Well let's now turn to the word
for a meditation this morning and we'll turn to Psalm 23. Psalm 23 and we'll read the last
verse in Psalm 23 which is verse 6. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. So that's Psalm 23 in the last
verse, verse 6. Well, these are the words of
David. These are the words that David
was able to record from a personal testimony. And we should be thankful
this morning that we have such words to encourage us. Because he says here, surely,
that really is a word of confidence, isn't it? And as we find ourselves
in the world today, in a strange situation, may we recognize that
this word is true for us, if we are indeed amongst those who
are the true Church of God. And it applies, and a wonderful
word it is, to think of, surely, Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. So it's a word to encourage us
in our life, here below on this earth. And it's a word which
encourages us to look forward to the time when we should have
left this earth, when we should have passed through that time
of death, and to be then found dwelling in the house of the
Lord forever. Well, David, I'm sure, as we
recognize in this psalm, he had his confidence in his God. And it would be a good thing
for all of us today to be blessed with a right and true confidence
in our God. And in this psalm, he sets before
us the wonderful picture of the Lord God being his shepherd,
the one who was guiding him. the one who was directing him,
and he knew very well what the path of a shepherd was. He had
been a shepherd himself. He looked after the flock. He
knew what it was, and so he could write such words from his own
experience, from his own heart, and then to be wonderfully able
to confirm such experience having being applied to himself and
to recognize that he was not now the shepherd but he had a
great and glorious God who was his shepherd and what a favor
for us today to realize in our little life that this Lord the
Lord God the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who is our shepherd
and if he is The promise is so true, I shall not want. No, there will be nothing that
you and I will need. We might think we need this,
we might think we need that, but be very sure the Lord will
supply all our need according to his riches in Christ Jesus
our Lord. It doesn't mean to say we'll
be supplied with all the things that we want. will be supplied
with all the things that we need in our spiritual life so that
we won't come to the end of our journey and lack anything. This is the blessed confidence
that the Church of God are given and what a mercy it is to realise
we are so wonderfully favoured and so wonderfully blessed. But
of course, it is so relevant and so important that, as David
said, the Lord is my shepherd, that we also might know that
the Lord is indeed our shepherd. And it's not something that we
don't know anything about you know when the Lord Jesus Christ
was on this earth he spoke about himself being the shepherd and
we can read in the Gospel of John the 10th chapter and verse
27 to 28 he says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall
never perish, nor shall any man pluck them out of my hand." That
means to all those who hear the blessed voice of the Saviour
as their shepherd shall inherit that grace and glorious favour
of the blessing of eternal life. They will not come short, nor
shall they perish, and no one will be able to pluck us out
of the hand of our God. And so this morning, this is
an evidence, surely, of this word, surely, goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life. and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. So may we each search our hearts
to have the blessed evidence that we have heard the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the heavenly shepherd. It's not something
which is irrelevant. It is so important and the Saviour
tells us so clearly in this 10th chapter of John that my sheep
hear my voice. not something which is not known.
It is something which is known and it is of course a wonderful
evidence of the work of God in our heart. And of course the
voice of God comes to us in many ways and no doubt initially it
comes to us in a voice of condemnation. It comes to us in a voice which
shows to us our position, our sinful nature and our sinful
condition and we might say our helpless condition. So what a
mercy it is to realise that God speaks to us as it were to bring
us to our senses. Perhaps we've been continuing
in this world and we're just a mere form of godliness. just carrying out religious tasks
as it were, just following tradition of men, but without the wonderful
evidence that we've heard the voice of our heavenly shepherd,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the truth is, we mustn't
move from it. My sheep hear my voice. and I
know them, and they follow me." You see, it's very clear, isn't
it? The pattern which we have to those who are the believers,
those who are born again. We hear the voice, the Lord knows
us, we have the evidence of it, blessed union, and then we follow
Him. my sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me well David was able to say the
Lord is my shepherd I shall not want what a positive position
so that he was therefore able to come and say surely surely
there cannot be any doubt can there really if the Lord is our
shepherd then surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life. And that may not be, of course,
in the way that we anticipate. Because sometimes we might think,
well, if that's true, then my life's going to be easy. Everything's
going to be simple. Everything's going to be smooth.
