All the Days of My Life

Psalm 23 is a passage the Lord keeps bringing me to in this season of life. It’s everywhere. Its truth and beauty have taken on new depth and meaning.

After journaling to capture all the places it was showing up, I went to church, and a soloist sang a beautiful hymn “Shepherd Me, O God” (based on Psalm 23).

It was announced Chuck Swindoll is retiring. I’ll never forget his exposition on Psalm 23 at our senior retreat at Dallas Theological Seminary. What a generous man to invest in us during no doubt a busy time as president of the seminary and having a much broader ministry beyond.

There are numerous songs on the radio right now about Psalm 23. I was listening to Leanna Crawford’s Psalm 23, marveling at its timing. As I started an order in the Chick-fil-A curbside parking, I was singing the next song on the radio without even realizing what I was saying. But then I heard what I was singing:

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures. The Lord is my Shepherd, leads me to still waters, and He restores my soul.”

This is the bridge in “Come What May,” a song not primarily about Psalm 23.

You get the idea… it’s been everywhere. It’s an encouragement to pay attention to what the Lord is speaking through His Word as we study the Bible and live our daily lives.

During this time, I woke up one morning with these words being repeated in my mind over and over: “all the days of my life, all the days of my life, all the days of my life.” Over and over. What is that? Well, it should have been obvious to me, but it took me a minute to remember it’s from Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” Okay, so?

Well, I went to do my daily Bible study. I’m doing Bible Study Fellowship International online this year, which has been another amazing blessing meeting women from all over the world! We are studying Revelation. In this lesson about the letter to the church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-7), the questions took us back to Genesis 3 to read alongside Rev. 2:7 about the Tree of Life.

As I read about the curse of the serpent and the curse of the ground (note: Adam and Eve were not cursed, though there were consequences to their sin), the LORD God told the serpent “you shall eat dust all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14). And the LORD told Adam…, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life…. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19).

Contrast that to Psalm 23: “Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the days of my life.” Look how God reverses these curses for His people. Rather than being in the dust, “He makes us lie down in green pastures”! “He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” What the enemy strives to take, God restores. Picture God’s goodness and lovingkindness following us, closely behind, even chasing us down as our Good Shepherd all the days of our lives!

Once you hear the themes of Psalm 23, you’ll see it everywhere.

My husband and I went to a wedding last weekend where they sang The Goodness of God: “All my life you have been faithful, all my life you have been so, so good… your goodness is running after me.” I could hear the echoes of Psalm 23 as the breeze blew through the beautiful arboretum setting. The pastor came up after the song and also pointed out it included Psalm 23.

Remember John 10:10-11, the passage where Jesus tells us He is the Good Shepherd. There’s the contrast: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd…”

Do you see where Satan tries to destroy and kill, God instead gives life and abundance! He leads us out, He follows us behind. In fact, Galatians 3:13 tells us, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’)” He is the good Shepherd, but He is also the Lamb slain in our place for our sins to give us salvation! What an amazing reversal! What a grand exchange!

Not a day goes by without our Shepherd’s care and presence, His leading and following us, the sheep in need of our saving Shepherd. May His goodness and lovingkindness follow us all the days of our lives, that we may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.