“Goodness and mercy will follow me”
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23:6 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Good things gently trailing along behind, at a distance.
The cultural key
'Follow' is far too mild. The Hebrew verb radaph means to pursue, chase, or hunt down, and it is the word used everywhere else for enemies bearing down on you: an army in pursuit, a hunter after prey. Elsewhere in the Psalms it is foes who 'pursue' David; here, in a startling reversal, it is God's goodness and covenant love (chesed) that pursue him, all the days of his life. The picture is not benefits ambling along behind at a distance but the relentless chase of a divine kindness that will not let him go. The sheep spends its life fleeing predators; this sheep is chased instead by goodness. Rendering it 'follow' tames a word that means to hunt down.
Recovered meaning
The verb behind 'follow' means to pursue or hunt down, the word used for a chasing enemy. David says God's goodness and love actively chase him all his life: he is not trailed by blessing but relentlessly pursued by it.