Walking in the Valley

Psalm 23:1–6 ESV

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even 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 overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Prayer

On April 11th, 1970, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise launched from Merrill Island in Florida en route to the moon. There had been several successful missions to space at this point, including the lunar landing in 1969. But this one went haywire very quickly. It started off well. The launch happened according to schedule and the astronauts had settled into the 3 day journey to the moon.

At around the 56 hour mark, things turned bad very quickly. What the crew did not know was that one of the liquid oxygen tanks that were installed in the aircraft had actually been dropped on the factory floor and was still installed. So, as they were traveling through space, the tank (which at this point because of the damage was a live bomb), exploded. This caused other issues on the flight and that led to Jim Lovell calling back to the ground and exclaiming the very famous words, “Houston, we’ve had a problem”.

This began the work to bring the crew home safely. The calculations to bring them home had to be changed. The crew had to move into the landing module to survive. Ground control had to work around the clock to be able to get them home. The communications between ground control and the module had to be constant.

For the astronauts to survive, they had to listen to the instructions and follow them, even when they didn’t understand why. At one point, there was about 6 minutes in the flight were communication went black. Ground control didn’t know what was going on with Apollo 13 and the crew didn’t know what was happening on the ground.

For us, we cannot lose our communication with the one who is guiding us and protecting us. Journey’s can be very tough for us at times. We cannot see where we are going, we feel like the journey cannot get any worse, and we don’t see the dangers that we know are out there. But, the shepherd is still there for the sheep.

Even on the hardest journey’s, I am safe because of the Shepherd

Many of us will read this psalm and take each verse apart and look at our lives. We will think that those green pastures and still waters sure do sound nice, but life looks a lot more like the valley of the shadow of death more often than not. Health struggles, financial struggles, family struggles. All of those make it feel like we are in the valley. But we cannot take this verse out of context.

There are times when we must go through the valleys to get to the green pastures and still waters. We have to go through the danger and the rough terrain and the darkness where the predators are hiding so that we can feast on the luscious green grass that the shepherd has found for us. But to do so, we must remember who the shepherd is. The shepherd is God and he will lead us and keep us safe through the valley of the shadow of death.

In your bible, you will see how this is broken down. The book of psalms is a collection of songs. Psalm 23 is a song that is written by David. David was a shepherd. He was chosen by God to by the King of Israel. David knew sin, he knew heartache, and he knew shepherding. This particular psalm is broken into 3 sections. Verses 1-3, verse 4, verses 5-6. The first 2 weeks, I split up verses 1-3. Today I am going to take verse 4 by itself, and wrap it up next Sunday.

In verse 4, there are lines to this stanza. I am going to take this line by line as we go through the Psalm.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I was talking with a friend the other day and he was telling me about a trip that he and his wife took last year. They decided that they wanted to do an Alaskan cruise. Now, I went on my first cruise last year out of Charleston. There is a big difference between driving to Charleston and going to Vancouver to board a ship. All I had to do was pack a suitcase and hop in the car and drive. What he and his wife had to do was they had to book flights, book hotels, get their passports, and pay for all of that extra stuff just to get there. Then, you have to make the trip worth it. If you are going to all of that trouble just to get on the ship, you aren’t taking a 3 day cruise. So, you take at least a week long cruise. And then you have to fill the itinerary.

Now, if I am thinking about itinerary of life, I am going to be sure that I fill it up with as much green pastures and still waters as possible. And, if I can manage it, I am going to avoid the valley of the shadow of death. That just isn’t a place that I want to travel to. But, in reality, many of us are there right now.

David, in his psalm, adds in a little detail we need to notice. And I pray that this gives you encouragement even in the darkest days. He says that in the valley of the shadow of death, it is something that you walk through. This is not a place that we stand in or lie in or even walk around in. We walk through it. The valley does not lead to death, it is just part of the journey.

For the shepherds, the valley was just part of the journey to higher ground. In certain parts of the year, they would have used up all of the good grass and needed to move higher. The path to that was through the valley. So, when we take a look at the journey, the valley is not a picture of fear, but of hope. The valley will lead us to the higher ground.

