“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Psalms 23:6 NIV

 

I was never the oldest, but I can clearly remember how irritated my big brother could get when I insisted on following him and his friends around.  Like a shadow he couldn’t shake.

Just like the love of the Lord, I guess.

But what happens to this analogy when it grows dark?  For then the shadow disappears and not even an outline remains.

We read that His help is a light that conquers the dark.

But sometimes,

for some people,

it remains dark for a while first.

 

Huge note:  God created darkness.

His love does not cease when it closes in.

The ceaseless, pursuing shadow of God’s love does not vanish.

It grows and flows into all the darkness that surrounds you and tempers its scariness.

Just like your mom taught you how to take a little of the warmed-up milk and mix it with the eggs first, before returning the lukewarm mix to the large saucepan to create the custard.

In this way you temper the heat that would have the eggs frighten itself into scrambles and ruin the custard.

Surely.

Surely.

Some days I need to know that the love of the Lord will surely not evaporate when darkness settles around me.  On those days He covers me in His crossbought-blood and it runs down my face and my hands and my feet and tempers everything that threatens to take my breath away and my joy too.

That which was sent to do me harm, ends up glorifying His presence in my life.

 

Psalm 27

A Psalm of David and Maxie and Liana and Willem and Magdaleen and Rentia and Nico and…

 

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom will I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life;

of whom will I be afraid?

 

When the wicked came against me

to eat my flesh—

my enemies and my foes—

they stumbled and fell.

Though an army should encamp against me,

my heart will not fear;

though war should rise against me,

in this will I be confident.

 

One thing I have asked from the Lord,

that will I seek after—

for me to dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to see the beauty of the Lord,

and to inquire in His temple.

 

For in the time of trouble

He will hide me in His pavilion;

in the shelter of His tabernacle He will hide me;

He will set me up on a rock.

 

Now my head will be lifted up

above my enemies encircling me;

therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;

I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

 

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!

Be gracious to me and answer me.

When You said, “Seek My face,”

my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

Do not hide Your face far from me;

do not thrust Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help.

Do not leave me nor forsake me,

O God of my salvation.

 

If my father and my mother forsake me,

then the Lord will take me in.

 

Teach me Your way, O Lord,

and lead me in an upright path,

because of my enemies.

Do not deliver me to the will of my enemies;

for false witnesses have risen against me,

and they breathe out violence.

 

 I believe

I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord;

be strong, and may your heart be stout;

wait on the Lord.”

 

Modern English Version

 

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