Psalm 23: Even as I Walk Through the Valley

So we are contemplating our way through Psalm 23 during this fall.

And yeah, so welcome, kiddos.

Maybe you you know you got your whole family ready for church and you get here and you went to check your kid in and your your kids with you still.

So we do this on some holidays to give our volunteers a break.

So that's why we do this.

And kids, we're glad you're in here.

And if you need to shelf around your seat some, that's fine.

And parents, if you need to escort your child out at some point, that's fine too.

You won't disturb me.

I can promise I will just keep, I just sort of keep preaching no matter what happens.

And so you won't disturb me if you do need to uh to escape for a moment.

Uh so Psalm 23, verse 4 is where we're at today as we've been working our way through.

Psalms 23:4

Let me reread verse 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.

So my first real experience with this verse was in 1995.

Is anybody a 1990s rap fan?

Can you name this rapper?

Can you?

Julio.

And can you name the song?

Gangsta's Paradise.

Right?

Remember the line, the opening line?

I will not wrap it.

That would be really horrible.

Maybe I will a little bit.

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left.

Right?

I can't rap, didn't try.

But we have all felt like Coolio.

We have all felt like we've been in a valley of some sort, and we pause and we're like reflect on our life, and just it's like there's nothing left.

So we have felt like that, and maybe you have felt like that because uh the the boy didn't call back.

Like you went on the date, and it was fantastic.

I mean, the conversation at Chili's was great.

I mean, you had a great time, and you thought it was so good, and he never called.

He didn't call.

Or the girl just said no.

Or the phone did ring and it was the doctor.

And you know you should never get a phone call from a doctor, like three days after you go see the doctor.

You didn't want to pick up, you knew you had to.

And it wasn't good news.

Maybe it wasn't good news for you, or it wasn't good news for your kids, or for a loved one, or something, or maybe your family's a disaster.

Maybe your relationships or your career.

Or maybe just like life or friendships or something like that.

Just it hasn't ended up being what you thought it would be.

Right?

That one area of your life, that one area that you know about, maybe other people don't know, you just can't quite get it all together.

You don't feel all together.

Like life is wonderful, and then all of a sudden, and often life can be brutal.

So we can feel like cool.

We can feel like gangsta's paradise.

But the good news is Psalm 23, 4 does not read like Coolio.

David finishes the thought different.

So here's the first part again.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and here's where David is different, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

It's quite different.

Point number one is this because we are never alone, we do not have to fear the valleys, which means there's going to be valleys, but we don't have to fear them.

So throughout this Psalm, God is the shepherd and we are the sheep.

So we're the ones who are incredibly stubborn, we're the ones that are needy, we need help, but the shepherd is the one who's continuously been loyal and loving, fiercely caring.

So in the summer months, a thoughtful shepherd would need to take his sheep from the low country, which would get super hot and the food would dry up and the water wouldn't be as abundant, and he would need to take his sheep up to the high country.

This was a brutal journey.

David knew this.

We actually knew David knew this because when Samuel went to anoint David as king, David was not at the home ranch in the low country.

He was high in the hills with his sheep.

So David knew about this journey.

That's what he's thinking about when he's writing this.

That shepherds, good shepherds, took their sheep to the high country where it was cooler, and there was food and provision for them.

But to get the sheep to the high country, they had to go through dangerous valleys.

The Hebrew phrase shadow of death is the word Salmavath, meaning the valley of the deepest darkness.

So not just like a valley of darkness, like the deepest darkness.

So it's you in your disappointment, your hurt.

You can't go lower, and yet God is still there shepherding.

It's you at your end, at your exhaustion.

So I learned this week that the deepest, darkest place in the world is the Mariana Trench.

So this is a trench in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines.

It's seven miles deep below the ocean surface, seven miles cut into the core, going down into the earth.

There's absolutely no light at the bottom of this trench.

None.

It's the valley of the deepest darkness.

Here's actually a picture of the bottom of the trench.

I just, the dad joke, just every once in a while it comes out, I have to do it.

Here's actually that picture with some light turned on.

The bottom of the trench.

So that's at the seven miles deep.

Just feels empty.

Now, what's interesting about this is that scientists thought for sure that there's no way life could exist in that amount of darkness.

No way.

Not in the deepest darkness.

Life can't exist in that sort of darkness.

No way, no way.

No living creature could live there.

But in 1960, Jacques Picard and Don Welsh, these two explorers, they get in a submarine.

There the guys are on the right, that's their submarine.

They get in the submarine and they go down seven miles.

Seven miles they go down.

And they turn their light on, and sure enough, a little fish swims by.

Right?

Life in the deepest darkness.

There's an interesting thing that happens in this psalm.

And I didn't even notice it until I was studying it this week.

I've probably heard the psalm and read it a thousand times in my life.

Never noticed it.

A shift happens in verse 4.

Verses 1 through 3 are all proclamation.

He's our shepherd, he makes me lie down, green pastures, still waters, he leads me, he guides me.

And then verse 4, the language changes.

Even though I walk through the valley, you are with me.

Switches it to first person.

Personal.

It goes personal.

The language becomes personal because when we're hurting, it all becomes so much more personal.

