Let us turn to God's Word. We
continue in the 23rd Psalm and we come this evening to the last
verse in Psalm 23. I want us to consider the first
part of verse 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. In Psalm 23, the last verse,
verse 6, and the first part of the verse, surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I want us to consider these
words in terms of that divine preservation, how the Lord is
the one who keeps Safe is sheep, and not one of them is to perish. I want us as we look at these
words then to divide the subject matter into some three sections. First of all, to say something
with regards to the particular manner of this divine preservation. and then secondly to look at
the scope or the extent of it, and then finally the certainty
of God keeping his sheep. First of all, the manner of the
preservation of the sheep, and it is clearly here spoken of
in terms of God's goodness and God's mercy. It is that goodness
and mercy that is to follow the believer all through his life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And are we not immediately
reminded of the fact then that the source is to be found in
God himself. Goodness reminds us immediately
of God. Remember the rich young ruler
who came to the Lord Jesus Christ inquiring what he must do to
inherit eternal life and he comes up to Christ and addresses him
as good master. And the Lord answers him in a
remarkable way, really. He says, Why callest thou me
good? There is none good but one, that is God. That is a searching question
that is being put by Jesus of Nazareth. He calls Christ good
master, but is he really recognizing his deity? That's the important
thing when Christ gives such an answer. There is non-good
but one that is God. It's interesting that the Anglo-Saxon
word for good is actually God. And so we see the connection
between goodness and God himself surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life." In another of the Psalms,
Psalm 119, David declares concerning the Lord God, thou art good and
thou doest good. God Himself is all goodness. But as God is good, so we see
here that He is also a merciful God. It is goodness and it is
mercy that follow the believer all through his life. And that
mercy in God, does it not meet the sinner in all his misery?
we are at best poor miserable sinners but all that great mercy
that we find in God remember when Moses asks that God will
reveal himself to him there at the end of Exodus chapter 33
he makes that request I beseech thee show me thy glory he wants
to be reassured The children of Israel had sinned so greatly
in the matter of the golden calf, they had so quickly transgressed
the covenants, they'd broken the commandment of God concerning
the folly of idolatry, and God had spoken of disinheriting them,
and Moses as a faithful mediator had come and pleaded on their
account And he wants to be reassured now that God will indeed go before
them. And he prays there at the end
of that 33rd chapter. Show me thy glory. And then,
when we come to the answer, we see it at the beginning of the
34th chapter. How does God show his glory unto
Moses? Well, look at the language that
he used. Verse 5, The Lord descended in the clouds and stood with
him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord
passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord The Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and to the fourth generation. Here is
God revealing himself. That's what it means when it
says that God proclaimed the name of the Lord. And what is
that name? The first thing we read of is
God's mercy. The Lord, the Lord God merciful. How mercy there has that primary
position. Mercy is mentioned first of all. And here we have God in all his
mercy spoken of in our text, surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And it is interesting to
observe how in various parts of the scripture where that mercy
is spoken of we see how it is associated with different adjectives. And let me just mention a number
of examples that we find. We have Solomon speaking of his
father there in the first book of Kings in chapter 4 at verse
6, and he says, Thou hast shown unto thy servant David great
mercy. Oh, the mercy of God is great. It is not only great, but in
Psalm 86 and verse 5, the psalmist says, Thou, Lord, art good and
plenteous in mercy. Great mercy, plenteous mercy,
is what belongs unto the Lord God. Again, when we come over
to the New Testament Scriptures, what do we read in the first
book of Peter? Peter's first epistle, in chapter
1 and verse 3, we read, which according to his abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope." How these different adjectives
are used to set before us something of the remarkable mercy that
is in God Himself, great mercy, plenteous mercy, abundant mercy. And then again in the Song of
Zacharias, in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel we read how
God as dealt in tender mercy." Zechariah says, "...through the
tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath
visited us." Here we see then that the source The source of
this preservation is to be discerned in God and in the very character
of God. And these two, this goodness
and this mercy, these are inseparable. we cannot divide them one from
the other and we see it of course in those Psalms that we were
reading just now in the opening verse of Psalm 118 and then again
in the opening verse of the 136th Psalm. He is good, it says, because
his mercy endureth forever. God is good for his mercy endureth
forever. Here is the source. It is God
himself, the merciful God. And how does God manifest it? Well, I speak of two ways in
which we see it unfolded and brought forth in God's words. There is what we might call a
general benevolence in God. there is a common goodness I
know some speak of common grace well we would not speak of common
grace because grace is always particular but there is a benevolence
in God to all his creatures his goodness and his mercy definitely
extends over every part of his creation and do we not see it
there in the in the psalm that we read, that 136th psalm, where
we have that repetition of His mercy enduring forever. But look at what it says there
in verse 5 following. It speaks of God's work in creation. To Him that by wisdom made the
heavens, to Him that stretched out the
earth above the waters, to Him that made great lights, the sun
to rule by day, the moon and stars to rule by night. And then
we have the refrain, of course, really. We omit the refrain,
but the refrain is always there. Each time we have this expression,
for His mercy endureth forever. We come to the end of that psalm,
verse 25, Who giveth food to all, for his mercy endure us
forever, there is that that is to be discerned in God's general
benevolence, the way in which he watches over all of his creation,
the way in which he preserves man and beast. There's not only
the doctrine you see of God's creation, there's also that truth
of His providence. And again, in another of the
Psalms we read, the Lord is good to all and His tender mercies
are over all His works. Over all His works without any
exception. Again, look at the language that
we have there in the 145th Psalm. There in verses 15 and 16, the
eyes of all wait upon Thee, and they give us in their meat
in due season, they open us Thine hand and satisfy us the desire
of every living thing. Oh God, you see, watches over
His creatures. He is a good Creator, and He
preserves His creatures. He maketh his sun to rise on
the evil and on the good. He causes the rain to fall on
the just and the unjust. There is a manifestation of the
goodness of God then in terms of the way in which we see his
providence extending to every minute detail of the lives of
all the creatures that he has made. But then, of course, there
is also that special goodness that's in God. There is also
that saving grace. And isn't this what we really
have set before us in our text this evening? Surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, says David. Bishop John Hooper, the martyr,
He renders it like this, surely thy lovingkindness, thy lovingkindness
shall follow me all the days of my life. Now what are we to
understand by such a rendering as that, where instead of goodness
and mercy we have that expression lovingkindness. It's a word that
we find often of course in the book of Psalms. and it's the
most beautiful word that's used in our authorised version and
it reminds us of God's covenants it reminds us of God's mercy,
God's goodness in terms of his covenantal dealings and surely
that's what we see when we consider the way in which God dealt with
the children of Israel Remember what God says concerning those
who are of Israel, the twelve tribes? He says to them, you
only have I known of all the families of the earth. God makes choice of them and He chooses
them not because of anything in themselves. They are the least
of all peoples. And yet, this is the people that
God has chosen. Again in the 147th Psalm, "...he
showeth his mercy unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments
unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any
nation as for his judgments they have not known them." Praise
you the Lord! God is to be praised for the
way in which He deals with His people. But Israel, ethnic Israel,
are they not a typical people? Are they not held before us here
in Holy Scripture as those who are a type of the spiritual Israel? We know that they're not all
Israel, that are of Israel. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly. know that true Jew is a spiritual
Jew. Look at the way in which Paul,
who of course could boast so much of his pedigree as a true
Jew of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrew, but
it is Paul who says There at the end of Romans chapter 2,
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but He is a Jew which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose prize is not of men, but of God. It's not ethnic Israel, is it?
