A Dogged and Determined Pursuit<\/h2>\n
Psalm 23:6 speaks about two things \u201cfollowing\u201d us: goodness and mercy. Almost without exception, commentators on this verse point out that the verb \u201cfollow\u201d is in fact a very weak rendering. Richard Briggs goes so far as to say that it is \u201cthe one word in the whole psalm that in my opinion has been persistently poorly translated in English.\u201d1<\/sup> Instead, at the very heart of the word is the meaning \u201cpursue.\u201d Goodness and mercy pursue David; they do not merely follow him. The word is so intensive, it is often used in combat scenes, where people are \u201cpursued\u201d to death, but the word itself is not negative and can be used in delightfully positive, instructive ways: <\/p>\n Turn away from evil and do good; In Psalm 23:6, says Briggs, \u201cIt is almost as if the verse attributes both agency and initiative to these divine characteristics here, whereas \u2018follow\u2019 might suggest a sort of tagging along with me. Instead, [God\u2019s] goodness and mercy are dogged and determined in their pursuit.\u201d2<\/sup> God has sent them after me. <\/p>\n David Gibson walks through each verse in Psalm 23, thoroughly examining its 3 depictions of the believer\u2019s union with Christ as sheep and shepherd, traveler and companion, and guest and host.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This psalm shows us how active the shepherd is toward us, and this is another signal that the Lord himself is doing something extraordinary for us. <\/p>\n This sense grows stronger when we consider the two subjects in the pursuit: \u201cgoodness\u201d and \u201cmercy.\u201d It is no accident that the two are used together here. Neither is an abstract noun that we can understand apart from God, as if the two are ethereal forces out there in the world; rather they are covenantal nouns. In Exodus 33 when the Lord tells Moses that he has found favor in his sight and that he knows Moses by name, Moses asks to see God\u2019s glory. In response, God says: \u201cI will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name \u2018The Lord.\u2019 And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy\u201d (Ex. 33:19). God\u2019s glory is revealed as his goodness and his name, and both are expressed in his covenant love to his redeemed people: \u201cThe Lord passed before him and proclaimed, \u2018The 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\u201d (Ex. 34:6\u20137). <\/p>\n In the exodus from Egypt, the people being rescued were pursued by the fury and tyranny of Pharaoh. In their ongoing rescue from sin, they were pursued in the wilderness by the goodness and mercy of their covenant Lord, who did not abandon them in their rebellion but kept making a way for their return to him. David knows that the \u201cgoodness\u201d which pursues him is the covenant goodness of God: \u201cYou are good and do good\u201d (Ps. 119:68). He knows that the \u201cmercy\u201d hot on his heels is the covenant mercy of God: it is hesed<\/em>, the word for God\u2019s steadfast love (as the ESV footnote records). This is his loving-kindness, his loyal, committed, faithful love. With this word, \u201cthe relational nature of the term cannot be overemphasized. It describes the duties, benefits, and commitments that one party bears to another party as a result of the relationship between them.\u201d3<\/sup> Peter Craigie says, \u201cIn a sense, the language of Exodus and wilderness which permeates the entire psalm comes to a head in the expression lovingkindness<\/em>; the God of covenant, who in the past had expressed his lovingkindness to his people so bountifully in their redemption, would continue to do so in the future.\u201d4<\/sup> <\/p>\n One of my favorite films is The Fugitive<\/em>. Harrison Ford plays Dr. Richard Kimble, a man wrongly accused and sentenced to imprisonment for murdering his wife. Kimble escapes from custody and ends up on the run, determined to prove his innocence and clear his name. All the way through, he is hunted down by Tommy Lee Jones\u2019s character, Samuel Gerard, a ruthless and determined police offer.<\/p>\n At the very end of the film (spoiler alert), in the showdown, there is a moment when Gerard shouts across the room to where Kimble is hiding: \u201cI believe you\u2014I know you didn\u2019t kill your wife.\u201d <\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t have goodness or love that he might dispatch them; he is goodness and love.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In that moment, we see the relief wash over Kimble\u2019s face. All his efforts have come good; he is vindicated and in the clear. Why? Because, as it turns out, the man who has been pursuing him is good. Kimble is being pursued not by a crooked cop but by a good one, a man capable of showing mercy to those in need. It changes everything. <\/p>\n When we see it or experience it personally, human goodness can be truly amazing. It can be life-giving and liberating. <\/p>\n So, too, steadfast love. In January 2022, Ron and Joyce Bond from Milton Keynes, England were in the news for being Britain\u2019s longest-married couple. That month they were celebrating eighty-one years of married life together. They were 102 and 100 years old respectively. What made me smile the most as I read the story was their recounting how some people said on their wedding day that it would never last! I looked at pictures of them from that day and then looked at them on their eighty-first wedding anniversary, and I realized that what I was looking at was steadfast love. It was love that hadn\u2019t gone anywhere other than after the other person. It was love that stayed and sought and stuck. <\/p>\n In Psalm 23 the words of verse 6 tell the most beautiful story. After all the focus on our following the good shepherd, we now look over our<\/em> shoulder and see two things following us<\/em>: goodness and steadfast love. This is God\u2019s married love with which he pursues and woos his people. Such pursuit is delightful and honoring to the one so pursued.<\/p>\n It is common for preachers to envisage here \u201cgoodness\u201d and \u201cmercy\u201d as being like two sheepdogs of the modern-day shepherd, dispatched by him to bring up the flock from the rear. Spurgeon imagines \u201cgreat guardian angels\u201d who \u201cwill always be with me at my back and my beck.\u201d5<\/sup> Dale Ralph Davis regards them as \u201ctwo special agents\u201d and \u201cbeloved denizens\u201d whose attempts to overtake and waylay and dog David are a source of immense comfort to him.6<\/sup><\/p>\n As powerful as all these images are, I think the text means to communicate something even more wonderful: these words are another way of saying that the Lord himself is pursuing us. They are his divine attributes, yes, but the fact that they are functioning as the joint subject of the verb points to their personification as a way of stressing that these words reveal the covenant Lord himself to us. In the same way that the words \u201cSend out your light and truth; \/ let them lead me\u201d (Ps. 43:3) is the psalmist\u2019s way of asking God himself to lead him to his holy dwelling, so it is here. For God is his own attributes. God doesn\u2019t have goodness or love that he might dispatch them; he is goodness and love. God sends these attributes after us as a way of giving us himself. \u201cMy presence will go with you, and I will give you rest\u201d (Ex. 33:14). So when we put the beauty of these nouns and the intensiveness of the verb together with the sense that God sets out deliberately to have us experience him in our lives through his goodness and his steadfast love, the combined effect is the beautiful reality that it is the Lord himself who pursues his people.<\/p>\n \nNotes:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n This article is adapted from<\/em> The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host<\/a> by David Gibson.<\/em><\/p>\n \n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 seek peace and pursue it. (Ps. 34:14)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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