“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” Ps.23:6
Have you ever pictured God running after you for the express purpose of holding you close and telling you how much He loves you? This is exactly what David is saying when he writes, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” Ps.23:6. The word for “follow” in this passage is much better translated “persecute” or “run hard after." The goodness and mercy of God is hunting us down daily, nipping at our heels, following hard behind us to the end of our days. The goal of this divine pursuit is to drive us straight into the outstretched arms of Him where true life and perfect love alone can be found. "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forebearance, and longsuffering, not knowing the goodness of God leads you to repentance." (Rom. 2:4) Francis Thompson wrote of this love in his famous work, “The Hound of Heaven.”
“I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tearsI hid from Him, and under running laughter.Up vistaed hopes I sped;And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.”
I love His line, "From those strong Feet that followed, followed after." What a great way to describe God’s relentless pursuit of His children, even when we are running from Him!
C.S. Lewis - who was converted out of agnosticism - describes this same kind of unfathomable, pursuant love in his book, "Surprised by Joy." -
“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen (one of the colleges of Cambridge), night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelented approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not see then what is the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert on even such terms. The prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation”.
I love his statement, "The prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?". It is this irrational, unrelenting, dogged pursuit of God's love after us that finally overcomes all the obstacles we have erected, shatters our pride, and captures our hearts. Tell me, please tell me; where else in the universe are you going to find a love like that? Why not take some quiet, extended, unhurried time to just let God hold you, and let Him whisper to you anew how deeply He loves you. Then let His goodness and mercy nip at your heels all day long...as they drive you straight into the only arms that can hold you in the way your soul longs to be held.
Flashpoint: It is God's white-hot pursuit of us which is the foundation for our glad pursuit of Him.
