Do You Know What Follows You?

Daily Devotional: Day 191

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

To have a happy and fulfilling life, it is necessary to be secure about yourself. But, how secure you are, depends – to a large extent – on your understanding of the covenant between God and you. The more accurate your knowledge of God is, the more secure you will be in Him. Today’s passage is taken from one of the most popular Psalms in the Bible. It’s a psalm of David.

As you follow David’s declarations in the psalm, one thing stands out: These are the words of a man who is secure in his God. He is secure because He knows who God is to Him, and who he is to God. David’s knowledge of the Lord wasn’t mere intellectual accumulation of information about God. He had an accurate ‘picture’ or revelation of the nature of God and His dealings with him. Let’s break down the passage and draw out ‘fresh bread’ to feed our spirit.

In Psalm 23:6, David says goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life. When he made this statement, David wasn’t simply repeating a script. He wasn’t reciting a creed from a catechism. He was stating what he personally believed to be true. When you are convinced that goodness and mercy follow you, you will be secure in all your endeavors, in good times and in turbulent times. But the question is, “Do you know, for sure, that goodness and mercy follow you?” David was fearless for a reason. He was a warrior and a winner for a reason. He defeated Goliath for a reason. He knew that Someone had his back. He had evidence in his spirit that goodness and mercy followed him.

Goodness and mercy are the attributes of Jehovah. When you know that goodness and mercy follow you, you can’t live in fear and insecurity, because you know that the Great Shepherd of Israel has your back. You will be solidly grounded in the Lord regardless of the storms that rise against you. Once you know that your back is covered, you can only move forward – confident, unafraid, unperturbed, joyful and unmoved by the shifting tides of circumstances. You can recite Psalm 23 all you want, but for you to benefit from it, you need to connect personally, by faith, to the powerful truths in the Psalm. Otherwise, you would simply be parroting the words of the Bible to no avail.

In sum, remember this: What follows you depends on what you follow. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). David followed the Lord as his Shepherd (Psalm 23:1-3). Consequently, the goodness and mercy of the Lord followed him. That’s how it works. What you follow determines what follows you. Follow Jesus faithfully, and like David, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. Amen.

May the Lord anoint your head with oil and make your cup run over. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

For further study: Matthew 19:16-30