What Is in Your Valley?
Psalm 23:4
Introduction:
Ps. 23 = is not a still life scene; it is not a stationary picture in a storybook. It is a journey… reminder that life is not stationary…. always moving.
Journey of life the Shepherd takes us into the green pastures of His peace and contentment… refreshes us with the still waters of His presence… other times we are rejoicing on the mountain top of His blessings (v.5)… one day as the Lord’s sheep we will be forever home with Him in the Father’s House (v.6).
Between here and there enter the deep valley of (v.4).
Quote: “Those 7 words – “the valley of the shadow of death” – represent one of the most enduring images in human literature.” – Robert Morgan pp. 112-113
Quote: F.B. Meyer – “In all of Scripture there is no verse more familiar than this.”
This one verse has been on the lips of many a dying saint. It has been the handkerchief that dried the tear-filled eyes of hurting Christians. It has been read at gravesides more than any other verse of Scripture.
This verse is more than just a poetic theme; it is a real place in Israel. There may have been a specific gorge on David’s mind as the Holy Spirit inspired these precious words. Most Bible Scholars believe that place is the famed “Wadi Qelt.”
“Wadi” = Middle Eastern term – deep valley or ravine.
Wadi Qelt a narrow treacherous 17-mile-long gorge or mountain pass that connects the Judean wilderness to the Jordan Valley near the city of Jericho…
Ancient city of Jericho was a desert oasis and the area around it was well watered with lush pastures for feeding sheep. For thousands of years travelers followed this trek from Jerusalem to Jericho, facing dangers from falling rocks, steep precipices, wild animals and thieves hiding in its many caves.
Shepherds called it, “The Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
No doubt many a time David had led his sheep through this deep, dark passageway, known as the Wadi Qelt to the pasturelands of the Jordan Valley below.
Valley = reminds us of the valleys we traverse in life. Our valleys may not be literal valleys like the “Wadi Kelt”, but they are no less real, no less daunting, no less fearful… valleys at times become so long and deep that we wonder if they will ever end.
It is not a matter of “If” but “When” we descend into those valleys… at times we enter them suddenly and unexpectedly. Maybe you have just come through a deep valley or you are in the middle of one right now! Feel like life is closing in on you… valley so deep, dark can’t seem to see your way through.
No matter how deep your valley… YOU HAVE AN ALL SUFFICIENT SHEPHERD!
I. PURPOSE IN YOUR VALLEY!
Look: v.4
“Yea” = (lit) yes! Connecter that links vv.3 & 4 – “He leadeth me in paths of righteousness… “Yes, though I walk…” = even when I enter the dark valleys of life, He is still leading me!
Enter valley times of life must remember that we have come to this place because of the Shepherd’s leading.
Quote: Corrie Ten Boom – “There are no accidents in the life of the child of God; only plans!”
I have an all-wise & loving Shepherd in control of my life. He is the “GOOD SHEPHERD!!!” Allows nothing in my life that is not for my good. Now, that doesn’t mean that everything in my valley is “good.”
Rom. 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
“All” = nothing in our lives can never be outside those three letters.
Quote: “There are no exceptions. That little word draws a circle that encloses every detail of your life. Every tragedy. Every trial. Every teardrop. Every burden, however deep. Every problem, however complex. Every day, however cloudy. All things work together for good.”
Quote: “God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom, He always knows what is best. And in His sovereignty has the power to bring it about.”
Illust: Andrew Murray was going through a personal trial. One morning while he was eating breakfast, his hostess told him there was a woman downstairs that was going through a great trial and wanted to know if he had any advice for her. Murray handed her a piece of paper he had been writing on and said, “Give her this advice I’m writing down for myself. It may be that she’ll find it helpful.”
“In time of trouble say,
‘First, He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this strait place; in that I will rest.’
Next, ‘He will keep me here in His live, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.’ Then say, ‘He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.’
And last, say, ‘In His good time He can bring me out again. How and when, He knows.’ Therefore, I say, ‘I am here (1) by God’s appointment, (2) in His keeping, (3) under His training, (4) for His time.’”
1. Purpose
II. HOPE IN YOUR VALLEY!
Look: v.4
“Through” = we want to place the emphasis on “in” our Shepherd places the emphasis on “through.”
“Valley” = by its very nature is not a dead end but a passageway. You see, a valley has an opening at both ends.
“Through” = to pass or go through.
Good news: we don’t remain or stay in the valley; go through it… valleys don’t last forever… we will come out on the other end.
v.4 = halfway pt of Psalm – passageway to a brighter path ahead… note: (v.5)!
Quote: “Christian, your future is as bright as the promises of God!”
NOT HOPELESS BUT HOPE-FILLED!
Christian = problems are temporary, and blessings are always eternal.
Non-Christian = blessings are temporary, and problems are eternal.
A. Valleys are Temporary
B. Death is Merely a Shadow
Cf. this is not the “valley of death” but the “valley of the shadow of death.”
Death is not in that valley but the shadow of death.
“Shadow” = image of something cast by light.
Truth: A shadow might frighten you; but it cannot harm you!
• Shadow of a train can’t kill you.
• Shadow of a sword can’t cut you.
• Shadow of a dog can’t bite you.
• Shadow of a bee can’t sting you.
• Shadow of death can’t harm you.
God’s children never travel through the valley of death… for us, there is only the valley of the shadow of death!
Valleys are Temporary
Death is Merely a Shadow
C. Shepherd Has Passed Here Before Us
Look: v.3
“Paths” = an entrenchment – well-worn or well-traveled.
