God’s in hot pursuit - 17 June 2011 |
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Psalm 23:6 suffers when Bible translators render it along the lines of “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Perhaps it’s just too well-known for anyone (even the ESV translation team, apparently) to risk changing the time-honoured tradition set by the AV. But the simple fact is that it doesn’t say God’s goodness and mercy shall follow me. It says God’s goodness and mercy shall pursue me.
For the Hebrew-junkies, the verb is rdp in the qal stem. It’s often found in contexts where God’s people are bring pursued by their enemies (cf. NIDOTTE, BDB). Lexically, it could just about mean “follow” in some situations, but that hardly fits the context here, with the overtones of taking refuge in the temple from the [pursuing, not following] avenger of blood and so on (cf. Wilson, Psalms 1-72, p. 436).
Thus the thought is not merely that God’s goodness and mercy are hanging around in the background, ready for us to call upon them whenever we regain consciousness from whatever battering we’ve been suffering. Rather, “the term is used to describe the relentless pursuit of the psalmist by the ‘goodness and mercy’ of God” (Wilson, Psalms 1-72, p. 436). He’s not merely following us; he’s chasing us down. Our God is in hot pursuit, and pretty soon he’ll catch up.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog