Surely your goodness and love will follow me
Psalm 23:6
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
Devotional
We’ve been thinking this past year about the word Dwell: how can we dwell with God, live in God’s presence, using the Psalms. And now we come to the last word, the last thought on Dwell!
All through the year, we’ve been looking for the ways Heaven touches Earth, the places where God dwells with us. And now we are in the season of Advent, when Jesus Immanuel became God with us, and in his coming, we know and feel that Heaven touched earth.
In this last verse, we stand with the Psalmist in the House of the Lord, and the Lord himself has welcomed us as the generous Host. He’s prepared a banquet table for us; he’s filled the cups to overflowing; he’s lavished on us signs of recognition and honor by anointing us with perfumed oil. We can only imagine the scents and sounds, the beautiful food, the music, the colors, the joy and the celebration of this heavenly House. And at its heart is the Host who is the Lord himself. The joyful, loving Ghost of Christmas Present is a little like this in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol: generous, full of laughter, joyful, vibrant, abundantly giving. (All the best stories go back to the One Story that is truth and light.)
During the journey of life, the Psalmist imagines that God’s goodness and love will follow him, all the days of his life. And after life, he will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever. We remember that the promises of God are for here and now, as well as later in heaven. So—what would it be like to remember that God’s goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives? Does that mean nothing tough or bad will ever happen to us? We know that isn’t true. But it means that the last thing that happens to us is God’s love and goodness, in the aftermath of whatever it was; bad health news, or eviction, or job loss, or divorce, or grief will be followed by God’s goodness and love. God will have the last word, and it will be good. And then the Psalmist ends with the best news of all: He (and we!) will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
What does that mean to you and me? Let’s think about it like this: do you remember what it felt like to come home, to the home you longed for? Do you remember the faces at the window, the hugs and kisses there on the doorstep? Do you remember the familiar surroundings, the best-loved people, the smiling faces that encircled you? Do you remember that your family served your favorite meal and put flowers on your bedside table and how even your old dog wagged his tail in greeting? It could be that you have really had a loving home like this, or it could be that you never had a home like that, if family was shattered and let you down and home was just not a place you wanted to be. This Psalm gives us the good news that there still is a home for us, waiting at the end of the road, and there is One at the door who longs to welcome us in, where we are welcome to dwell forever. The Home your heart longs for is there for you and for me, and nothing can take that away.
And the best news of all is this: that home is yours here and now, in this life. You can know the joy of belonging, of God wanting to dwell with you, where you are right now. Come Lord Jesus, God with us, Immanuel!
For Reflection
- How have you experienced God dwelling with you this year?
- What does it mean to you that the King of the Universe wants to be God with us?
- How have you known Heaven touching earth in your life?
Prayer
Dear Lord, you are home to me. In you, I find the love and grace that has followed me, no matter what happens. You are with me in the shadowed valley, and you are there to welcome me to your Home. Help me to hold that Home in my heart like a warm ember, reminding me of my forever with You. Through Christ who dwells with me, Amen!
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Devotionals