Favor Follows Obedience. Because God is Shepherding.

Psalm 23:6 (NKJV)
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.”

David ends Psalm 23 with certainty. He says, “Surely.”
This is not a collection of comforting lines to quote when life is hard. This is a pathway of surrendered relationship.

Psalm 23 starts with, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
Which means we are not leading, but following. And when we let the Shepherd lead, we discover that goodness and mercy follow us with certainty.

David follows the Shepherd. Then goodness and mercy follow David.
This is the rhythm of a life encompassed by favor.

This is favor with consistency. Favor with longevity. Favor that does not clock out when pressure clocks in.

It is important to know that we do not access verse 6 without walking through verses 1 to 5. Not because we earn God’s love, but because we are cooperating with the Shepherd’s leadership.

John 14:23 (TPT)
“Jesus replied, ‘Loving me empowers you to obey my word. And my Father will love you so deeply that we will come to you and make you our dwelling place.’”

Jesus says it with clarity:
Love empowers obedience.
Obedience reinforces intimacy.
And intimacy becomes a dwelling place.

So when David says, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me,” it is the fruit of a life that has been led, restored, guided, corrected, and sustained by the Shepherd.

This is God doing what only God can do, in ways only God could orchestrate.
And His mercy is the loving faithfulness that cleans up what we could not fix, and heals what we did not know was broken.

This is why the enemy is so intimidated by a yielded believer.
He can try to oppose us, but he cannot override what God has assigned to follow us.

Favor follows obedience. Because God is shepherding.
And when He shepherds, He does it comprehensively: still waters, restored soul, right paths, courage in valleys, a table in the presence of enemies, overflow in warfare, and goodness and mercy chasing us down.

Goodness and mercy are assigned to our obedience.
They are attached to our dwelling place.
They follow us all the days of our lives.