There are Gentiles, you see, who are the spiritual Jews, who
are those circumcised in their hearts, the true children of
God. And I say that the nation of
Israel in the Old Testament, it's a typical people. They're
a type of that true children of God. And we see it again in
that 136th Psalm. What is the great theme that
runs through the psalm? Well, of course, as I've said,
we have that constant refrain, For his mercy endureth forever. But really, the great majority
of the verses in that psalm, from verse 10, right through
to verse 24, are really speaking of God's dealings, God's historical
dealings with the children of Israel, verse 10, to him that
smote Egypt in their firstborn, brought out Israel from among
them with a strung hand and with a stretched out arm, to him which
divided the Red Sea into parts and made Israel to pass through
the midst of it, but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red
Sea, to him which led his people through the wilderness, to him
which smote great kings, and slew famous kings, Zion king
of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and gave their land for an heritage,
even an heritage unto Israel, who remembered us in our low
estate, who has redeemed us from our enemies." It's speaking of
the history of the children of Israel, their deliverance. their
preservation through the wilderness wandering, they're being brought
into the possession of the land that God had promised to them.
And all of that, of course, is typical. Here is God's special
care of His people. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. God keeps His people. God
preserves them. and even when God deals with
them in contrary ways, it is evidence of His love towards
them, when He rebukes them, when He corrects them, when He comes
with His rod, as it were. Even in these things we see something
of the goodness of God. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. What son is he whom the Father
chasteneth? Not, asks the Apostle, when God
is dealing with us in ways that seem to be so contrary to us
and so difficult for us. For the psalmist again in another
psalm, Psalm 94 and verse 12 says, Blessed is the man whom
thou chastenest and teachest him out of thy law. Even when God comes in in those
ways that seem to the flesh to be so very, very hard, they are
good for us. And David knew it. David knew
it. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, he says. Why is it good for him? Because
he has learned God's statutes. Doesn't God have to deal with
us in that way? He has to cut across us at times. We are so self-willed, we are
so hard-hearted, we are so sinful. God has to come and stop us in
our tracks, as it were, and teach us, and make us to see the folly
of our own ways. Or surely, David says, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. God will deal with his people.
God will deal with us. It's not just God dealing with
us at the beginning. when He is pleased to have mercy
upon our souls and bring us into His Kingdom, when He comes and
there is that gracious work of the Spirit in regeneration, where
there is that communication of life to our souls, whereby nature,
those who are dead in trespasses and in sins, but if we have a
word of testimony, surely we don't just speak about the way
in which the Lord began with us. Don't God's people have a
continual experience of His goodness to them? Is He not teaching us
all the time? Are there not those times when
we're made very much aware that we're learning in that school? And God Himself is our teacher.
Our testimony surely should be a living testimony to speak of
those things that God is doing with us here and now. Or we want
a real religion, not something that we imagine began some years
ago, but we've known nothing since of God's dealings. No,
it's all the days of my life, says David. All the days of my
life. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. Some say that the opening
word could be rendered own. It's only goodness and mercy. Such is the character of our
God. Too wise to be mistakenly, too
good to be unkind. In all His dealings we learn
something more of Him, His goodness and of His mercy. Here then we
see where the source is. It's all in God. And it's God
in his dealings revealing to us, discovering to us something
more of himself in all his holy attributes, in all his gracious
dealings with us. But then in the second place,
let us seek to consider something of the scope of it. And clearly,
as we've already intimated, we're reading of that that can only
be described as the constant experience of the child of God.
