Psalm 23 is day one Sunday school material. It is the basics of what we know about our relationship with God. Sadly, for too many of us we were introduced to a God that is not loving and interested in our lives. Instead He is interested in our failings. After all, if we fail, does his job not get more exciting and lucrative? (please note the sarcasm implied) I think about the God of Left Behind fame, the God of Sinners in the hands of an angry God and worst of all the God that is so excited about my failures that he wants nothing more than to punish me here on earth and in some sort of really scary creepy afterlife. It sounds more like relentless anger than love to me. We truly need to re-think this stuff
Romans 12:2 urges us to change our minds about how we think about everything. We are to not pattern ourselves like a fear based world but instead be renewed by the word of God. So let’s forget about our animated Simpsons version of God and rethink it.
If we can get a Romans 12:2 understanding of Psalm 23, we would know the God worth falling in love with.
Here is how!
Here are some of the action words and phrases in Psalm 23.
- Leads me beside peaceful streams – God is leading us through life to good things v2
- Guides me along right paths – He is showing me where to put my feet today v3
- You are close beside me – Not behind or in front but partnering with our 9-5 v4
- Prepares a feast in the presence of my enemies – He shows us off near our haters v5
These phrases and words sound a lot like God is actively discipling us. It even sounds like He has been discipling us to himself during the course of our entire lives! I love that there is not an ounce of forceful nature in here, guiding, loving and directing.
The last phrase in Psalm 23 is the bees knees of this verse. Verse 6 says “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.” The word for pursue breaks down from the translation of shall follow in the KJV. But with a little study the word comes alive with connotations of hunting, pursuing and even prosecuting.
Can you imagine a God that loves us so much that He hunts us with love for the purpose of destruction? It doesn’t make sense.
He is guiding and bringing us to his relentless love even now. It is in that love that we feel home. It is in that love that we stop striving for change and greener pastures. In that love that we stop trying to create a world that was never meant to be. Instead we become more like our creator and His love. We become more like the patient, kind love of 1 Cor 13.
This is the relentless love of God.
All scriptures referenced were in the NLT (Psalms 12, Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 13)
This is a small piece of a teaching I did at Neighbourhood Church. You can check out the full video or audio of the session at www.neighbourhoodchurch.ca
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