Of Goodness and Mercy

 Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy -Shane and Shane

God’s Goodness: what delight this confidence bestows

His goodness does not shift like shadows through life’s highs and lows

But, steadfast and secure in spite of creature care

The full assurance of His goodness combats dark despair

Where we who trust in Him, and His goodness unfurled

Are part of His Goodness, to bring hope to a dying world

To cheer the suffering, to bear their burden too

To be a ready offering of His goodness run through

God’s mercy: what sweet joy and consolation bless

No foe or trouble can destroy mercy’s kind faithfulness

Sin’s pardon has been won. No other fete achieves

What mercy grants to everyone who repents and believes

Where we would deserve death and hell, grace sets us free

His mercy fills Final Breath’s knell with shouts of victory

For through death’s valley, He will walk with us, so near

To overthrow the enemy so that we need not fear

Goodness and mercy, oh, let endless praise begin

His goodness for our want and woe, His mercy for our sin

Wherever life may lead, whatever may befall

Goodness and mercy intercede to help us through it all

Where so unworthy we, heirs and joint heirs of Christ

Benefit from the agony that Jesus sacrificed

To draw all men to Him, the Perfect Prince of Peace

Where His goodness and mercy brim from founts that never cease

The glass through which we peer does not reveal the whole

A darkly, sorrow-scarred veneer enshrouds the deathless soul

Where what we see in part often vexes our gaze

Goodness and mercy’s works of art above our thoughts and ways

Because the cruciform of faith and hope and love

Must bear the testing storm its authenticity to prove

But, whatever betide, of grief and pain and strife

Goodness and mercy will preside all the days of our life

© Janet Martin

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not [a]want.

2 He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;

He leads me beside the [c]still waters.

3 He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

And I will [d]dwell in the house of the Lord

[e]Forever.