All of a sudden the presence of God means everything to you, and sometimes it's the only thing you have.

Second part of the verse.

I will fear no evil.

Why?

For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So point number two is this we are comforted as God draws near our weakness and never stops guiding us.

That's why we're comforted.

We're not comforted because we pull up our bootstraps and we're strong enough and we can hold it all together.

We're comforted because God draws near our weakness, never stops guiding us.

David says we should be comforted by a rod, which would have been a striking weapon.

So evil has its limits.

Even in your deepest darkness.

That can be suffering, that can be shame, it can be guilt.

Even in the deepest darkness, you are protected from the devil, from suffering, from your own sin, the world's brokenness, the messiness of our hearts.

They may affect you.

But when you are in Christ, they don't destroy you because at the deepest part of yourself, at the core of you, you are always loved, always forgiven, always accepted.

And that is unbelievably powerful.

That you can journey through a valley of darkness, and you can know that.

That in your deepest self, God is always with you.

Now we're not promised a pain-free life.

That's frustrating.

Right?

We all have our list of questions.

I'll have mine.

I'm in you in line to ask those questions, those questions answered.

But you know, and maybe we would have designed the world differently.

Maybe you would have designed the world differently.

But you know, uh nobody asked you, nobody asked me, right?

Like I would have designed the world probably a little differently, but nobody asked me how it should be designed.

But what is clear is we were never promised a pain-free life.

What we were promised is that God moves toward us in our pain, not away from us.

That he is actually endeared to us in our weakness, which is actually the opposite of what we tend to think.

We tend to think, well, he could only be endeared to us if we had it together.

Or I'm in suffering or shame or disappointment, so he must have left me.

And that's not true either.

So it's incredibly comforting to know, even in our pain, he's with us.

That there's a boundness to evil.

The second image of comfort is the shepherd's staff, which was a walking stick.

Sometimes I have that hook on top of it.

And this was an image to guide the sheep.

So together, David's giving us this powerful gift of comfort with this rod and this staff, that the rod and the staff speak to the guidance we have and the protection we have even in the deepest of darkness.

We are assured, what we say over and over again in our church, that God is with you and he's for you.

Listen to John 14, 16 through 18.

Jesus speaking here.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper.

So he's speaking of the Holy Spirit, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

Now, that word orphan, that's a strong word.

And maybe some of us have grew up as orphans without a stable family.

Now, many of us grew up as functional orphans, where there's some area of our life, our heart, that we were not mothered or we were not fathered.

And David says, and Jesus says, you're not alone.

You have a helper, the Holy Spirit, that never leaves you.

You're not orphaned.

You're not orphaned in the low country, you're not orphaned in the high country, you're not orphaned in the valley that comes up in life.

Twenty years ago, I was in seminary at the time, I was working full-time, I was commuting an hour each way.

I'd gone from the kind of that freedom and joy of college life, you're living with your best friends, and had moved home with my mom, no offense, but it wasn't college life, right?

I mean, a clear distinction had happened in my life from college life to this season of life of full-time work, full-time seminary, living at home.

I mean, just all the joy had been sucked out of my life at that period of time.

And I was driving down Five Forts Drive in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

I could feel the mini emotional breakdown about to hit.

I pulled over near the Circle K, same gas station, my friend Kyle and I, we would gas up in high school.

You take in one dollar bill, you get 74 cents of gas, and you buy a stick of double mint gum for 26 cents over and over again.

We did this like every three days.

Pull over there, have my mini emotional early adulthood breakdown, most of us have had at some point.

And all I needed to do is call somebody who would be compassionate.

So I called my Sunday school teacher Ronnie.

I've talked about Ronnie before.

Ronnie was about 50 years old.

I thought he was so old.

I did.

I was like 22.

I thought he was so old.

And Ronnie drove a tractor.

He was in the grading business.

He moved dirt.

That's what he did during the day.

At night he was in counseling school.

And so he picked up his brick phone and this brick cell phone I called from, and he picked up his brick cell phone.

I heard him turn the tractor off.

He listened to me.

He heard I was emotional.

He never, he never told me to stop crying.

He just listened.

He never gave me advice.

He didn't try to answer anything.

That was a gift.

He just listened to me.

So remember it's like 20 years ago.

He gave me the gift of just being with me in my pain.

He was priestly.

That's what priests do.

Now listen to Hebrews 4, 14 through 16.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

You see how we hold firmly?

Because Jesus is our priest and priestly to us.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses.

But we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.

Yet he did not sin.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Point number three is this Christ took on our valley of sin and suffering as to take us to the high country of redemption and hope.

So Jesus as our priest means Jesus is with us in the high country, in the low country, and in the valleys.

That the great shepherd experienced his own pain.

That's how he has solidarity with us in our weakness, in our disappointment, and our pain.

He was accused, things he did not do.

He died a criminal's death on the cross.

Right?

And that's why we get this beautiful imputation that we've talked about, that our sin is put upon the cross and his righteousness is given to us.

So we're forever gods through Christ.

He is our priest.

One of the most powerful verses in the Bible is the shortest.

Kids, you're in here, remember this.

