The Pursuit

The well known 23rd Psalm ends with the words 

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

I wonder what it means for “goodness and mercy” to follow one all of the days of his/her life?  There are three particular words of interest that may be of assistance in answering this question.  The words are, “Goodness”, “Mercy”, and “follow”.  

First, “Goodness”.  This is the Hebrew word “tob”, it literally means “good”.  Yet I wonder, good in relation to what?  What is the measuring stick that determines what is and is not good?  The answer…God’s created purposes, or God himself is that measuring stick.  Therefore, whatever steers away from God’s intention is bad, and whatever remains within God's created plan is good.  Interestingly, in matters of “goodness” and “badness” only God’s opinion matters.  When we enter the work of assessing good and bad, our assessment is only correct as long as it is in line with God’s assessment.  Thinking of the 23rd Psalm, the goodness of God may point to God’s best intentions for us.  This goodness then is the redemption that God has brought (from a post resurrection perspective) to all creation.  Psalm 23 offers us the promise that we can know God’s perfect will and intentions for our lives.  What an amazing promise.  

The term “mercy” can also be translated “steadfast loving-kindness” in our English Bibles.  The Hebrew term is hesed.  The hesed of God is truly a complex word, for which no English equivalent is adequate.  The term “mercy" comes close, but it is not complete in its scope.  The hesed of God is best seen in the context of the covenant.  Think of Abraham.  He was just an ordinary man, a pagan man really.  If one were to place him next to God, he would quickly find that there would be no comparison.  In Abraham’s day, nations would often make covenant agreements with each other.  Some of these agreements were made between two nations of equal strength.  Such an agreement would be considered profitable for all participants.  However, on other occasions these covenants were made between a greater and weaker party.  In these cases, the weaker party would become a servant to the greater.  From what I understand of these covenants, a ceremony would be initiated in which animals would be split in halves.  The weaker party or vassal (meaning servant), would be required to walk between the halved animals.  This act signified that their future would be the same as the halved animals, if they should fail to remain faithful to their covenant promises.  Can you imagine how Abraham must have felt when God instructed him to prepare such a covenant sealing ritual?  Clearly, he was not confused concerning his identity as the vassal.  As far as we know, when Abraham was slaughtering those animals, aligning them in preparation for the ceremony, he believed that he would be the one walking between them.  Yet, he could never keep his end of the agreement.  What could he possible offer?  What did he possess that God could need or even want?  Abraham was neither deserving nor worthy of God’s goodness.  Then, in an unprecedented turn of events, Abraham finds himself in the grips of a deep sleep, and God committing himself to walk between the halved animals.  Why would God place himself under these bonds?  This action was not required of God, he was the greater.  He could do anything he chose to do, who would stop Him?  However, God choose to commit himself to Abraham.  Contrarily, Abraham was not asked to commit in anyway (at least in anyway that would be binding).  It would seem as though God took the place of Abraham, while giving Abraham his position in the covenant relationship.  This is hesed.  This is the revealed nature of God.  God’s hesed is mercy and grace given from a greater to a lesser, from one who is worthy to one who is unworthy, and its free.  This is what God has done.  When we think of the shepherd’s words in Psalm 23, we are given further instruction concerning God’s redemption.  This redeeming work of God cannot be earned, his goodness cannot be merited.  Suddenly, grace and mercy become primary words in the vocabulary of the Christian.  Grace is not a wonderful addition to the Christian faith, nor is it merely a great name for your child, or a wonderful topic for a worship song.  Grace is our only hope.  We see this expressly in Psalm 51.  After committing the “trifecta of sin” — adultery, murder, deceit — David seeks God’s favor, not based on his previous good works, or his present contrition, or even his potential future obedience, but on God’s hesed.  David seemed to say, "God be good to me because I have nothing to offer and you have revealed yourself to be a God of hesed."

Finally, we come to the term “follow”.  The Hebrew term for this word is radaph.  However, there is a very interesting twist to this word.  While the term “follow” is not technically wrong, it is not completely right.  A better term might be to “pursue”, or “chase after”.  This term is not passive, but very active and perhaps even aggressive.  Radaph suggests that God is aggressively pursuing us with his goodness and hesed.  In other words, he is chasing after me so that He might bring me back into the fold.  This twist should not surprise us, in fact it falls in line with what we have come to expect from good shepherds in the Bible.  In this light, Jesus’ declaration that the “good shepherd” would leave the 99 in order to find the 1 lost sheep does not seem so unorthodox.  Of course he would pursue the lost sheep.  This is who God is.  This is what God does.  He hunts after all of his sheep, seeking to offer them his goodness and hesed.  

I have always thought of holiness as something that I must pursue.  I have always considered a relationship with God as something that I must seek.  However, perhaps this is not entirely accurate.  Holiness is indeed something for which I should pray and long, and a relationship with God is something that I should pursue.  However, God also pursues me with his holiness, he seeks me with his love.  Much of the time God wants to be with me more (sadly) than I want to be with him.  God wants you, he longs for you, he died for you, and he will never cease in his pursuit for you.  Until the ends of eternity and to the furthest reaches of the universe, God will pursue you, because he loves you and desires that you “should dwell in his presence forever.”