Psalm 23: Where Do We Dwell?

Observation: I've read this psalm thousands of times, but today, what occurs to me first is the  wildly different locations: Green pastures, still waters, the darkest valley, the table, the house of the Lord. If this psalm is a journey, we're putting an awful lot of miles on for six short verses. 

Application: It's strange to me that the psalmist, on the one hand, talks about walking through dark valleys, and on the other hand, says he will "dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long." Maybe the sense is God's house--in those days, the Jerusalem temple, but today, any sacred space where we gather for worship and spiritual nourishment--is our home base, from which we launch our journeys elsewhere.  Like, I "dwell" in a house in the woods these days, but after I'm done writing this I'm going to change out of my sweat pants and venture out. Hopefully, the love, rest and relaxation I got while I was here has prepared me for the day. 

I think the idea of God's mercy following us--or even chasing us down--all the days of our life, and the idea of "dwelling in God's house" go hand in hand. When your base camp is God's word, and the Good News you get from a faith-filled community, the faith and trust you learn there will chase you down through the rest of your crazy, chaotic, convoluted, and sometimes insanely hard days. 

Sometimes you won't even want that goodness and mercy following you around. There will be days when you wish you could just handle your business like the rest of the world does, and your faith didn't apply. That would make a lot of your life easier. But when God's word and God's people are your home base, compartmentalizing and being a different person from Sunday to Monday is just not an option. To quote another song, "one way or another, I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna get ya, I'm gonna get ya get ya get ya get ya..."

Prayer: God, thanks (I guess) for your relentless goodness and mercy that chase me down. Help me not run so fast. Help me keep your house, your Word and your people as my home base. Amen.   

(Photo found at https://sinate.deviantart.com/art/Landscape-Fantasy-Dark-Valley-389341575)