I don’t want to dance around the fact that valley’s are terrible to go through in the moment. They are not fun and they can always be exhausting. Especially when we feel like we are always in one. But, if we are always discouraged about the valley’s, then that tells us that we must change our perspective. One of the best things that we can get from the valley is the reminder that we must rely upon God. God has promised the valley. It is part of life.

James 1:2–4 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The valley produces steadfastness and steadfastness leads to us lacking in nothing. It is in the valley that God provides for us the faith that causes us to rely upon the shepherd. When we read the New Testament, we read a lot about Paul. And Paul was an upright and steadfast follower of Jesus, yet he was not immune to trouble. He spoke about something or someone that he called a “thorn in his flesh”. He said that he pleaded to God to take it away but God did not do so. We need to strive to respond to our hard times as Paul did in his conversation with God.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

That is the mindset I want. It doesn’t matter what I have to go through, bring it on if that means that I am living for Christ. I want to be as weak as possible if that means that others can see his strength.

When we change our perspective of what the valley really is, then we will see even the good that comes from the valley. The reason that the shepherds would take the sheep through the valley to get to the mountain is not just because the terrain provided the best route, but because that is where the best water was. That is where the sheep found refreshment.

For us, we find refreshment in God himself. We lean on him in the hardest moments and we know that he is the one who will fill us up and sustain us. And, this is such a wonderful thing to know, after we have been in the valley and we know where to find refreshment, when we see others come into a valley, we are able to show them where the refreshment is.

We walk through the valley. But, even while we are walking through the valley, we don’t fear evil.

I will fear no evil

So even when we are walking through the valley, and we know that there is danger, we will not be afraid of the evil. This is what is freeing about not being the shepherd. You aren’t the one who has the weight of the herd on your back. A sheep has spent time with the shepherd. They have experienced the journey’s with him. How he has taken them to good food and clean water. How he has seen the predators coming their way and he has stopped them. So we trust.

I think it is safe to say that if we are fearful of what may happen, then there is a chance that this fear comes from distrust. We have all experienced God’s protection and provision just as the sheep in the herd have experienced the same from a shepherd. So it is not excusable that we say we don’t trust because we aren’t sure if God is really there for us.

If you have ever thought that God is not there for you, then I am sorry. On Wednesday, we talked about the book of Ruth and about providence and how God is always working in everything. The thing about providence is we don’t see it until we are out of the valley sometimes.

We need a shift in perspective when we are in the valley and all we are focused on is the darkness. It is not a bad thing that we see the darkness and the dangers around us in the valley. But we must, at the same time, be focused on the mountain top. Drink from the fresh water and eat from the grass that is in the valley, but focus on the mountain tops. But even while we are in the valley, we will for no evil.

But there is a reason that we will not fear evil. That is because…

For you are with me

God is always with us. Even in the darkest valley’s, he is with us. There are times where we can truly know without a doubt that God is with us because it is undeniable. But, at other times, maybe the fact that we are still drawing breath in our lungs is the only evidence we have. But God is always there. Both Deut. and Hebrews promise us that God does not leave us or forsake us. He is always with us.

How fitting it is that this verse falls on Christmas Sunday. Every year, we remember the birth of Jesus. Emmanuel, God with us. This is the point of the gospel. That God saw our need for him because sin has separated us from him. So he sent his son, in the form of a baby. Jesus grew up, sinless and perfect. He went to the cross and died for our sins so that when we repent and turn to him, we are saved. If you believe he did that for you, then you are saved. And you will eternally be able to say what David says right here that he is with you. But the shepherd is not empty handed.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me

I have a friend, Heath, who went on a hike in the Uwharries several years ago. He was making it a camping trip. This wasn’t the first time he had done something like this so he knew what he needed to take. He wasn’t going to overload himself. He took shelter, food, and water to get him on his trip. He also had a dog and he decided to take his dog with him.

