Is God really good when life feels so bad?
We've been spending the last few weeks slowly walking through Psalm 23—that famous passage that starts with "The Lord is my shepherd." It's a psalm many people know from funerals, a source of comfort in grief. And it absolutely serves that purpose beautifully.
But we wanted to explore what this psalm teaches us not just about dying, but about living. What does it say about everyday life? About how God relates to us right now, in the middle of everything we're facing?
We've seen how God provides everything we need—green pastures, still waters, restoration for our souls. We've seen how he leads us on right paths even when those paths go through dangerous valleys. We've seen how he prepares a table for us and honors us as guests, not just livestock.
Now we come to the final verse, and it contains one of the most stunning promises in all of Scripture.
Something is following you
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever" (Psalm 23:6).
Let's start with that word "follow."
We've talked about how shepherds in the Middle East lead their flocks from the front. They walk ahead, singing or calling out, and the sheep follow along behind them. We even shared the story about a tour group seeing a man walking behind his sheep and asking why. His response? "I'm not a shepherd. I'm a butcher."
So when we read "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me," we might picture these two gentle companions walking behind us, keeping pace, staying close.
But that Hebrew word translated "follow" is actually much stronger than that. It's the same word used in military contexts. It means to pursue, to chase, to hunt.
Something is hunting you. Something is pursuing you relentlessly. Something will not stop coming after you.
And that something is goodness and mercy.
What kind of goodness?
Maybe at first when we look at the world, "goodness" isn't always the first word that comes to mind. Life is hard. Things break. People hurt each other. The news is full of tragedy and conflict.
So what does it mean that "goodness" is chasing us?
Here's the key: Psalm 16:2 says, "I say to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.'"
If there is any good in this world, it comes from God.
Think about it this way: If the world was only bad, only darkness, only sin, we would never know. We'd have no reference point for anything else. It’s like if we were born without eyes and had never perceived light, we wouldn't know light was even possible.
But we do know good when we see it. Even on our most cynical days, we have to admit: It's not all bad.
Someone smiled at you when you needed it. A friend called out of the blue. Your kids drove you crazy all day, but then they snuggled up next to you. A stranger helped you when they didn't have to.
If there is any good—and there is—it comes from God.
One author, reflecting on this verse, called it "an astonishing confession of faith." In a world full of evil, pain, and suffering, David declares with confidence: None of these things mean God is bad.
Goodness is chasing you. Even when life is hard. Even when it doesn't feel like it. God's goodness is pursuing you.
What kind of mercy?
Now we need to talk about "mercy," because this word is too important to rush past.
The Hebrew word is hesed (pronounced "HEH-sed"). Go ahead, say it out loud. It's fun, right?
This word is so rich, so packed with meaning, that English translators have struggled for decades to capture it. Some translate it as "mercy." Others use "loving kindness" or "steadfast love."
Hesed is perhaps the single most theologically significant word for understanding who God is and how he relates to his people.
Here's what hesed means:
It's covenant love—a promised, committed love based on a relationship, not random acts of kindness. God didn't just stumble upon you by accident. He chose to be in relationship with you.
It's loyal love—faithful and true regardless of circumstances. When everything falls apart, when you turn your back, when you walk away, God remains faithful. Not just passively waiting for you to return, but actively pursuing you, working for your best interests.
It's both commitment AND strength—the desire to keep a promise plus the power to actually follow through.
Think about marriage. You can make a commitment on your wedding day—"for better or worse, in sickness and in health." But a marriage isn't built on the wedding day. A marriage is built three years in, seven years in, twenty-five years in. When you have lots and when you have nothing. When you're doing well and when you're not. When nobody is doing well but you're trying to hold it together.
That's hesed. It's the commitment plus the strength to follow through.
The God who holds it all together
Here's what's amazing: God is perfectly righteous. Not just trying to be perfect, he simply is by nature. He has a demanding requirement for perfection and righteousness.
And God is also full of hesed—passionate, compassionate mercy and steadfast love.
Most of us can't hold both of those together. We're either all justice or all mercy. All rules or all grace.
But God holds both in perfect unity and absolute tension. He is both the perfectly righteous God and the God of relentless, pursuing love.
And that combination requires something from us: repentance.
When we truly see who God is—perfect and holy, yet choosing to love us in our brokenness—the only right response is to say, "God, I've got nothing for you. I'm sorry. All those things I've been doing, all those thoughts I've let control me—I'm going to set those aside and trust that your goodness and mercy are pursuing me."
Breaking up the hard ground
There's a passage in Hosea 10:11-12 that captures this beautifully:
"Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love [hesed]; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you."
Fallow ground is ground that's been left unplowed, untended. It's hard. Compacted. Nothing can grow there.
God's invitation is this: Come home. Be open to my healing hand. Deal honestly with your heart. Acknowledge what's broken. Acknowledge that you've taken the easy way out, that you've loved God's blessings but not done the work.