Because if anybody ever makes you memorize a Bible verse, ever, John 11, 35.

Jesus wept.

Alright, you already have it handled.

You don't have to go study.

You got it done.

Check it off.

Don't let anybody put any more pressure on you.

Just those two words is all you need.

It's a strange story because Jesus is friends with these people.

This guy, Lazarus, he gets sick.

Jesus hears he's sick.

He's dying.

Jesus sort of delays.

He didn't go to him right away.

So Lazarus dies.

The sisters are crushed.

They're very upset about this.

Because, I mean, Jesus, why didn't you come?

Like we sent for you and you didn't show up.

Why didn't you come earlier?

And then in the midst of all the questions and the heartbreak, we get that shortest verse.

Jesus wept.

So the entire time Jesus knew everything about this entire family, all the events, the loss, the hurt, the amount of sorrow that would create.

And yes, Jesus is sovereign over it all.

He knew it, he was in it.

He eventually does heal Lazarus.

It's a separate story and separate truths and principles.

But what's interesting is that his response and his sovereignty is not to over-explain himself.

He doesn't give a defense of his divine arrangement of events for these people.

He doesn't explain to them how this is going to play out in the next 20 years for them.

Not when they're in their sorrow.

He doesn't give them satisfying answers.

Isn't that annoying?

Because isn't that what we want when we're hurting?

Like, give me a satisfying answer for this.

What he gives them is his presence and his compassion.

Because he knows something that is painful to learn for us.

He knows we will never know enough to be healed.

We'll never know enough to be healed enough.

But we can be loved enough to be healed and to move into healing.

So we wept with her.

A few years ago, when I asked my mentor Scotty Smith about just all my ongoing disappointments in life, right?

Just one of those vent sessions you have in life, and just venting the disappointments.

And just say something, I said something like, you know, then how does God's sovereignty fit into this?

Because He, you know, God knows this and He's over this and He's in this and He's working through this.

And that frustrates my brain, you know, like that's frustrating to me because this valley's a doozy, right?

Like if you're ever in a doozy of a valley, like you'd like to know how it's gonna play out.

And God's sovereignty when you're in the doozy of the valley, like it can be very frustrating.

And my mentor just said this.

He said, sovereignty is comforting, not because it gives me answers, but because it gives me God.

Now that's a humble shift from wanting and thinking we deserve answers to being willing to say, well, I'm not gonna understand everything.

And there's no amount of answers that I'm gonna suddenly be healed.

But having God, the presence of God, changes everything.

What does this mean?

Well, point number four.

With God's loyal presence, we don't have to fear our pain, but can feel it as to begin to heal through it.

It means that so often that we are afraid of valleys and we're afraid of the pain we feel in the valley because we think we will be destroyed or we won't be able to make it through, and it's not true.

It's just not true.

Actually, to feel it with God's compassion and presence is the way to make it through.

Two thoughts come to mind to close and kind of flesh out point number four.

Solitude and quiet with the spirit help us feel the valley and know the great shepherd is still with us.

So if it just if you want something to do, like application.

When we're hurting, solitude and quiet with the spirit.

It helps us feel the valley, to feel it, to name it, to say it back to God.

And know that the great shepherd is still with us.

I mean, many of us just need to slow down to heal more.

And this may mean that we take walks or we sit quietly or we pray or meditate or journal or we find a counselor.

And if you need to find a counselor, we'd love to talk to you.

The church would love to support you in that.

Leads me to the second point.

And this is where the valleys can become missional toward other people, can become compassion.

Compassion toward others is created as we grow aware of our valleys and God's grace to never leave us.

That's how compassion is birthed.

It's not birthed out of you just constantly being successful and everything going great in your life.

I've never met that dude being a compassionate dude.

That dude is something else.

And I can't say it from the pulpit, but you've met that person.

Compassion is when you feel the valley.

You're aware of it, and that God's not even leaving you in this.

And it bursts compassion towards somebody.

It's difficult to be judgmental towards somebody else when you're aware of your own valleys.

As you realize God is not judging you, then you can become non-judgmental of yourself.

And as you're becoming free of that, you can begin to let go of sitting in judgment over other people when they're suffering or they're hurting or they're in pain or they're a mess up.

Because we know that even in our valleys, God's with us, not because we have it together, but because he has promised it in Christ.

This is how we grow in grace.

That we are loved by Christ, not as we should be, but as we are.

Just as we are.

As to close, I'd like to pray.

It's the first prayer in the Puritan prayer book, The Valley of Vision.

And you're welcome to read along as I pray.

You can close your eyes to pray.

You can keep your eyes open to pray.

Children, you can pray with your eyes open, just so you write that down if you're writing notes.

You can hold your hands out.

You're going to receive it as a prayer.

Well, let's pray this together to close the sermon.

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, thou hast brought me to the valley of vision where I live in the depths, but see thee in the heights, hemmed in by mountains of sin, I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells, the brighter thy stars shine.

Let me find thy light and my darkness, thy life and my death, thy joy and my sorrow, thy grace and my sin, thy riches and my poverty, thy glory and my valley.

And all of God's healed and healing children say, Amen.