Our Shepherd has traveled this path before! Literally!
In Lord’s day, Romans had turned the Wadi Kelt into a road – cart path and it was the only route from Jericho to Jerusalem… better known in that day as the Jericho Road… it was the setting for our Lord’s Parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk. 10 – so dangerous it was known as - “The Way of Blood or the Bloody Pass.”
Significance: Our Lord’s final journey to the cross was through the Wadi Qelt, the “Way of Blood,” the Bloody Pass.” As Jesus made His way from Galilee to Jerusalem… went through the Valley of the Shadow of Death!
2,000 years ago, the Good Shepherd entered the valley of death… there on the cross He bore in His body the wrath our sin and guilt… died in our place… laid down His life for us. Paid the penalty for our sin!
John 10:11 – “I am the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”
Heb. 2:9 – Jesus = “tasted death for every man.”
Heb. 2:14 – “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”
Valley = Have to have mountains – Ps. 23 = valley between two mountains… Ps. 22 – Mt. Calvary… Ps. 24 Mt. Zion!
John 10:17,18 – “I lay down my life that I might take it again… no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again…”
Jesus defeated death… removed its stinger!
John 11:25 – “I am the resurrection and the life.”
John 14;19 – “Because I live, ye can live also.”
III. COURAGE IN YOUR VALLEY!
Look: v. 4 – “I will fear no evil…”
“Evil” = distress, misery, injury, calamity. In the Valley of the Shadow of Death the sheep faced constant danger from falling off a precipice to wild animals to thieves and robbers. Needed courage. Not to fight the lion! Sheep are helpless, have nothing to fight with. Need courage to trust the Shepherd!
David = I will not fear!
Fear is the enemy of faith. Fear paralyzes us.
Illust: Frozen with fear.
Quote: Robert McQuilken – “Psalm 23 is the best-known Psalm in the world, but it is the least believed.”
One thing to know Psalm 23; it is quite something else to believe Ps. 23! The question is not do I know it; the question is, “Do I believe Psalm 23?”
Quote: George Mueller – “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and beginning of faith is the end of anxiety.”
Fear paralyze you; Faith mobilize you!
When the truth of Psalm 23 grips our hearts… anchor ourselves to the promises of the Shepherd… dispelling our fears and giving us the courage to go on!
A valley isn’t necessarily an ugly place. Times hiking through the mountains and have my breath taken because of the majestic view… high peaks and deep valleys in between.
“Gorges” = and gorgeous come from the same root word.
IV. ASSURANCE IN YOUR VALLEY!
Look: v.4 – “For thou art with me.”
Note: change in pronouns from “He and Me” to “I and “Thou” = At this point the Psalm becomes even more personal and intimate. It is in the most difficult moments of the sheep’s life that it is closest to the shepherd.
vv.2,3 = Shepherd is before us… leading us.
v.4 = In the valley – “the Shepherd is with us!”
Hebrews 13:5 – “for He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Our Good Shepherd is never closer to us than when we hurt.
John 14:1 – “Let not your heart be troubled, Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
Notice: Jesus didn’t say understand Me or Feel Me? He said, Trust me!
Learn to practice the presence of God! I don’t have to feel God to know that He is there!!! I have His promise!!!
Illust: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was one of the leading thinkers and literary artists of all times. Died in 2008 at the age of 89. He was a Russian dissident. He was a Russian citizen, but he believed in God and he believed against a godless communist philosophy and so forth. And because of that, they put this brilliant, scintillating, gifted, articulate man in a dungeon; they put him in a prison camp. And he was telling Senator Jesse Helms about it. And he said, “Senator, you’ve never known real repression.” And he said, “I pray God that you never will.” And he said, “I want to tell you what happened to me.” And he told that he was put in that prison camp and that he was shut away from all communication from the outside world: no newspapers, no radio, no television, no books, no pencils, no paper, and no conversation; completely shut off, not knowing what on earth was going on in the world; hard, physical, manual labor, day after day after day—that kind of existence.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, “I came to the place where I decided I would take my own life, but then I thought of my faith in God. I thought of the teaching of the Bible and I knew that I could not do that. But life was intolerable.” He said, “I did not know what I was going to do, and then this thought came into my mind.” He said, “I know what I’ll do. I will try to escape, knowing that it is impossible. But I will break and run, and then they will shoot me in the back. And I won’t have to take my life; they will take it.” And of course, that was twisted thinking. And later on, he knew that was twisted thinking. But the man was in that sort of a situation where even his normal logic was somewhat perverted.
So, he came out on this particular day and made up his mind this was the day. The guards had been very brutal. The prisoners were sitting under a tree, given just a few moments of respite and rest. Sitting under a tree, they were not allowed to murmur one word to another. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn made up his mind and he said, “This is the time.” And he put his hand on ground, ready to push up, ready to spring, ready to run, and just at that moment a fellow prisoner came and stood before him and looked into his eyes. They couldn’t speak a word. And Solzhenitsyn said, “Love and peace were in that man’s eyes, and his eyes met mine, and we stood there, and he looked into my eyes, knowing he could not say a word. But kindness and compassion and peace flowed from his face. And then he took a stick as though he were just making a mark in the ground. It would mean nothing to the guards, but with that stick he drew a cross.” Solzhenitsyn said, “I looked down, and God spoke to my heart, and God said, ‘Solzhenitsyn, I am with you in the valley.’ ” He said, “Little did I know that in three days I would be in Geneva, Switzerland, a free man.”
Conclusion:
Reference:
Rogers, A. (2017). How High Are Your Valleys? In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Ps 23:4). Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.