Well, it wasn't in David's life, was it? David had a very rough
life, really. And of course, David fell into
terrible sin. But he was still able to say,
surely goodness and mercy will follow me. You see, the goodness
of God, even in that sinful condition, was to make him turn to God through
the words of the prophet. You see, it was therefore true
of him that God's goodness was toward him. God used that fall
that David was allowed to come into his good. That's why we're
thankful today for the 51st Psalm which speaks so clearly of his
contrition, of his concern, that desire that God will indeed forgive
all his sins. And that will be a great concern
for each one of us to know and to believe the Lord will. forgive
us of all our sins. We mustn't kind of categorise
sin. Sometimes we do, sometimes we
think, well that was a small sin, perhaps that's a bigger
sin. But you know, sin is sin, and the smallest sin condemns
us eternally. Let us never think that was only
a small sin. Let us realize that sin is sin,
and every sin has to be atoned for, and every sin has to be
forgiven. And so may we be thankful to
realize that David, who is, we're told, a man of God after the
Lord's own heart, to understand he was able to write such great
words because of the pathway he'd gone through and to recognize
that the things that he did pass through were often not God glorifying
in themselves but he was able to testify of how the Lord had
blessed him and brought him out of them and caused him to call
upon the name of the Lord because he comes and he tells us in the
third verse he restoreth my soul he restored the soul of david
yes he'd wandered off he thought of course his sin was hidden
but no god and what god knew about it god knows about all
our sins but god brought david to that place to confess his
sins against thee, the only have I sinned. Yes, it's before a
holy God. What a blessing that is for us
today. Now, recognising that truth,
we're able to consider surely goodness and mercy. Goodness
and mercy. Goodness and mercy. The whole
Church of God down through the ages have always been wonderfully
blessed. with the goodness and mercy of
Almighty God. Remember in the days of Israel
when they were passing through the wilderness and we can read
in the book of Exodus the words of the Lord to them and this
is what he said in the 33rd chapter and the 19th verse and he said
I will make all my goodness See, not a little, all my goodness
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. So this verse before
us here, it speaks of God's goodness, and it speaks of God's mercy.
and therefore surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life." That's true of every true believer. And so we're thankful that we
have a statement like this. Going back in the Old Testament
to Israel and how God was gracious to them. He did make his goodness
pass before them. It wasn't an easy journey, was
it, Israel? Never had an easy journey. but the Lord brought
them safely at last into that land of Canaan. Yes, God's promises
will be fulfilled. God does not fail in his word. No, God is faithful. And what
a mercy that is. And so if you and I have a promise
from God, and it may be that you may be tempted to, as it
were, throw it overboard and think well that's not of much
value and that wasn't very very good well don't forget if God
has spoken to you the smallest word the simplest word it's a
great blessing it's a great blessing because if he has then you can
have a good hope your name is written the Lamb's Book of Life. Again those words are very true
and very encouraging. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than the riches of many wicked. You see that
which God gives, that blessing which God speaks into our heart,
that which affects our soul is of eternal value. It's the goodness
of God to warn us surely goodness and the goodness of God follows
us the goodness of God is with us so don't cast away your little
hope hold it fast lay hold on it because it's the blessed work
of the Holy Spirit And so whatever comes into our life to realise
our God reigns. Yes, the Lord reigns on high
and he goes before his people. As we read in the 170th Psalm,
he led them forth by the right way. It wasn't a way that they
would have chosen themselves. And the way that the Lord leads
you and me is not the way that you and I would choose for ourselves.
