"A Walk in the Valley"

[Read Psalm 23]

In the Bible there are several valleys that are viewed as problems.

Joshua talks about the Valley of Calamity.

Psalm 84 speaks about the Valley of Weeping.

Hosea talks about the valley of Trouble.

Even in our country we have a famous valley called Death Valley.

Death Valley in California is the lowest, driest and hottest desert in the United States.

Since we began keeping records, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134 degrees.

It is not unusual to have temperatures of 120 degrees day after day in the summer.

Death Valleyis actually a national park.

The brochure for Death Valley National Park reads this way:

Summer starts early in Death Valley. By May the valley is too hot for most visitors. . . Lodging and camping are available, but only the most hardy will want to camp in the low elevations in the summer. Most summer visitors tour by car to the main points of interest along the paved roads but do little else due to the extreme heat.

That dangerously high heat is exactly the reason many car makers send their prototype models to Death Valley in the middle of the summer.

They want to see how the cars perform under the intense conditions.

Recently, a team of engineers from South Korea automaker Kia put three of its proposed new models through a series of grueling tests.

The models tested were a sporty crossover and two 7-passenger SUVs.

The tests included frequent starting and stopping and prolonged idling.

The tests also included towing 7,000 pound loads up and down the steep mountain roads surrounding the valley.

They would also park the cars in the sun with the windows rolled up.

Then they would set a timer to see how long it took for the air conditioner to cool the interior of the car.

Additional tests were done designed to push the engines, transmissions and other components to the limits.

All this testing has to be done with the cars disguised in vinyl because freelance photographers stalk the cars.

They hope to get a shot of a model before Kia itself is ready to show the new car to the public.

The car maker doesn’t want competitors to see anything ahead of time.

Naturally, all this testing means a team of people must work both inside and outside the cars, putting in 12 hour days, 5 days a week.

One engineer with Kia said, “When you wear shorts at 120 degrees and there’s a wind, it burns.”

There’s good reason for all this testing.

The car companies know most of their cars will spend little, if any, time in Death Valley-like conditions.

They deliberately overtax them to help ensure that their customers won’t have problems in normal conditions.

Another way to say that is that all this test-driving in an extreme environment is an attempt to take the scary part or the risk out of the driving we car owners do in rough weather.

And when we think of it that way, we have a somewhat different entry point into Psalm 23 which also talks about moving through a valley named Death.

What do we know about valleys?

Valleys are usually surrounded by high mountains.

There are cliffs or obstacles that will keep you in shadows or in the dark.

There are mountain barriers to keep you from reaching your goal, but a valley goes through them.

There are wrong paths through the mountains that end up in box canyons.

Only a shepherd can get sheep through dark valleys.

In Israel, there is a real Valley of the Shadow of Death.

It’s deep. It’s steep.

It is a very narrow canyon.

The sun only hits the floor of the valley at high noon.

The rest of the time the valley is quite dark.

I. The Lord is my Shepherd

Psalm 23 was written by David who was a shepherd before he became a king.

David understood what it meant to be a good shepherd.

Psalm 23 is probably the best-known passage in the Bible.

Even many people who don’t read the Bible at all can quote at least a line or two from it because they have heard it read at funerals.

It’s appropriately used at funerals and is a comforting passage to mourners.

It’s comforting to hear that a loved one will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

But if we think of Psalm 23 only as a funeral text, we can miss the fact that the Psalm is mostly about living.

It’s about life.

In the ancient world, as in our world today, shepherds were herders and tenders of sheep.

But back then, “shepherd” was also a metaphor for the role kings were to play.

Kings were to tend their subjects, providing for them and protecting them.

The problem was, many of the kings were lousy shepherds of their people.

The reason was some were simply incompetent.

Others were only concerned about themselves.

So, for someone in that culture to say, “The Lord is my Shepherd” was similar to saying “The Lord is my King.”

The point is that God does what a king/shepherd is supposed to do.

When someone stated “The Lord is my Shepherd” that person was declaring an intention to live under God’s rule.

The rest of the Psalm then becomes a description of the good things that come to that person as a subject of the king.

Because the Lord is a good shepherd and I am a member of his flock, I shall not be in want.

I will have what I need and so will you.

The references to lying down in green pastures, being led beside still waters and fearing no evil in the valley of the shadow of death are poetic ways of saying the Shepherd-King provides what I need                             

to stay alive.

Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China, used to hang in his home a plaque with two Hebrew words on it: Ebenezer & Jehovah Jireh.

Ebenezer means the Lord has provided in the past.

Jehovah Jireh means the Lord will provide in the future.

One is a reminder of God’s faithfulness in the past and the other is a reminder of God’s faithfulness in the future.

As we look at this Psalm we see a change in the personal pronouns.

In verses 1-3, David refers to God in the third person.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.”

“He leads me beside quiet waters.”

