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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines a one verse each

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Speaker 1: day to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jessica Veenrokel, and after this short word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, we'll dive into today's Bible verse, Psalm

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Speaker 1: chapter twenty three, verse six. Today's Bible verses Psalm Chapter

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Speaker 1: twenty three, verse six. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow

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Speaker 1: me all the days of my life, and I shall

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Speaker 1: dwell in the House of the Lord forever. They say,

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Speaker 1: hindsight is twenty twenty because we can finally see what

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Speaker 1: we didn't notice in the moment. Maybe that moment felt

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Speaker 1: too hard or too impossible to see any good. It

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Speaker 1: can almost be like driving east on a road filled

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Speaker 1: with potholes and barely visible lines, but the rear view

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Speaker 1: mirror reveals a glorious sunset of reds and Gold's goodness

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Speaker 1: is there. Beauty is revealed, but the road where on

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Speaker 1: requires our attention, so we return focus to the path ahead,

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Speaker 1: while glancing in the mirror to catch a glimpse of

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Speaker 1: the clouds on fire like that setting sunset. Psalm twenty

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Speaker 1: three is often looked at as a comforting psalm. It

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Speaker 1: reminds us we can trust God to work for our

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Speaker 1: good in all our circumstances. His goodness and mercy go

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Speaker 1: with us, so we can trust where he leads. Throughout

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Speaker 1: the six verses in this Psalm, we learn that God

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Speaker 1: takes us places. He takes us to meadows besides still waters,

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Speaker 1: in paths of righteousness, and through valleys. He invites us

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Speaker 1: to enjoy time with him in the presence of our enemies.

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Speaker 1: He anoints us and fills our cup to overflowing. Where

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Speaker 1: he goes, so does his goodness and mercy. I want

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Speaker 1: you to picture goodness and mercy as the twin companions

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Speaker 1: in your life. When we look at the Psalm before

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Speaker 1: chapter twenty three, we read about the suffering servant who

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Speaker 1: is Jesus. Psalm twenty four tells us about the King

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Speaker 1: of Glory. So Jesus, who suffered for us, is our

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Speaker 1: good shepherd, as he reiterates in the Book of John

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Speaker 1: in the New Testament. And finally, he is the glorious

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Speaker 1: King who will return. During this life on earth we

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Speaker 1: need a good shepherd. He stays with us through life's journeys,

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Speaker 1: giving us guidance, help, kindness, and support. His goodness points

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Speaker 1: us toward a future without sorrow or sickness. His loving

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Speaker 1: kindness provides redemption here and for eternity. This psalm opens

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Speaker 1: with a declaration and its immediate result, then moves to

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Speaker 1: describe how the shepherd sustains and leads it. Then reassures

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Speaker 1: us of his presence during dire circumstances and when we're

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Speaker 1: amongst our enemies. David ends this psalm with promised blessings

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Speaker 1: for the future. The shepherd leads in the front, and

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Speaker 1: goodness and mercy cover the rear. The original Hebrew defines

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Speaker 1: these two godly attributes as pursuing follow means to pursue

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Speaker 1: or to attend closely upon. It's not that we go

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Speaker 1: through the darkest valleys of our lives alone, but we

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Speaker 1: go through it with the presence of God. David lived

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Speaker 1: in the faithful expectation of God's presence in all his days.

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Speaker 1: We may not be able to change our circumstances, but

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Speaker 1: we can choose whether we allow fear to be our

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Speaker 1: compai or not. Those hard things in life, though they

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Speaker 1: can tempt us to fear for three different reasons. One

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Speaker 1: because we are not in control, two because we do

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Speaker 1: not understand, and three because we frankly do not want

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Speaker 1: the difficulty. Today's verse begins with a word to indicate

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Speaker 1: an emphasis on what comes next. David starts this verse

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Speaker 1: with Surely. David offers reassurance for our everyday situations that

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Speaker 1: can test our patience and try our faith, but we

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Speaker 1: can remember Surely, goodness and mercy follow us, They pursue us.

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Speaker 1: They are comforting attributes of our loving Shepherd. When we

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Speaker 1: pause to acknowledge God's presence, we will see his goodness

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Speaker 1: and mercy. Life will always be full of hardships, enemies, valleys,

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Speaker 1: and grief, maybe not all at once, but throughout our

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Speaker 1: entire lifetime we will face hard things. David teaches us

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Speaker 1: that to trust the good Shepherd means following him into

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Speaker 1: the valley, knowing that his goodness and mercy will be

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Speaker 1: there too. No matter how bad things appear, God is

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Speaker 1: still in control and has our best interest at heart.

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Speaker 1: You see, we get to choose to trust. Psalm chapter

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Speaker 1: twenty three comforts us and calls us to live life

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Speaker 1: with an active faith. God is full of goodness towards

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Speaker 1: those he leads his loving kindness can be rendered as

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Speaker 1: mercy or steadfast love. Challenging times can make our steps

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Speaker 1: feel unsteady. Rejection can be one of those difficult situations.

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Speaker 1: In my book Reframing Rejection, how looking through a different

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Speaker 1: lens changes everything is one of many resources available to help.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes that way forward seems impossible, and yet it is

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Speaker 1: the way we must go. The Shepherd is leading us,

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Speaker 1: He is with us. We do not need to fear.

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Speaker 1: There will be times that we can't go around something.

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Speaker 1: We have to go through it, and Goodness and mercy

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Speaker 1: go with us too. Today, if you are facing an

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Speaker 1: insurmountable trouble, picture Jesus the good Shepherd walking backwards so

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Speaker 1: he can face you. His steps are firm, and his

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Speaker 1: eyes are fixed on you. He beckons you come. He

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Speaker 1: beckons you to walk toward him, to focus on him

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Speaker 1: and not the steep climb. And right behind you are

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Speaker 1: your twin companions, Goodness and Mercy, ready to attend to

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Speaker 1: your needs. Take a step and then another, trusting the

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Speaker 1: good Shepherd's heart for you. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for who you are. You are so

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Speaker 1: many things, but what we need today and who you

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Speaker 1: are today for us as our good shepherd. So God,

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Speaker 1: we're going to follow you. We're going to trust you

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Speaker 1: that if you are leading us, your goodness and mercy

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Speaker 1: are right there with us as well. Give us courage

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Speaker 1: to take the next step, Give us a join us

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Speaker 1: in our heart, a lightness to our step, knowing that

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Speaker 1: you are with us, that you're leading us, that you

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Speaker 1: do not leave us alone, and that you've sent your

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Speaker 1: goodness and mercy as companions for us in Jesus. The

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Speaker 1: same we pray Amen,