But we can look back and recognize it is the best way and it is
that which we are then able to observe. Yes, surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me. We have the evidence that God's
goodness and mercy has been toward us and therefore may we have that confidence to
be able to say surely see this is a god-honoring statement the
tendency is today to dishonor god the tendency is to doubt
the word of god and that's because of the evil heart we have that
doubts the word of god what a mercy it is when god tells us and assures
us that that which he has spoken to us is of himself, and it's
his goodness. Yes, the Lord's goodness to warn
us. You know, David in the 25th Psalm,
he says, Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions,
according to thy mercy. Remember thou me for thy goodness
sake, O Lord. You see how he links these two
words together and how it's good for us to link them together
in our lives because it is the Lord's goodness which shows us
mercy. If it was not the Lord's goodness,
we would not know his mercy. So what a favour for us today.
realise we have this gracious God who makes all his goodness
to pass before us and therefore may we have that confidence surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life yeah
right through our life right to our last breath This gracious
God has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. This gracious
God has been with us and has been mindful of us and has given
us spiritual food and has given us spiritual drink. You know
we have the example, don't we, of Israel when they were passing
through the wilderness. They enjoyed the goodness of
God and the mercy of God and they didn't deserve it. They
turned their back upon God. They'd ignored the Word of God. And yet, you see, what did the
Lord do? He provided manna for them. He
provided water for them. All that was necessary. It wasn't
a great feast, but it was that which sustained them. It was
that which enabled them to move on for 40 years. Manna, daily
provision. water out of the rock, daily
provision and so the Apostle Paul really brings these things
together when he wrote to the Corinthians and in the 10th chapter
in the fourth verse he says and they Israel and did all drink
the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Now you may
say, you young people may say, well I don't quite understand
that. I'll tell you what it was, what it really meant. They had
the natural picture of the water from the rock, they had the food,
the manna that God had provided, but they also had the wonderful
illustration in the temple of what Christ was doing for them
and what Christ would do for them because the figure in the
temple set before them so very gloriously the Lamb of God being
slain the blood shed upon the altar and then taken and placed
upon the mercy seat and the wonderful picture of the high priest entering
to the holy place on that annual day of atonement. Well, that
was the picture that they had as they traveled through the
wilderness. And to think that that was drink,
spiritual drink for them. And what are we told? The house
of God, this is what occurs. They all drank of that spiritual rock. that
followed them, and that rock was Christ. Well today, what
a blessing it is if we can say therefore, yes, by the grace
of God, I have drunk of the spiritual rock I have drunk into Christ
that wonderful favour and that wonderful blessing. And therefore
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. You and I will not be left. We will not be forsaken. The
Lord tells us, I will never forsake us, never forsake you. No, the
Lord has promised. What a mercy it is that we have
such a faithful God be with us and to bless us and so let us be thankful that
we have such a blessing and a word of God to encourage us now says
David surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life and I would dwell in the house of the Lord forever
well to be blessed with this spiritual drink, you know, and
this spiritual food, what would it do? I'm sure it would direct
us to this, the goodness of God. And again, Paul picks up this
position when he wrote to the Romans, and he tells us this. Or, in this second chapter, the
fourth verse, or despises thou the riches of his goodness and
forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, to direct us again and
again to see the goodness of God toward us, which brings us
into a right condition of repentance before God, the goodness of God.
So often people think, you know, that they are going to repent
when the Lord brings some heavy trial upon them or some disease
or some sickness or some great problem. Well, it may be so,
but the Word of God encourages us to look at it this way. When we observe God's goodness
to us, surely goodness shall follow us continually. The goodness
of God that melts us, I hope it does, melts our heart hot,
melts us and gives us that grace then to repent and to bow down
and to fall down before our God. Yes, let us not then despise
the riches of His goodness. Let us not come to a wrong conclusion
what the riches of His goodness are. Because sometimes we don't
like to be told that we're doing wrong things or we have done
things which are wrong. But it's a good thing to realize
that these are the riches of His goodness and let us not despise
them. Let us not despise the day of small things. Sometimes
perhaps we expect great things, amazing revelations. We're not
promised them. We're not promised them. But
what a mercy it is when God gives us the evidence of his goodness
and indeed forbearance and long-suffering. brings us to this position to
know his goodness and therefore it should enable us to have that
humble confidence to say well surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. You see this goodness is
so wonderful and it's linked in to this mercy and the psalmist
he tells us David again in the 103rd psalm and the 17th verse
he says but The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness
upon children's children. It goes on in the same earlier
verse in the same chapter, 10th verse. He has not dealt with
us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Oh, you see the God is so compassionate,
isn't it? So merciful. We deserve to be
cut off. We deserve to never hear the
voice of the Saviour. What a blessing it is to have
the evidence that the Lord has come and the Lord has graciously
delivered us. In the days when Israel were
delivered from Babylon. They've been in Babylon a long
time. Why they've been in Babylon? Because they disobeyed God. Because they disobeyed God. They
hadn't listened to the prophets. And you may say, what's so relevant
to us today? It's like this. You may not have
listened to the preaching. It may have turned you back upon
it. You may have said, that's not for me. I'm ignoring it. Well, that's what Israel did,
and they had to go into that time of barrenness in Babylon. That wasn't a happy time, was
it? In the history of Israel, it was a hard time. And so let
us remember that. Oh, my friends, let us not disobey
God. Let us be a true follower of
a despised and crucified man. But when Israel had come out
of Babylon, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah who were raised
up to bring them out and to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. And
there are some wonderful statements in those books of Ezra and Nehemiah. And in Ezra, one statement I'll
just mention to you, and that's in the 9th chapter and the 13th
verse. And this is what Ezra says. And
after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds, And for
our great trespass, and when God convinces us of sin, you
won't say that was a little sin, you'll realise it's a great trespass.
And for our great trespass, seeing that thou, our God, has punished
us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance
as this. What is that? Goodness and mercy. the wonderful favour of God toward us. And surely we can then have that
great and humble confidence to say, yes, surely I've experienced
God's goodness. I've experienced his mercy toward
me. therefore I can say I believe
this word is true that David wrote surely goodness and mercy
shall that shall follow me all the days of my life yes right
through our life on this earth every day what a mercy that is
isn't it isn't that a comfort to the Church of God. And it
should be today, I'm sure, in the age in which we live, with
these difficulties surrounding us with all this virus, which
is going about. And I was reminded, of course,
of the situation which existed many years ago. And that was
when that great plague came upon our country and other parts as
well, but more specifically, in our country. It was called
the Bubonic Plague and it occurred in 1665 and was basically exterminated
with the Great Fire of London in 1666. And what were people
afraid of? They were afraid of death. Afraid
of death. And what are they afraid of today
with this This coronavirus, if you analyzed it, if you asked
people, deep down, we're afraid of death. Well, naturally, we
are afraid of death. But it's a mercy when you and
I have the experience of the Lord's goodness and mercy to
us, to realize that the words that David was able to speak
are gloriously true. that his goodness and mercy will
follow us all our days through this life and we won't be left
and we won't be forsaken and as the apostle paul wrote to
the philippian church in the epistle to the philippians in
the fourth chapter in the 19th verse this is what he reads but
my god shall supply all your need according to his riches,
in glory by Christ Jesus. All our need. That's a great
statement, isn't it? The Apostle Paul proved it in
his life, didn't he? He had many, many needs, many
deliverances, but he was able to tell the Philippians, yes,
my God shall therefore supply all your need. And he brings
it to this, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Everything is in the control
of God's hands. He controls everything. He will
give us all that you and I need for our journey through this
life, in our spiritual journey. Yes, the spiritual journey is
not easy. Oh, there's many hardships, there's many obstacles. We have
a great adversary, the devil, who is always there trying to
strike us down, trying to destroy us. But may we have that confidence
in our God and therefore be able to say,