All the days of my life, David says. Now that's always. Every day. God deals with his
people and God deals with them in order to preserve them. And
if God should leave us for a moment Where would we end? How God's
care of us is to be constant and continuous. And again, do
we not learn something of it through the experience of the
children of Israel? Here is that goodness and that
mercy that David says he's following Him all the days of his life. Now, with regards to the children
of Israel, when they were brought out of Egypt, God directs them
by means of that fiery, cloudy pillar. That's the promise that
is given to them as they're brought out of Egypt and they're now
journeying towards that land that He had promised to Abraham
and to Isaac and to Jacob. And there at the end of Exodus chapter 13, it told the Lord
went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way
and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day
and night. He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. God is the one then who is leading
and directing them in all their ways, but the fiery cloudy pillar
is not always leading them in the way. It is before them, but
then also we see how that same pillar is behind them. In the very next chapter there,
Exodus 14 and verse 19, the angel of God, which went before the
camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the pillar of
the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. And he came between the camp
of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel and it was a cloud
and darkness to them, that is to the Egyptians, and he gave
light by night to these, that is the Hebrews, so that the one
came not near the other all the night. Now God, you see, is before His
people, He is behind His people, He is watching over them, He
is preserving them, He is keeping them safe from all their enemies. Surely goodness and mercy, says
David, shall follow me all the days of my life. Now what of
that angel of the Lord? What are we to understand by
the fiery cloudy pillar is it not interesting out there we just read it in chapter 14
and verse 19 the angel of God which went before the camp and
then the pillar of the cloud The angel of God, you see, the
angel of the Lord is in that cloudy, fiery pillar. And then when we turn over in Exodus and come to the 23rd chapter, what do we learn? Well, verse
20 there, God says, Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep
thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have
prepared, beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not,
for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him." There
was this angel there that goes before God's name is in this
angel. This is the angel of the Lord.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what it says. Beware
of him. Obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions. Remember what the scribe said
to the Lord Jesus. when his friends brought the
lame man, the man sick of the palsy, the paralysed man and
there is Christ in the house and they climb onto the top and
they let the paralysed man down where Christ is and Christ says
to him, son, thy sins be forgiven and now it provoked the scribes
who can forgive sins but God only, they were right They were
right, God only can forgive sins. It is God's prerogative. He is
a sin-pardoning God. And here we see that the angel
that goes before them can forgive sins. Provoke him not, for he
will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. Oh, it
is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is there going before the children of Israel, that typical people.
In all their wilderness wanderings, He is the one who leads them
in the way. He is the one who is not only
before them, He is also their rearward. He is behind them,
He comes between them and their enemies, He protects them, He
preserves them. It is the Lord, you see. And
what does Christ Himself say? at the ascension does he not
address his disciples so graciously when he utters those words at
the end of Matthew's gospel, though I am with you all the
way even unto the end of the world that's his word to them
you see, love literally behold I am with you
always. Here is that, you see, that we
need to behold, to look at, to fix our eye on, to ponder over,
to meditate upon. He is always with his children. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, says David. It is the Lord
himself who is David's keeper. And what is the scope, you say,
the extent of that preservation? Oh, it is a constant care that
God is pleased to manifest in all his dealings with his children.
They cannot keep themselves, but he keeps them. And then,
in the third place, as I said, we have something else here,
we have the certainty of it. the source of it is in God it
is God himself who is the one who watches over his people and
it is a constant care that he has of them and so their preservation
is assured is it not? we need to mark that opening
word surely that's how it's rendered I said
some suggest it could be rendered only goodness and mercy, that's
the truth, but this is the way in which the translators have
seen fit to render it into our English language and it has this
note of certitude surely for there is no possibility of God's
care in any sense failing I know that when we speak in terms of
the great doctrines of grace, the five points of Calvinism,
we speak of that fifth of the points, the letter P in TULIP,
standing for the perseverance of the saints, and that's a truth.
