Welcome to the Femina Podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks for joining me today.

Apparently, this is episode number 125. And I am so surprised. God gets all the credit for this.

But it's like, honestly, for real? So, here we go. We just keep on trucking, don't we?

Today I'm going to talk to you about this verse, which is from Psalm 23. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I just, of course, love that verse. I love that Psalm. And it's such a wonderful promise that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives.

And the entire Psalm, of course, it's only six verses, but it's so well known because it's such a comforting Psalm. God really is our good shepherd.

But I just want to talk today about the one part of verse six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

First of all, surely, surely. And the dictionary defines this word as firmly unerringly without missing undoubtedly assuredly or certainly.

So, in other words, it's not doubtful. It is firmly and undoubtedly for sure.

In other words, when God says he will surely do something, there's just absolutely no room for doubt. He has said it and he is the Lord Psalm 34, eight, one of my favorite Psalms.

And I think because I learned to sing it early on in my Christian life. And so it just stuck with me. But verse eight,

oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trust in him. God invites us to trust him. He invites us to taste and see how good he is, how good his goodness is.

And blessed is the man who trusted him. Well, I want to be blessed, don't you? So if I trust God, I'm blessed. He's good. I can trust him. He's the definition of goodness.

So, as we grow in Christ, as we study his character, as we read his word, as we believe his promises, our faith is going to grow and be stronger and stronger.

Because we've leaned on the Lord and we've tasted and we've seen he's good. We can trust him. So there's no room for doubt.

Psalm 33.5 says he loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Just full of it. Think of that.

And I know you can see it like I can. He's so full of his goodness every day, every night, though we can certainly be distracted by our own sinfulness or the sinfulness of mankind or the brokenness of our world.

But we can still see with our own eyes the goodness of the Lord everywhere. The earth is teeming with his goodness and his mercy.

Psalm 107 repeats this verse three times in verse eight, in verse 15, in verse 21 and verse 31.

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Oh, that men would give thanks.

In other words, what is hindering us? Oh, give thanks. This is what we're called to do. Why are we not doing this more all the time? Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for what? For his goodness.

So give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, you and your children. We could begin the morning and give thanks all day and never run out of examples of his wonderful works to the children of men.

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