April 2nd Psalm 23:4 Life in the Deepest Darkness
When you are at your darkest, He is there.
This psalm makes three claims when we are in our deepest darkness:
His presence can be enough
“I fear no danger, for You are with me”
Hebrews 13:5 Isaiah 43:2, 5
“Believers are never in situations the Lord is not aware of, for He never leaves or forsakes His people.” A.P. Ross
His power can be enough
“Your rod and Your staff —they comfort me.”
The rod of protection
The staff of correction
Proverbs 3:12 Psalm 34:18 Psalm 51
His victory WILL be enough
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Romans 8:18
One of the most common characteristics of our culture today is that EVERYBODY experiences overload. We have so much stuff going on we feel overloaded, overburdened, overwhelmed, right? Kind of like these trucks (3 pics, 3 seconds on screen a piece)
Let’s stand and recite the 23rd Psalm—remember—we’re working together to memorize this great Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I lack.
2 He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
3 He renews my life;
He leads me along the right paths
for His name’s sake.
4 Even when I go through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger,
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 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
as long as I live.
Last week we studied the first 3 verses and discovered that we can experience renewal in this incredibly fast-paced, over stressed society when we focus on our relationship with Jesus and when we rest in His provision. Life gets exponentially more complicated and we get overloaded when we take our eyes on Him and focus on the problems rather than the Solution—and when we allow ourselves to grow discontent with His provision. If we can’t be content with what the Lord has provided for us, then fear and anxiety and stress will follow us all the days of our lives.
Now this morning we turn our attention to the next verse.
“Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff —they comfort me.”v.4
There is so much in this verse I want to share with you it would take me 3-4 weeks to get it all downloaded in you. But here’s the main teaching point I want you to get from this: When you are at your darkest, He is there.
The old King James put it this way, “When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Literally, “When I walk through the deepest darkness”
What is the deepest darkness for you? Does it come when you sit down to pay your bills? Does it come when you walk into your home after work? Does it come when you turn off the lights and try to go to sleep? Does it come when you reflect back on the rejections or regrets or raw wounds you have?
This psalm makes three claims when we are in our deepest darkness:
His presence can be enough
“I fear no danger, for You are with me”
When I was single, at first, so afraid of being alone..
Times that I’ve gone through great adversity and anguish of the soul, I was in the deepest darkness. I had to come to the point where the knowledge of His love for me and His presence with me was enough. Not that I didn’t need encouragement…(Sue, etc), not that I didn’t need prayer (…), but in the end, I knew that I had to get to a place where Jesus was enough for me.
“I will never leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13:5
“I will be with you when you pass through the waters,
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you. Do not fear, for I am with you.” Isaiah 43:2, 5
“Believers are never in situations the Lord is not aware of, for He never leaves or forsakes His people.” A.P. Ross
His power can be enough
Notice the next phrase: “Your rod and Your staff —they comfort me.”
A shepherd normally had a number of accessories he would carry with him at all times. He’d have a knife if he needed to cut something or protect himself. Then he would have what in the rod/staff (shebet): rod or staff. Same word. (pic) As a rod it would be used as a club to fight off or kill predators. This is how young David expressed it in 1 Samuel 17:34-35 “David answered Saul: “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it.”
But this also served as a staff because it had a crook on the end of it so that the shepherd could round up a straying sheep and guide them along the correct way.
The text does seem to indicate they are two different instruments, but most scholars believe that David is identifying two different functions of the same item: one of power and one of correction.
The rod is rich in meaning in the Old Testament. It signifies the rod=power of God It was the rod of Aaron that Moses used to initiate some of the signs and plagues that delivered the Hebrews from Pharaoh and Egypt. So sometimes the rod was used to show God’s power of protection and deliverance.
“God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.” Psalm 46:1
“The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1
I love the imagery of the standing in the shadow of the Amighty. Once when my kids were small, an older kid was chasing my youngest boy to harm him and Brad ran a straight line right to me. He was literally standing in my shadow. And what did the bully do? He left Brad alone. The Rod of Protection.
But the rod is also used as a means of correction and guidance. The Staff of Correction. “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Right? Proverbs 3:12 “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, just as a father, the son he delights in.”
We love the idea of God protecting us from those situations that can hurt us; calling on Him to fight off our enemies with His mighty rod. But we don’t always appreciate the staff, do we? If we’re not careful we’ll miss the point that He also wants to protect us from ourselves. As a loving Father He wants to correct us and discipline us and get us going on the right path again.
This introduces the whole concept of brokenness. We are a broken people, no doubt, right? Sin has left us broken and dysfunctional—and we cannot fix ourselves. God’s promise is that when life breaks us, He can be close to us; even heal us. “The Lord is near the brokenhearted; He saves those crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
It’s interesting that David penned another well-known Psalm—the 51st. If you know your Bible, you know that David wrote it after the prophet Nathan had confronted him about his fling with Bathsheba. He falls in lust with Bathsheba, another man’s wife, sleeps with her and impregnates her, has that man ultimately murdered in an attempt to cover up his sin—but God knows and sees all, doesn’t He? There is no such thing as keeping something from God. So He sends His prophet Nathan to confront David with his sin. And in response, David writes a psalm of brokenness.
This time the breaking agent was not a hurtful circumstance, not an injury inflicted by an enemy. No, the one doing the breaking was none other than God Himself. V.8 “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.” David understands as any shepherd would that sometimes the shepherd has to discipline and correct a wayward sheep. In fact, if there was a lamb that refused to stick with the rest of the flock and follow the commands of the shepherd, the shepherd would lovingly and painfully break one of the legs. Because the lamb couldn’t walk, the shepherd would carry the lamb on his shoulders for weeks. The result was what? The lamb was drawn so close to the shepherd that he wouldn’t stray again.
David recognized when God was the breaking agent. He says in v.17 “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.”
The rod brings protection from the attacker, but the staff sometimes brings pain to the sheep. But the wise sheep recognizes that there is love in that brokenness; there is pain in that brokenness.
Honestly, in my life, I’m not always sure why I’m going trhough pain, whether it’s the fault of someone else or my own fault. But where I have gotten is that regardless, when I respond with a humble and broken heart, there is comfort in that. Why? Because that unleashes the healing power of God’s grace and mercy in my life.
David says: “God, Your rod and your staff are intended to and will bring me comfort.”
This a lead in to the next verse: v.5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
His victory WILL be enough
Ultimately, despite the challenges, setbacks, pains and failures, God will get the victory…and my cup will overflow.
Based on the character and the word of God, I KNOW, that despite my darkest hours and my deepest valleys, as a Christ-follower, He will get the victory…and I’ll be ok, more than ok. “For our present suffering does not begin to compare to the eternal weight of glory that is ours.” Romans 8:18
Closing story
Invitation (Band comes out when I ask folks to bow their heads; vamp It is Well; when I say Amen, kick it off/When song is over, Russ dismisses)
