Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Psalm 23:6
6 Surely goodness [towb] and mercy [checed] shall
follow [radaph] me all the days [yowm] of my life: [chay] and I
will dwell [yashab] in the house [bayith] of the LORD [Yahovah] for
ever ['orek]. [yowm] KJV-Interlinear
6
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. NASB
This is a concluding
statement for the psalm.
Surely, 'ak', an
affirmation, therefore, certainly, only, truly. Because of all of these things,
then the following will happen. What will happen?
Goodness and mercy will
pursue me.
Goodness, 'towb', in the
broadest sense of the word, beautiful, best, bountiful, favor, prosperity and a
long list of other similar words describes the good that comes to us.
Lovingkindness, 'chered',
good deeds, kindly, mercy. And mercy is Gods grace in action, or the action of
the blessing, the reality of the blessing, not just the promise, or the
anticipation, but the real McCoy, the actual blessing stream itself.
Follow, 'radaph', run
after, chase, put to flight, pursue. Blessings pursue the mature believer. The
believer does not have to work for blessing, does not have to hustle in life to
gain Gods acceptance and a few crumbs that may fall from heaven. Blessings come
rushing to the mature believer.
And, combined with all of
the previous, I will dwell, current tense, not future tense, not maybe I will
dwell but I 'will' dwell, 'yashab' settle, dwell, sit down, marry, remain. And
where do we dwell? In the house of the Lord both now and forever. Where is Gods
house? In heaven of course. But we are here on earth, so how in the world can
we dwell in Gods house now if we cannot get to heaven?
We dwell there in our
fellowship status. We are physically here on earth, but positionally in heaven
in Gods house when we are in fellowship. There are other specific studies on
fellowship, so I'll not go into that here. I want to conclude this psalm and
its point and compare it to the status of those people in Rev. 6.
There, in Rev 6, we saw
the disasters occurring to those unbelievers as well as negative believers.
They were people who lacked knowledge of Gods Word, and by their own choice.
They had the opportunity to learn, but rejected it. Their lives were upside down, in chaos, they
were in frightful terror. I guess I should say, they 'will be' in terror, etc.,
since this is all future.
But to those believers
both then and now, to those mature believers there is peace, blessing,
prosperity, and a relaxed state of life despite any environmental difficulties
that may exist.
The mature believer is
the one who is the recipient of maximum blessing. The mature believer in
fellowship and that is the key to the Christian life - fellowship coupled with
knowledge of Bible doctrine coupled with the application of that same doctrine
to ones daily life.
Goodness, blessings in
all categories, will be received - Gods mercies, His grace in action, shall
pursue the mature believer. And pursue is the point that needs to be
emphasized. Many people do not believe this Bible stuff. These people are out
of fellowship and perhaps do not understand its concept as well as its
mechanics. Perhaps they do not have the interest to learn. Perhaps they do not
have the patience to learn. Perhaps they are simply inconsistent in their daily
Bible study, maybe it is just a few days of the week or month, or a little here
and a little study there.
The result is a short
circuited study program, therefore a short circuited spiritual life. God
presents His best gifts inside His Palace. If you are never there, then do not
expect to receive them.
If you are living outside
in the jungle, then what should you expect? The gifts of the jungle and those
gifts are not gifts at all, but deceptive lures into your doom.
Will dwell, is present
tense. This is a state that you can have right now through your consistent
analysis of your own life (if we judge ourselves, then we shall not be judged),
followed by your confession to God the Father of those sins in your life (if we
confess our sins), then the result being our forgiveness (He is faithful and
just to forgive), and our restoration into fellowship (and to restore us from
all unrighteousness).
When you are in the fellowship
sphere, then you reside within Gods will, within Gods house, within Gods palace,
and that is the place of your relationship, your active relationship, with God.
Your spiritual life
operates and functions fully when you are resident in fellowship. For there, God does all of the work, and
distributes all of the blessings necessary for you to have a phenomenal life,
even now, in this life.
