"Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live." Psalm 23:6
Oh, dear heart.
Do you believe that? Do you really believe?
Only goodness.
Goodness: "a good thing, benefit, welfare."
I feel pursued by everything else - stress, anxiety, questions, the need to do more - while goodness, that deep and rich and fill-your-belly satisfaction, is elusive.
I've always thought of goodness as something to be pursued, not something pursuing me.
But then, really, that was because I was thinking of goodness as a work and not a Person.
The word for "faithful love" and "mercy" literally means "covenant loyalty."
In other words, "I'm not going anywhere."
Sticking with me.
Tailing me.
No matter how I twist and turn and stumble and even, at times, forcibly push... "I'm not going anywhere."
I'm not going anywhere doesn't mean He stays in one spot and I wander away and come back and wander and return and live out this restless cycle of lonely works.
I'm not going anywhere means I'm stuck to your side.
We're in this together.
Just try and leave.
I won't.
Only The Benefactor and His covenant loyalty will be in pursuit of me every time I draw breath.
Ah, David! What did you know? How did you know? How did you cling so tenaciously to the character of a Savior not yet born?
"Surely goodness and mercy..."
Surely.
Not hopefully.
Not eventually.
Oh, it is sure.
I want your heart. I want to get it, really get it.
So I can say surely.
So I can say with confidence that God's home is my dwelling.
Home.
His home.
Where the heart is.
Where He rests.
Where there is peace.
Where He invites.
Where He is always present, touching every bit of decor and piece of furniture, His presence ever evident.
Do I dwell there? Or do I still feel like an uninvited guest?
Do I take that as an invitation for now? Not just a "someday I'll go be with Him in His house, and until then I've just go to make it through"eventuality, but now.
"I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."
That includes the earthly ones.