The trip in was not an issue. Everything went just fine as he had expected. The trip back out was when things changed. His dog decided he was done hiking. So the dog just laid down. A full grown golden retriever. So my friend had to pick up the dog and throw him over his shoulders to be able to hike the rest of the way back to his truck.

The amount of equipment that you have is very integral when you are traveling on foot. So, just like for a hiker, a shepherd must travel light. The typical tools that a shepherd would carry with him were a rod and a staff.

A rod would be like a club shaped piece of hard wood. Now, the club served several purposes. The shepherd would use it to protect the sheep. They would spend much time practicing throwing the club through the air as hard as they could to work on their accuracy so that if they saw a predator coming at a sheep, they would hurl the club at it to stop the attack.

It is like a cowboy out in the prairies. A cowboy out in the wild is of no use to the cattle on a cattle drive if they have no gun to protect the cattle. That is what the club would be used for.

The rod was a symbol of authority to the sheep as well. It would also be used as a means of discipline. If a sheep began to cut up or get out of line, the shepherd would use it to get them back in line. Just as the rod was used for authority for the sheep, we also have a means of authority. Scripture is what has authority for us today. The words in this book are the very words of God. They are a means of correction for us when we get out of line.

Along the same lines, the rod was used also to examine the sheep. The shepherd needed to know the physical condition of the sheep so he would use the rod to lift the wool and expose what was under it.

In the same manner, we cannot hide things from God. We are not able to “pull the wool over his eyes” and hide something. He takes his club of the spirit and sees what we try to hide and then takes his club of scripture as a means of authority over our lives.

The rod is a means of protection for the flock. Scripture is our protection from evil. Both evils things coming from the outside and evil things that spring up from the inside. To fight off evil, Jesus quoted scripture.

In his time spending 40 days in the wilderness, he was tempted by Satan. In Luke chapter 4, it records 3 different temptations that Satan brings before Jesus. He tempted Jesus with the wrong provisions, with power, and with physical protection. Yet Jesus stood firm. And if you read Luke 4 in the first 13 verses of the chapter, you will see that Jesus answered each temptation by saying, “it is written”.

We find protection, not just through the word of God, but by knowing the word of God. This books potential comes out when we put it in our hearts. There is not power found in leather bound paper and ink, but in the spirit working out the word of God in our lives. We must put to memory the truths of scripture. This is the rod that God uses.

But then they had the staff as well. The staff is used much like the rod except it was for closer issues. The shepherd would use the staff to keep the sheep close, guide the sheep, and to pull the sheep out of danger. I want to tell you that our staff is also found in the word of God.

I am thankful to God for the rods and the staffs that are in my life. For these things are what give me comfort. Find comfort in the word of God, in prayer, in surrounding ourselves with godly friends. We need to do this all of the time but these are even more of a blessing while we are walking through the dark valleys in life.

I want to gi

Focus beyond the valley

We all know people who never leave the valley in life. We must keep our focus on the mountain top or we will never get out of the valley. Focus your eyes on the good shepherd who is Jesus and what he is doing for you while you are in the valley.

Submit to the rod and staff

The tools that the shepherd uses are for the good of the sheep. Don’t become some rogue sheep. Be submitted to God through his word. Love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates. Do what God’s word says do and don’t do what it says not to do. Be submitted.

Remember the valley

There will come a time when we are no longer in a valley. Or, we have been through valleys that were so bad, that the ones we are going to be going through don’t even seem like valleys. Remember what God has done for you. Look in the rearview mirror and see all of the ways that God was working. Remember that there are times when our biggest times of growth are while we are in the valley. We become nourished and strengthen while at the same time we become more steadfast like Paul. And then, we can help others through the valleys.

Conclusion

This week ahead may look very different for each and every one of us. This may be a time of celebration but there may be some of us who are facing a very hard week. Take the word of God that he has given us today and live it out. Lean on God’s provision and power to get us through this week.

Even though we walk through dark valleys, we won’t fear any evil, because God is with us and we have him to guide us and for us to be protected by him. Remember that this week. Even on the hardest journey’s, we are safe because of the Shepherd.