First, Psalm 23.
This is a song I have always loved and enjoyed singing because, whether or not I really understood what it meant, it's Scripture so it means something. Recently, I was singing this song alone in my room and the Spirit hit me with some of that meaning. It came when I got to the part that says "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." In the back of my mind I've always thought this meant that God will give me goodness and bring mercy into my life, and while this is true, God is good and merciful to me, I don't think that alone is what God is really saying with this psalm. The deeper meaning is that I will give goodness and I will bring mercy into the lives of other people; that goodness and mercy is the fruit that will follow me as I am led by the Holy Spirit.
Here are a few verses that go into this understanding:
"And He said to him, ' "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.' "-- Matthew 22:37-40
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."-- John 14:15
"My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."-- John 15:8-11
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."-- Galatians 5:22, 23
"What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"-- James 2:14-16
"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."-- Romans 10:17
"He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."-- Psalm 23:3
"You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."-- Psalm 23:5, 6
So, if I love God, I will love my neighbor as myself. If I love God, I will keep His commandments. If I keep His commandments, I will abide in His love and when I abide in His love I will bear much fruit, prove myself to be Christ's disciple and glorify the Father. The fruit that I will bear is the fruit of the Spirit. That fruit is the work of my faith, the faith that comes from hearing the Spirit speak and move on the word of Christ. These are the paths of righteousness He guides me in and it is on the path of righteousness that I am anointed with oil. That oil, the Holy Spirit, overflows into my life and goodness and lovingkindness (the fruit) is borne out into the lives of those around me.
This has to be a part of what it means worship.
