Nothing to fear in the death shadowed valley when you know the Lord is with you. Psa 23:4; Heb 13:5-6; John 16:33

    

Ps 23:1-4

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name's sake.

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

I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

 

As we have noted, during the summer months the shepherd would take his flocks into the hill country to feed on mountain meadows.

 

The easiest way to scale the hills was through the valleys that were created by wind and weather erosion.

 

Though the valleys or scars in the mountain side were easiest to climb, they were still wrought with dangers.

 

This represents the continual danger that the believer is in while he climbs the hill to spiritual maturity.

 

But though there is danger; God has given more power to the believer in the form of the F/HS and BD. God has also provided the PPOG and its PSDs. So the believer has at his disposal an arsenal of weapons that are more than sufficient to overcome any danger in life.

 

Remember that you have three enemies, the flesh, the KOD, and the world system and the danger is always a spiritual one. All enemies have one goal in mind and that is to remove you from fellowship with God and ruin your relationship with Him in time.

 

But the weapons of God are far more powerful.

 

2 Cor 10:3-4

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

 

Divinely powerful means that nothing created can stand up to it. The destruction of fortresses are the three enemies that are constantly in opposition to the believer.

 

Satan, the KOD, and the world system will be allowed to test us and try us. They will be allowed to bring adversity and trouble. This trouble will come in the form of people testing, disaster testing, thought testing, and system testing.

 

All will want to make your flesh freak out and run to past defense mechanisms for escape. But the word and the Spirit (remember - priorities) will remind you that the Lord will deliver you while you are in the valley.

 

Loser believers are always looking for a crutch. They look to people for help, a shoulder to cry on, the government for help, substances to dull the pain, the world system for distraction from the difficulty, and they are losers all the way.

 

The winner/winning/advancing believer understands that he is a believer priest and as such can solve his own problems with the filling of the Spirit and the word of God.

 

Now when the shepherd took the flocks up into the hills there were all kinds of dangers along the way as well as delightful things.

 

Since the good shepherd always went into the mountains every summer he knew the terrain, he knew the dangers and never would he take his flock somewhere that he hadn’t already gone before.

 

All the dangers of rampaging rivers in flood; avalanches; rock slides; poinsonous plants; the ravages of predators that raid the flock or the awesome storms of sleet and hail and snow were familiar to him.

 

Nothing took him by surprise; He’d seen it all before. He was fully prepared to safeguard his flock and tend to them with skill under every circumstance.

 

All this is brought out by David when he says, “I shall not fear, for Thou art with me.”

 

There is no heartache, temptation, difficulty, disaster, disappointment, or dilemma that the Lord has not Himself experienced.

 

HEB 4:14-16

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

 

Believers sincerely want to reach the mountain top and enter into that sublime life of spiritual maturity.

 

There is good reason why God describes its abundance of peace and prosperity of soul. He desires us to achieve it and to never stop climbing, even though we may slip or get lost at times.

 

But the way up is not without its dangers. We are not going to be airlifted. We have to walk through valleys, past cliffs, over rocks, past mountain streams that can flood, through weather than can come upon us in minutes. And I will reiterate; it is easy if we exploit the power of God in the plan of God.

 

And only that power under God’s plan for your life will have the power to overcome the dangers that exist in the valley of death.

 

Every mountain is scarred by deep ravines and gulches through water and weather erosion. Every mountain has valleys. The best route to the top is always through these valleys.

 

And though this verse calls this the valley of death, this has nothing to do with physical death because the psalmist says he walks through it.

 

This valley is death shadowed. It represents the adversities of life. And even if we are dying, we are dealing with the thought of dying while living.

 

A soldier in war who gets shot and dies instantly does not experience this. It is only when he’s on the battlefield or on the way to the battlefield, knowing that the bullet will hit him before the sound of the bullet does, does he experience this.

 

This is why the Lord promised His disciples who would go through so much to spread the gospel all over the world that He would be with them always.

 

This promise is repeated in:

 

HEB 13:5-6

Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you," 6 so that we confidently say,

"The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.

What shall man do to me?"

 

And is anything too difficult for Him? With man many things are impossible, but with God all things are possible.

 

And as we have been called to comfort one another; we will be unable to do so if we have not gone through the valleys ourselves.

 

2 Cor 1:3-7

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

 

When the shepherd leads his sheep through these valleys, up into the mountains, he does not rush them.

 

The flock is moved along gently. Some of the lambs have never been this way before. By going slowly they can drink and graze on the way up.

 

The best grasses are in the valleys and to the reward is great if there is slow progress.

 

Naturally, the grasses in the valleys are often on the floor of steep walled canyons. There may be towering cliffs that hide predators who are waiting to pounce. There may be rock slides and avalanches. Weather can move in unseen.

 

But the shepherd knows all of this and is always at the ready to take the right action. He’s been trained over the years to fight off predators with his staff, even throwing it like a javelin with precision. He moves the flock under protective outcrops of rock at the sudden sound of avalanche or rock slide. He is familiar with dealing with weather and calms the flock and again covers them in the proper areas.

 

He knows every valley like the back of his hand.

 

Our Lord has been tempted in all things. He’s gone through more valleys that we would if we lived a million years. He knows it all, nothing shocks Him, and He has a problem solving device and the power to make it effective ready for you and I to apply at all times.

 

PSA 23:4

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

I fear no evil; for Thou art with me;

Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

 

As Phillip Keller puts it: “It is a most reassuring and reinforcing experience to the child of God to discover that there is, even in the dark valley, a source of strength and courage to be found in God. It is when he can look back over life and see how the Shepherd’s hand has guided and sustained him in the darkest hours that renewed faith is engendered.”

 

This type of positive believer always smiles at the future. This is the great by product of virtue and that is peace that goes beyond understanding.

 

It’s a peace that exists in every circumstance, prosperity and adversity.

 

“Let come what may.” Storms may break about me, the OSN may attack my thoughts. The cosmic system may be completely unfair to me. People may attack me and the KOD may bring mighty disasters my way, but because the Lord is always in the situation with me, I shall not fear.”

 

Most people just don’t understand the physical and mental benefits to such peace that comes from confidence in the work of our Lord on our behalf.

 

I watched the Passion of the Christ again with some friends last weekend and after I had gotten home and was once again confronted with the work of my Lord on my behalf when I was yet his enemy, I thought to myself, “What is the world could I possibly add to that?”

 

But that’s what believers who don’t understand the function of the King, our Shepherd, attempt to do. Under human good and religion they’re trying to add to it.

 

Do you possibly think that you could add anything to what the Lord has done that would even show up on the radar screen? If you do, you think far too highly of yourself than you ought to.

 

    

John 16:33

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

 

The question for you is not how many valleys are coming or does believer so and so have more or less valleys than me. The real question is, “how am I going to react to my own valleys?”

 

Are you going to face them fearlessly with the power of God or are you going to leave the Shepherd and go your own way, astray and away from His protection and peace?