Finally, Some Good News

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 
(Psalm 23:6)

There is so much discouraging news floating around out there. That’s why over the last month, we’ve been slowly working through Psalm 23 – the Shepherd’s Psalm. It is a cry of trust written from the perspective of a sheep towards his shepherd. And it closes in much the same was as it opens: with a declaration of joyful contentment from one who rests under the capable care of the Good Shepherd.

The first verse declares, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need.”

The final verse declares, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!”


I don’t know about you, but whenever I read about dwelling in the Lord’s house forever, my mind automatically goes to the throne-room of Heaven. After all, that’s where God resides, right? So if I want to be in His presence, I need to go where He is.

And this leads me to interpret David’s statement as a “some day” declaration. Some day I will finally be with God in heaven. Some day I will finally leave this broken world, full of pain and heartache and disappointment.

Someday.

But that implies that I can’t dwell in God’s house now. I’m stuck here in my house, with kids that don’t want to do their distance learning, snacks that keep begging me to add to my ‘dad-bod,’ and a virus that quietly stalks our streets. Oh joy!

But what if I’ve been reading this wrong all these years? What if my Western-interpretation of what David means by “the house of the Lord” has actually obscured the immediacy of his joy?

I turn one last time to the words of Philip Keller, whose insights gleaned from years as a shepherd have proven invaluable to our journey through the Shepherd’s Psalm. He explains that the Shepherd’s house isn’t referring to a physical home, like a church building or even to heaven itself. Rather, “what is referred to by ‘house’ is the family or household or flock of the Good Shepherd.”

In other words, coming into the house of the Lord means coming under His ownership and finding rest in His care. And as we’ve seen all throughout Psalm 23, David already considers himself to be under the care of the Good Shepherd. He resides in the presence of the Lord, regardless of whether he lays in the green pastures or walks through the dark valleys of life. He says that no matter what my circumstances, my heart is at peace because “You are with me.”

And that means we don’t need to wait until we die to find rest in the house - or the care - of the Lord. We can rest under His loving and capable hands here and now, even in the midst of this sin-scarred world.

Now, I should mention that there are other shepherds out there, and they're not nearly as good. Peter warned us that “we are slaves to whatever has mastered us.” (2 Peter 2:19) That means some of us are slaves to our ambition, others to our appetites, and still others to our anxiety. These are just a few of the many cruel owners in whose flock we might find ourselves. They are demanding masters who are never satisfied and couldn’t care less about our well-being. Many of us have labored under their judgmental gaze far too long, and our efforts left us spiritually emaciated.

But we don’t need to live under the heavy hand of these cruel and heartless taskmasters for the rest of our lives. We don’t have to futilely search for our identity or scratch our meager sustenance from their desolate fields any longer. Jesus made a way for us to enter the care – or house – of the Good Shepherd whenever we choose. 

No, we don’t have to jump the fence. We couldn’t do that if we wanted to. Nor do we need to earn the right to become one of his sheep by doing impressive things to help us stand out from the rest of the haggard sheep. There really are no barbed-wire hoops to jump through at all. Because Jesus made a way into our Heavenly Father’s fields.

Let me rephrase that – Jesus IS the way into our Heavenly Father’s fields.

Don’t take my word for it. Jesus said so himself: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9).

That means the cross isn’t just good news for when we die; it’s good news for us here and now in this sin-scarred world. Because Jesus laid down his life to make a way for us to come back to our Father’s flock. We don’t need to earn it – that’s what makes it’s a gift.

But this invitation isn’t just for us. It’s also for every other man, woman and child on the planet. So once we enter through the grace-filled gate, once we taste and see that our Father truly is a loving and capable shepherd, then we get to spend our lives roaming the fences, looking for other sheep who desperately need to hear that they don’t need to labor under the heavy hand of their earthly masters any longer. Because His love made a way.

And the best part? No matter how bad the weather gets, no matter how dark the valleys we walk through, the brokenness of this world will never get the last word. We will reside under the loving care of our Creator for all eternity.

And that truly is good news.