“He restores my soul.”

“He guides me in paths of righteousness.”

But then in verse 4, David moves from the third person to the second person.

He says, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

He is no longer speaking about God; he is speaking to God.

When you are going through dark valleys, you don’t want to just talk about God – you want to talk to God.

You could say that it’s in the dark valley that religion becomes a relationship.

Psalm 23:4 = 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.

This could also be translated Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil.

Most of us have very active imaginations.

We tend to think of all the negative things that can happen to us as we enter the dark valley.

Psalm 23:4 tells us that God shepherds us in the difficult, troubled and hard stretches we go through in life.

The Psalm continues in that mode, talking about life.

It concludes with Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.

Why? Because the Lord is my Shepherd.

Some people can speak only of past experience with the Shepherd saying “The Lord was my Shepherd.”

Others speak of a future experience saying “The Lord will be my Shepherd.”

The reason they can speak only of a past or a future is that they are not allowing the Lord to be their Shepherd in the present.

They want to do their own thing.

If we are allowing God to be our Shepherd, the promises of Psalm 23 are ours to claim.

But if we are not allowing God to be our Shepherd, the promises of Psalm 23 are not ours to claim.

One little boy tried to recite the 23^rdPsalm.

He said, “The Lord is my Shepherd, He is all I want.”

He didn’t get it right and yet he did get it right.

II. The Shepherd Knows the Way

Let’s go back to the valley for a moment.

The Psalmist says the reason for not being overcome by fear while in the dark valley is that God the Shepherd is with him.

The psalmist takes comfort that the Shepherd has a rod and staff to protect him.

But another fear-reducing factor was that, most likely, the Shepherd had been through this valley before.

The Shepherd knows the way because He has been through this valley before.

Only a foolish shepherd would take his flock into a dark valley he had never been in before.

The only reason for leading sheep through a dark valley is because the shepherd knows there’s something in the valley that the flock needs.

It might be grass or water or shelter.

Or in the case of people, it might be spiritual growth.

The shepherd knows the valley and knows that the rod and staff will be sufficient to handle any threats to the sheep.

This Psalm is a statement of confidence in God.

Whether our dark valleys are times of trouble or the actual passage through death itself, we believe God is with us.

God is more than equal to whatever threats to our spiritual well-being may lurk within that darkness.

III. The Shepherd Leads the Way

We do not have any proof that God will be with us in the dark places of life.

But we do have the promises of God’s Word and that’s where faith comes in.

We also have the testimony of other believers who have walked through the darkest valleys and can testify that they did not walk that valley alone.

Sometimes the depth of the darkness shakes our confidence but the Word of God upholds us and encourages us.

Psalm 23 is about that confidence.

The Psalms, in general, speak of all kinds of trouble, despair and fears.

But like a compass needle that keeps swinging back to the north, the Psalms keep coming back to the confidence that God is with us in the darkness.

So when Psalm 23 talks about God’s rod and staff being a source of comfort in the frightening valleys we go through, it is stating the main point of the whole book of Psalms.

One of the other Psalms, Psalm 139, is a testimony from someone who’s been in a dark valley and that person invites us to believe that our experience in the valley will be similar, if we trust God.

Psalm 139:7-12

To trust God doesn’t mean we have to muster up belief or desperately try to shore up shaky hope.

It does mean we rely on more than just what our fears tell us.

Confidence in God doesn’t change the facts about the world.

But it does change the conclusions we draw about those facts.

For example, two people can look at the same facts and arrive at opposite conclusions.

One person might look at the dark valleys in life and conclude, “There is no God. If there were, he would never let us go through such hard times.”

Another person might look at the dark valleys and say, “It’s comforting to know that God is with us. His rod and his staff comforts me.”

Same facts; different interpretations.

There are plenty of witnesses to Kia’s road tests in Death Valley.

A hoard of freelance photographers capture them with cameras.

But when it comes to our journey through life’s dark valleys, we have no photos of God in the valley.

We have only the testimony of others who have been there.

Psalm 23 is one such testimony.

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.

In many of our walks through the valley of the shadow of death, with God’s help, we come out on the other side.

The experience was a trial.

But what if we don’t come out on the other side of the valley.

What if it is our time to die?

Do we find any comfort here for a time such as that.

Back in 2007, USA Today printed a survey.

Adults were asked by researchers what they would do if diagnosed with an incurable disease.

52% said they would pursue treatment at any cost.

12% said they would do nothing.

6% said they would spend all their savings in pursuit of pleasure.

5% said they would try something they ordinarily would not do.

1% said they would quit their jobs.

22% said they would do none of the above.

The fact that 52% would pursue treatment at any cost means that most people don’t want to die.

For many people, including some believers, death is a scary experience.

Death is scary because most people will experience some pain in the process and we do not like pain.

Whether the valley is a trial for us or the beginning of the journey home we can say:

“I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”