his goodness and mercy are displayed. I suppose we could say that the evidences of goodness and mercy have already been described in the psalm and all we need to do is remind ourselves of the various experiences the sheep of Jesus has received. He has received spiritual provision continually; he has been restored from trying circumstances including the consequences of sin; he has been led along beside calm waters depicting the spiritual rest of salvation; he has been guided through the valley of danger in which his spiritual enemies were active; he has been comforted from the effects of a hostile environment; and from this final verse we can see that he has assurance of future glory.

The description of the heavenly activity of the Shepherd is one of constant action -it happens every day. Moreover, it is described as being marked by immediacy – the idea behind the word ‘follow’ is that of pursuit, of rapid response by the Shepherd to the needs of his people (it was often used in context of war to describe the speed with which the victors chased the defeated). Why is this the case? One answer is that the divine activities of goodness and mercy are expressions of his covenant faithfulness. He has committed himself to deal with the spiritual needs of his people and they are all covered in his goodness and mercy.

David could be referring to the occasion in the life of Moses when he asked the Lord to show him his glory, because what occurred in that incident left an indelible mark on the outlook of the Israelites. In response the Lord said to him, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The LORD.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy’ (Exod. 33:19-20). Later, the Lord enlarged on what he had revealed to Moses here: ‘The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation’ (Exod. 34:6-7). That description of the Lord was given by him to a man who was embarking on a journey to the earthly Canaan, a journey in which he would enjoy happy days and sad days, but with each day covered by the goodness and mercy of God.

It is possible to translate David’s words as ‘Only goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’ This way of putting it enables a believer to summarise in a sentence his experience of divine providence. As he reviews his life, he marks over all that has happened to him those wonderful words, goodness and mercy. In the psalm, goodness and mercy made him lie down in green pastures, followed him along the pleasant paths of righteousness and the difficult paths through the valleys marked by shadows, and ensured that provision was there when needed. Each believer has the comfort of knowing that the goodness and covenant love of the Good Shepherd will persevere through all the days of the sheep’s journey, whether those days be calm or troublesome.

A permanent home

Having looked back, David now looks forward. He anticipates that after the journey of life his final destination will be in a permanent residence. David in his earthly journey lived in a variety of dwellings. We can read about him in his father’s house, or when he was married to the daughter of Saul and the home they had, or when he had to live in the cave of Adullum when he was on the run, or when he as the king went to live in the royal abode in Jerusalem. The fact that he stayed in so many locations tells us that much of his life was marked by impermanence.  And he had to leave them all, even the one in Jerusalem that indicated the heights he had attained. Yet when he left it when he died, he experienced what he anticipated in this verse – he would move to a residence that is permanent and endless. The fact is, he is there now as far as his perfected soul is concerned.

All who travel through life in conformity to the descriptions in this psalm are of a pilgrim spirit. Here they are strangers living in a strange land. They may be poor in earthly possessions, but all of them, whatever their status in their life, are going to a palace. As was mentioned earlier, the biblical idea of shepherd includes the concept of royal rule, and a royal ruler lives in a palace. Earthly rulers cannot build a palace large enough to house all their subjects. Any serious attempt to do so would bankrupt them. But the Ruler who lives in the heavenly palace has infinite resources. He also has roles for them to engage in, and in the world to come they will serve him with sinless hearts and full delight.

The Lord of the house to which they are going has given them foretastes of what it would be like to live where he reigns. In David’s day, the Lord met with them at the tabernacle, and in subsequent generations in Israel he met with them at the temple. The information given in those houses was not as full as what he has given to the church, his residence today on earth. David obviously knew the promises given about a coming deliverer, the Messiah, and the great blessings of peace that he would provide. Today, we experience as his house the joy of worshipping God through him and discover the soul satisfaction that occurs when we focus on his expressions of grace and have an experiential encounter with him day by day. These foretastes point out to us that when we reach the permanent house we will drink from the river of his delights as it continually flows through our souls in the world to come.

Yet when they reach the King’s palace they will also discover in a degree impossible here what it means to be sons and heirs of God. In everyday life, the king’s palace is the family home of his children. And as Jesus informed his disciples, the place where he came from into this world and the place where he was going to on leaving the world is the Father’s house containing a sufficient number of rooms in which his people can dwell as full family members. The imagery of rooms is enhanced by the Shepherd’s statement that he personally will prepare the place where each of them will be in the Father’s house. Whatever that preparation will involve cannot be stated, but we can conclude safely because of the skills of the Preparer that each room will be suitable and satisfying and will never need improving. When we go on holiday we wonder what kind of hotel we will be in. It may be fine, but often we can tell that the rooms need improving, and that would be the case even if the children of the owner happened to be staying there as well. That will never be the case with regard to the condition of the Father’s house. Everything there is imperishable.

A range of pictures are given of heaven in the Bible. It is called a city and a country, for example; indeed it is called a cosmos (new heavens and new earth). Each of them point to particular features of the world of glory. The imagery of a house points to family togetherness. At the moment, God’s people are travelling to their home and they will reach it when they die (unless Jesus returns before then). It is striking that the Lord gave a beautiful picture of heaven to the criminal that died beside him on the cross when he described it as a garden, a place of rest and beauty. Those images are given to us to meditate on as we travel through this sinful world. We can think of the holy atmosphere, the company of saints and angels, the discoveries of what God has in store, the development of their capabilities, and the increase in their capacity for enjoying God.

But we know that the stay of each of the perfected souls in heaven is temporary, and although they are saturated with satisfaction they anticipate even greater glory to come. That is the stage in which David is in at the moment, and he along with Job and the millions of other souls there are looking forward to the glorious resurrection when they shall see Jesus coming in glory, a thought that comforted Job when he was in the valley of the shadow of death, as we can see from his desires expressed in Job 19:23-27. As Paul reminded the Thessalonians, when that day comes, the dead in Christ will rise first before they and those still living go together with Jesus to whatever lies ahead (1 Thess. 4:13-18).

In Revelation 7, John was given a vision of the redeemed gathered round the throne of God: ‘For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes’ (v. 17). We noticed when looking at verse 1 how the Old Testament understanding of shepherd was not limited to a literal shepherd but also applied to kings who looked after their subjects. In this vision, that combination continues because the shepherd who guides his flock eternally is also in the midst of the throne. How can he be engaged in both activities? While we do not know what he will do in the world to come, we do know that now this is what he is already doing for his people on earth. Every day we experience the benefits of having a Shepherd who is seated in the midst of the throne. It is good to know what his intentions for eternity are – to reign over all things and to provide for his people.