03/09/2026
Psalm 23 is a famous, beautiful and comforting passage of Scripture. Today, I want to draw your attention to the phrase in verse 6:
“Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life.”
— Psalm 23:6 NLT
There is something quite remarkable about that word pursue.
In the original language this Psalm was written in, Hebrew, the word used is radaph. And the meaning of the word is quite strong. It means to run after, chase, follow, pursue and even hunt. It is a word that carries the idea of something actively coming after you.
The word radaph appears in 135 verses throughout the Bible. Interestingly, in almost every other instance it is used in a negative sense. It is used to describe enemies pursuing people, people being hunted down, or someone relentlessly chasing after another.
But then we come to Psalm 23, and suddenly the word takes on a completely different meaning.
Because look at what is pursuing us.
It isn't an enemy.
It isn't something we need to escape from.
It is the goodness and unfailing love of God.
Think about that for a moment.
The God who created you isn't standing at a distance, waiting for you to somehow find your way back to Him. His goodness is pursuing you. His love is pursuing you. His kindness and mercy are following after you—not occasionally, not only when life is going well, but all the days of your life.
David doesn't say, “Surely God's goodness will pursue me when I get everything right.”
He doesn't say, “His unfailing love will pursue me when I feel close to God.”
He doesn't say, “His goodness will pursue me on the good days.”
He says, “all the days of my life.”
That includes the difficult days.
The confusing days.
The days when you feel overwhelmed and don't know what to do next.
The days when your prayers seem to disappear into silence.
The days when you question where God is or wonder whether He is really with you.
Even then, you are being pursued by the goodness and love of God.
Sometimes we can look back on our lives and see moments where God's goodness was obvious. We can see the provision, the protection, the unexpected answer to prayer, or the person who appeared at exactly the right time. Those moments make it easy to say, “God was there.”
But what about the moments when we can't see it?
What if God's goodness is still pursuing us even when we don't recognise it?
What if, in the middle of the story, we simply don't yet have the perspective to see what God is doing?
Psalm 23 reminds us that God's presence and goodness aren't dependent on our ability to perceive them.
The shepherd is still there when the sheep walks through the darkest valley.
The shepherd is still there when the path is difficult.
The shepherd is still there when the destination isn't visible.
And perhaps that is one of the most comforting truths in this entire Psalm: you don't have to chase after God's goodness because God's goodness is already chasing after you.
You may feel like you are struggling to hold onto God today. Perhaps your faith feels fragile, your circumstances feel uncertain, or you simply don't know what the next step looks like.
But take heart.
Your circumstances may change. Your emotions may change. Your understanding may change. Your sense of God's presence may even change.
But His goodness and unfailing love don't.
They pursue you.
They follow you.
They go with you.
And they will continue to do so—not just for a season, not just when life makes sense, but all the days of your life.
So perhaps today, instead of asking, “Can I feel God's goodness?”
ask yourself:
“Where might God's goodness already be pursuing me?”
Maybe it is in something small that you have overlooked. Maybe it is in the people He has placed around you. Maybe it is in the strength to get through one more day. Maybe it is simply in the quiet assurance that, whatever you are facing, you are not facing it alone.
The Shepherd is with you.
And His goodness is coming after you.
All the days of your life.
