The Lord is my shepherd,
I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul…

The beautiful Psalm 23—We know it, we love it, we have it memorized.

But the English NIV translation of the final verse of Psalm 23 is too tame—at least in one line. It is sweet and kind, but the word doesn’t wholly capture God’s intent with his message to us here. It is less than what reality truly is. We often settle for less, don’t we? Less than what God has for us.
In the final verse of the Psalm, we hear God promise this:

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

It is beautiful and comforting—but there’s more to it. The word for “follow” is actually about God pursuing us. Surely your goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life. Hunting us down. Chasing us and catching up to us. This isn’t the same idyllic picture we’ve likely had in mind when reading this verse in the past. Should we be concerned?

The good shepherd pictured here is not one-dimensionally gentle. There’s more to it. We find here the image of a passionate God who will not let go. The shepherd is on our heels with a crook in his hand to pull us from disaster. And more often than not, you and I do not even perceive the danger or notice the crook around our neck pulling us in the right direction. We may never know how many times our shepherd pulled us to safety.

And because we are like sheep blissfully ignorant of the demons that surround us and the pitfalls in front of us, sometimes we think we can outrun it all—outrun the danger, outrun the shepherd even. But we are too slow, and that is a good thing. You can bet on God in this race, the one who pursues you with a passion to protect you. God made a promise, and he keeps his promises.

The author of our faith has your story written, but it is only slowly revealed, chapter by chapter to you. And in the end, in the final chapter, there is a table that has been prepared for you. There is a cup that overflows, there is a head anointed with oil, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death now, for a time. God made a promise, and he keeps his promise. His goodness and love pursue you and me; he easily keeps pace as we run after things that don’t satisfy. When your Shepherd has you in his care, the final chapter of your book has a marvelously happy ending.