Invest yourself in a right walk with God, and receive hesed.
This isn't just about fixing the big problems "out there." It starts with us. Our personal recognition of our sin and our personal hunger to seek God until he refreshes us—that's what brings healing to our families, our workplaces, our communities.
Have you come to God repenting of your sin? Not just feeling bad about it, but actually turning away from what you know is killing you and turning toward God?
Surely goodness and mercy are hunting you.
It's not "only" goodness—it's "surely" goodness
Some Bible commentators like to translate "surely" as "only"—arguing that at the end of everything, we'll realize it was only goodness following us all along, that there was never any real danger, just rainbows and unicorns.
But that undermines everything the psalm has been saying.
It's not that there's no danger. We've walked through the valley of the shadow of death. We've sat at a table while enemies made noise outside. The dangers are real.
What David is saying is this: In the midst of everything else that's trying to destroy you, God is pursuing you for good and for life.
Surely—certainly, confidently—goodness and hesed are hunting you down, daily.
When we look at our shepherd (not at ourselves, but at him), we can have confidence that his goodness and his loving kindness are chasing us all the days of our lives.
What are you overlooking?
So here's the question: What blessings from God might you be ignoring or overlooking?
Sometimes on bad days, it feels like God is just out to make life miserable. Like he's testing us constantly, pulling the rug out from under us just when we think we're making progress.
But here's the truth: If God wanted to destroy you, he would have done it already. There's nothing stopping him.
And yet he hasn't. He's pursuing you with goodness and love.
Maybe we trust more in Murphy's Law ("anything that can go wrong will go wrong") than we trust in Jesus's grace. Maybe we've become cynical people instead of people infatuated with the goodness of our shepherd.
God's goodness and loving kindness are reliably available to those who belong to his flock, to his family.
Dwelling in his house forever
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever" (Psalm 23:6).
The psalm begins with "The LORD" (Yahweh, God's personal name) and ends with "the LORD forever."
We are welcome in his tent. We belong to his family. We're honored guests. That's the foundation of our identity—he has called us, made us his children, seated us at his table.
And we dwell there. Not just visit occasionally, but live there. Like walking into your own house, kicking off your shoes, opening the fridge. You're home.
If our hope is only for this world, it's not enough. Even if everything goes bad here, we still have hope that in the end there will be restoration. We have a home.
What does eternal life look like?
When Jesus talks about eternal life, he doesn't just mean "life that doesn't end." He defines it this way: "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).
Eternal life is knowing God. Having a relationship, a personal one-on-one connection with the Father.
And what does that look like in daily life?
Being set apart by his word. Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17). Spending time in Scripture, letting it change us from what we were into what he's making us to be.
Abiding in Jesus. He said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me... Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5).
If you want a productive, fruitful life, that looks like abiding in him, being set apart by his word, and knowing the eternal God who abounds in hesed.
Practice for eternity
Here's the question that matters: How are your habits on earth today preparing you to encounter Jesus's presence in eternity?
Because this life is practice. The things we invest in now are going to bear fruit that grows and matures.
Do you let cynical default settings and angry outrage drive your life? Or are you being reshaped by God's word to know him, to be like him, and to live in him?
When Jesus is our shepherd, we can be certain of his goodness.
So what now?
Let me leave you with a few things to reflect on:
Stop being cynical. Goodness and mercy are pursuing you. God is chasing you down with his love. Open your eyes to see it.
Come home. Repent—turn away from what's killing you and turn toward God. Break up the hard ground of your heart. Seek him until he refreshes you.
Abide in him. Spend time in his word. Let it set you apart, change you, shape you. Practice knowing God now so you're ready for eternity with him.
Trust his goodness. Even when life is hard. Even when it doesn't feel like it. Even when enemies are making noise. God's hesed—his steadfast, covenant, loyal, pursuing love—is hunting you down every single day.
If you're not sure you belong to his flock, today can be the day that changes. You can say:
"God, I've got nothing for you. I'm sorry for all the ways I've tried to do life on my own. I'm turning away from that and turning toward you. Would you make me yours? Would you let your goodness and mercy chase me down?"
If you pray that and mean it, he will do it. Not because you're perfect, but because he's full of hesed.
And for those of us who've been following Jesus for a while I hope you’ll let this psalm remind you: You're not just livestock in God's field. You're an honored guest at his table. You're family. You're home.
When Jesus is our shepherd:
We lack nothing we truly need
He handles all the danger
He's bold with his generous grace
We can be certain of his goodness
Goodness and mercy are chasing you. They will not stop. They will pursue you all the days of your life.
Will you let them catch you?
If you want to talk with someone about what it means to belong to God's family, reach out to us at ocala@weareneighborhood.church. We'd love to help you discover what it means to have God's steadfast love pursuing you every single day.
You are being hunted—by goodness and mercy. And that changes everything.
