Your Love Pursues Me

Your Love Pursues Me

Reading: Psalm 23 (Click link for Psalm 23 in a different translation each day) Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23:6 NLT) As we finish our quick walk through Psalm 23, let’s start by taking a moment to read all six verses of the Psalm. Click this link to read it. It really struck me that this Psalm is truly a devotional template. It starts with awareness of a characteristic of God, The Lord is My Shepherd, and explores all that means in really practical terms. The Lord is my Shepherd, He leads me, feeds me, gives me rest, restores me. Then in verse four the Psalm shifts gears. It shifts from speaking about God to speaking to God. It changes from addressing a third party (us) or personally meditating, to addressing the Lord, the Good Shepherd directly. You guide me, you protect and comfort me, you prepare a feast for me, you honor me by anointing my head. As the Psalm moves from a meditation about the benefits of the Lord’s “Shepherdship” it takes on the tone of gratitude for present benefits and becomes a declaration of faith, an expression of thankful confidence in the Shepherd’s future care and provision. And David (and we) are no longer only sheep in the Shepherd’s care, but valued and honored members of God’s family, forever dwelling with him in his home, our eternal home.

I believe that devotional meditations, prayer, and even our praises to God can follow this pattern: First we become thoughtfully thankful, then our gratitude moves us to praises and declarations of faith and confidence, which then become worship, acknowledging our relationship with not only a Good Shepherd, but with a loving, caring Father. Let’s finish today’s devotional time with Psalm 100… A psalm of thanksgiving. 1 Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Worship the LORD with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3 Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. (Psalm 100 NLT) Prayer: Father, You are our Good Shepherd, our guide, our provider and our protector. You have made us your children forever. We thank you, praise you, and worship you! Amen!