Surely your goodness and unfailing love 

will pursue me 

all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalms 23:6 NLT

The end of David's wee song is full of hope. Hope for eternity, but also hope for today. This last verse doesn't erase the dark valley or the presence of enemies from vv4-5, but it does remind us again that even in those, the Lord is my shepherd, that his goodness and unfailing love can still be found, that even in the darkest of valleys, hope is not and never will be extinguished.

And one day all will be made new. 

I wonder if that's why we put hope in the new year, hope that things can be different, that we might focus on or do some things differently or better or cut some things out that are unhealthy or unhelpful. Good to do that, but David in this short poem also wants us to keep in view the Big Story, and this wonderful aspect of it that God is our shepherd, with us in the dark valley, beside the still waters, in the green pastures, because He entered in. 

As Toby Mac said;

"Our hope is not 

in the new year,

but in the one

who makes 

all things new"

#psalms

#psalm23

#psalm23for2023

#ihavewhatineedcostheLordismyshepherd

#speaklife