Telling The Truth

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).

The news that writer, preacher, and public speaker Jill Briscoe would soon be offering a daily devotional column titled Telling the Truth, with which to help and heal others who share her insights and joy, brought great comfort to those of us mourning the  passing of Jill’s husband, Stuart.

It was no surprise that Jill’s first column should open with the assurance from the words of Psalm 23 that “surely [God’s] goodness and unfailing love will “pursue” us.  Surely, not maybe or perhaps. The man who wrote those words, King  David of Israel, experienced God’s goodness and mercy all his days and nights. Whether the sun was shining, or it was midnight in his soul, David was able to say, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me.”

It’s so much easier for us to say “most days” or “some days.” Yet the text promises God’s presence all the days of our life. This is not a promise that all our days will be good or happy, but rather an assurance that the God of mercy will follow us through the good and the bad days, the rich and the poor days, the sick and the well days—all the days of our life.

When we believe this promise, we bring his presence into our problems. It is his presence in all of our nights that wrings from our lips the certain cry, “surely!” His sweet friendship lights up good days and makes them even better.  So we do not have a maybe or a perhaps or a hopefully, but a surely that is rooted in the proven promises of God.

Such certainty in the reliability of the good and loving shepherd of our soul grows trust day by day, whether he leads us through the dark valleys in the shadows or on the high hills in the sunshine. And that, As Jill would say,  is what we mean by telling the truth.