The Valley of the Shadow of Death (23rd Psalm part 2)

From the Pastor:

Psalm 23:4

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.

In the hill country of Judah there were deep valleys known as “wadis”. These valleys were dried out river beds that were difficult to navigate not only because of their topography, but also because they were dark areas that let in little light. Due to this fact they became a place where dangerous people would lurk, or sometimes they would be a place for dangerous animals to lay in wait for unsuspecting prey. At other times sudden rains may lead to them becoming flashflood areas filling quickly with rushing water. None of these scenarios present us with a pretty picture of the valley David begins this next section of the Psalm with. Yet, this is the very point the Psalmist is trying to make. Last week we saw how the Good Shepherd goes to great lengths to care for His sheep. The LORD nourishes His sheep with exactly what they need when they need it. It’s a beautiful picture of God’s love and tenderness for His children. However, verse four takes a turn to another very important reality of life in a fallen world. It is not all rainbows and rose gardens. Life in a fallen world can lead to danger and loss at any time. Whether problems come from natural disasters, acts of violence, or simply the results of bad decision making; our lives can change moment to moment in all of the situations. That fact has hit many of us very hard in this last year. This pandemic has been another reminder of the frailty of human life in this fallen world. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a) Perhaps, you did not need Covid-19 to remind you of that fact, yet for many it seems to have come for that very reason. We are not entitled to or guaranteed from God one more breath than what He has ordained for us. He has numbered our days from the end to the beginning, and all that He has ordained is right. However, the purpose of the Psalmist in contrasting this hard reality to the joys of the previous scene are not to scare us, but to assure us that even in ...