Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
Either the free grace, love, favour, and mercy of God in Christ,
which endures continually, and is always the same from
everlasting to everlasting; or the effects of it; and these
either temporal good things, which flow from the goodness and
mercy of God, and not the merits of men; and which are in great
mercy and loving kindness bestowed on his people, and which
follow them: they do not anxiously seek after them; but seeking
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, these are added to
them, they trusting in the Lord, and he caring for them: or
spiritual good things, which arise from the mere grace and mercy
of God; such as the blessings of the covenant, the sure mercies
of David, the discoveries and instances of the love of God, and
the provisions of his house, which follow them, being undeserving
of them; and even when they have backslidden from the Lord, and
in times of distress, when his grace is sufficient for them; and
of all this the psalmist had a comfortable assurance, depending
upon the promise of God, arguing from the blessings he had
already bestowed, and from the constant care he takes of his
people, having in view his unchangeableness and faithfulness, the
firmness of his covenant, and the irreversibleness of the
blessings of it: the words may be rendered "only goodness and
mercy" F3 nothing but mere mercy and kindness;
for though afflictions do attend the children of God, yet these
are in mercy and love; there is no fury in the Lord against them;
there is nothing comes in wrath to them, throughout the whole
course of their lives; wherefore it is added,
all the days of my life;
the mercies of God are new every morning, they continue all the
day long; temporal goodness abides as long as life lasts, and
ends with it; and spiritual blessings are for ever, they are the
gifts of God, which are without repentance;
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for
ever;
which may denote his constant attendance on the public worship of
God, of which he had been deprived in time past, being driven out
from it, but now he enjoyed it, and believed he ever should; or
it may design his being a member of the church of God, and a
pillar in the house and temple of the Lord, that should never go
out; see ( Revelation
3:12 ) ; or it may regard the assurance he had of dwelling in
the house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens, Christ's
Father's house, in which are many mansions, sure dwellings, and
quiet resting places for his people, and that to all eternity.
The Targum interprets it of the house of the sanctuary; and
Kimchi expounds the whole verse in a petitionary way, "may
goodness and mercy"