yes, devil, remember what the word says, surely Goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Every day God
will supply my need. He will not leave me nor forsake
me. And then bring me through to
this glorious position, which we read at the end of this verse.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now this
is a faithful statement. This is a wonderful testimony. And what a blessing if you and
I have the evidence of God's goodness and mercy toward us
in our lives thus far, then surely may we receive that faith, that
living faith, to look forward, which is a God-honouring faith,
a God-honouring truth, to be able to say, not proudly, not
because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has
done, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It is for
what Christ has done and we read together in that 22nd Psalm the
prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he had to endure on
that cross at Calvary so that you and I might be blessed with
this eternal habitation in glory. My friends, if it wasn't for
the suffering Saviour, if it wasn't for his sinatonian death,
if it wasn't for his shed blood upon that cross at Calvary, there
would be no possibility of us being able to say this. David
said it in faith as he looked forward. David said it because
he was able to observe the wonderful picture in the tabernacle. And
of course he was privileged to prepare for the grand building
of the temple, but I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
not because of what he done, not at all, but because of what
Christ had done. And therefore today, may our
confidence be in our great and glorious Saviour, and may he
be to us the heavenly shepherd You know the Apostle Peter, in
his epistle, the first epistle, in the fifth chapter, in the
fourth verse, we read this, and when the chief shepherd, there's
many earthly shepherds, when the chief shepherd, that's the
blessed saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and when the chief shepherd
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory. that fadeth not away. It's an
eternal crown of glory. Earthly things come, earthly
things go, earthly things fade away. But the crown of glory
that the Saviour gives to His Church, to every individual of
it, is that which will never fade away. No, it will never
fade away. And so to be able to have this
humble confidence in my friends, may we all be blessed with it
and not turn it away. Let us not doubt the great work
of God in our hearts. Let's trace it out. Let us look
carefully for it. Let's search it out. And if we
find something there, Then we have the evidence that this word
is true. This word is a great and glorious
application to us. I will dwell, said David. I will. Very positive, isn't it? What
a mercy it is to have positive statements. Positive statement
here from his servant, David. I will dwell in the house of
the Lord. forever. And again, the Apostle
Paul speaks, not only Peter, the Apostle Paul speaks, he said,
for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. an eternal home for the Church
of God, an eternal inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, where we shall be united to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that wonderful man that gloriously came into
this sinful world to die, to atone for our sins. Well, today,
may our confidence be not in what we've done, but in what
Christ has done. You know, we have that hymn which
we refer to as Rutherford's, and it speaks in that hymn these
words, that Lord is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Well, he will be to the suffering
church of God. He will be all the glory, and
I believe that glory won't be something which is strange to
us because as we pass through this life we will have little
glimpses of his goodness and his mercy toward us which will
indeed show to us something of his glory, something of his majesty,
something of his greatness, something of his power and to be so thankful
indeed for the wonderful plan of salvation. the wonderful grace
of God, the wonderful love of God, isn't it? God's love toward
us. If David didn't deserve it, we
don't deserve it. But the Lord graciously spoke
to David, and if he's graciously spoken to us, then we have this
confidence also to be able to say on this Lord's Day morning,
yes, by the grace of God, I am what am not because of what we've
done but by the grace of God and therefore to be able to exalt
his name indeed let us exalt his name together and so this
word is a lovely word surely doesn't seem to be any doubt
does that Now let us concentrate on it. May God give us grace
to look at it and plead it that we may have the evidence of it
in our lives and go on our way rejoicing to thank God that there
is such a word as this for us today. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. It's a glorious prospect. And
if we have the evidence of God's work in our heart, then we can
look forward to that time when, as the Apostle Paul said, for
me to live is Christ and to die is gain. To be with Christ forever
and ever. Well, may we have the evidence
then today that the Lord is our shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd.
It is personal, isn't it? The Lord is my shepherd. May
we have that evidence and thank God for it, that we have such
a great and glorious shepherd who's guiding and directing us
through this life. For the present scene we find
ourselves in, in this earth, may appear to be difficult may
appear to be trying but no it's God's goodness and mercy toward
us surely goodness and mercy shall follow me me all the days
of my life very personal very personal very true and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well may God bless us
each and enable us to come continually committing all our way unto the
Lord, believing he cares for us. Amen.