It is a truth that is unfolding. God's people do persevere. But
why is it that God's people persevere? either shall endure to the end,
it says, the same shall be saved. Why do they persevere? Because
God preserves them. God is the preserver of his saints. And God so works in them, you
see, that they do persevere. That faith that God has given
to them, that faith that has come into their souls, that faith
of the operation of God, is not something that is there for a
moment. Oh yes, there are those seasons
where there might be darkness, where the believer may be downcast. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Says the psalmist in another
of the Psalms, Hope thou in God. I shall yet praise Him who is
the house of my countenance and my God." There are those dark
seasons but God's people are preserved. Why? They are in Christ and there
is of course that eternal union. They were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world and once in Him, in Him forever thus
the eternal covenant stands. But when they, in their soul's
experience, come into Christ, and they must be that of course,
they must not only understand something of eternal union, but
something of an experimental union. Those who in their very
natures are dead in trespasses and sins, so they be the election
of grace. And when the Lord does bring
them to Himself, why then they persevere? because God has given
them that persevering faith, but God is the preserver. Surely,
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Now why is it that it is all
so sure and so certain? Well is it not in part because
of what we read previously there in verse 3, He leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness says David, for his name's sake. This is how the Lord leads his
people. And why does he lead them in such paths of righteousness?
For his name's sake. And what a statement is that,
friends. It's God's name. In God's name,
of course, he's got revelation of himself, it's the declaration
of his very character. When Daniel begins to pray to
God, there in that ninth chapter, you remember the great prayer
of Daniel, the prophets, there in Babylon, reading in the book
of the Prophet Jeremiah and understanding that there were to be some 70
years accomplished in the exile and after 70 years God had determined
He would bring His people out of the captivity and what does
He do? He sets His face and He begins
to pray to God and listen to the language of His prayer there
in Daniel 9 verse 4, Oh Lord, He says hearken and do. Defer not for thine own sake."
Well, there's his prayer. For thine own sake. And we have
it again in other scriptures. We have it here in the 25th Psalm. And verse 11, For thy name's
sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. Where is their
pardon? Why it's in the very character
of God. My sin, my iniquity, it's so great it overwhelms me.
I feel it. How can I know forgiveness? Why
forgiveness is in God? And we see it in the very character
of God. Those lovely words at the end
of the prophet Micah. Who is a god like unto the earth,
that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he
will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities.
And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old." Oh friends, don't these words
come with some comfort into our souls at times? That God is the
one who has the prerogative to forgive sins. He's a merciful
God. He's a gracious God. He's a good
God. And it is God's very character.
For Thy name's sake, O Lord, for Thy name's sake, pardon my
iniquity, for it is great. And there, in Joshua, we have
mention of Thy great name. Oh, the great name of our God. and that name revealed to us
of course in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ that
name that God has set above every other name the only name on the
heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved thou shalt call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Oh, all those promises of God
in that name, in the name of Christ, are they not all? Yea,
and are they not all? Amen. That's the gospel. Not
a yea and nay gospel. It's a gospel that declares yea
and amen. Nothing uncertain about it. He
abideth faithful, says Paul. He cannot deny himself. And so he leads his people in
paths of righteousness for his name's sake. You remember when God entered
into covenant with Abraham? And Abraham is the father of
all that believe. We are of faith, we are the children
of Abraham. Well, when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. That's what God did. He gives his promise and he takes
an oath. And how does he take an oath?
He swears by himself, as we said before, if God's promise fails. God fails. God is no more. These are the two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie. Or the psalmist says,
Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name. This is the
Word of God that we are privileged to have before us tonight. This
is God's Word that we are able to read. We can hear the reading
of it, hear the preaching of it. This is the Word of God. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, says David. There is such
a certainty, you see. God's people are kept. They are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last
time. Oh, there is, friends, divine
preservation here in the psalm. Thank God for it. But oh, that
we might be those who know it in our soul's experience, who
endure to the end. rejoice in that precious doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints. We might bear that mark of those
who are the saints, the people of God, that we persevere. We cannot give up because God
himself does not give up with us. Many times we might come
to that, we think, well, what's the point of it all? What is
the point of it all? Why not just throw off this religion?
Does He not cause us many troubles in this world? Would He not be
so much easier to be like the worldling and to have no thought
for these things? But we can't, because the Lord
Himself, you see, preserves His people. That's our comfort. Left
to ourselves, we would be as the worldling. Oh, but thank
God for the truth of Scripture. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Amen.