“1 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in 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 paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 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. ”
Where is God when it hurts? That’s a good question because life hurts often, and life hurts a lot.
What I really want is to know that life will never hurt again. I imagine that’s what, deep down, you want as well. At times, you, like me, have probably tricked yourself into believing that somehow life would never hurt again.
To this point Psalm 23 has been filled with abundance and only abundance. David has written about nothing but green pastures, plentiful waters, and right paths. Imagine that the Psalm ended there. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters; He restores my soul. He leads me along the right paths for His name sake.” End of Psalm. That is what we want. Each of us is looking for some sort of promise that it is all sunshine from here on out.
You could spend your life walking every right path and life would still hurt. Look at Jesus. I know that you want to believe that life will never hurt again, but to believe that would be to believe a lie. The truth is that life will hurt again. The right paths will lead through hurt on the way to green pastures, but the shepherd will be with you even when it hurts. Even the right paths lead through dark valleys, and even there God is with you. That is the claim of this sermon : even the right paths lead through dark valleys, and even there God is with you.
We will study this in two points. First: walking through the darkest valley. Second: God with me.
First: walking through the darkest valley. Even the right paths lead through the darkest valleys. The right paths of verse 3 lead through the darkest valleys of verse 4; “he leads me along the right paths for his name sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” The right paths which lead to green pastures and quiet waters sometimes wind through dark valleys.
Now this may be a departure from the way you have understood this Psalm. I know that to some people a new reading of Psalm 23 might seem like changing the recipe for grandma’s pumpkin pie. Grandma’s pumpkin pie has served us well for decades. Your understanding of Psalm 23 has served us well for decades. I get that, but I think recognizing that even the right paths lead through the darkest valleys will serve you even better.
I know that to some people a new reading of Psalm 23 might seem like moving the family Christmas party from Christmas Eve to December 23. You have built certain aspects of your calendar around the traditional date. You built certain aspects of your understanding around the way you’ve understood this Psalm. I get that, but I don’t think you will lose anything by recognizing that even the right paths lead through the darkest valleys. I think you will only gain understanding.
David is saying that if you belong to God, you can be sure that He will lead you along the right paths and that these paths will lead to green pastures and quiet waters. He is also saying that these paths might lead through dark valleys. David is telling you that the dark valleys are no indication that you are on the wrong path.
Now my guess is that when you find yourself in a dark valley of life, you assume that you’ve gone off the right path. I do. My immediate response to trouble is, ‘what went wrong?’ That’s my immediate response because what I want is for life to never hurt again. My vision of the right path is one without pain and therefore when life does hurt I assume I’m on the wrong path.
This Psalm is sometimes read as if the shepherd only has anything to do with green pastures and quiet waters and somehow from time to time the sheep inexplicably find themselves in the darkest valleys. That was not David’s intention. David made clear that the shepherd is the one leading the sheep and he leads them through dark valleys for the purpose of arriving in green pastures and quiet waters. It isn’t as if sheep wind up in dark valleys by accident, but at least the shepherd is with them. No, the shepherd is with the sheep in dark valleys because he is leading them on the right paths toward green pastures and quiet waters and sometimes these paths lead through dark places.
Thinking about these dark valleys, shepherd turned pastor Philip Keller wrote, “The shepherd knows from past experience that predators like coyotes, bears, wolves or cougars can take cover in these broken cliffs and from their vantage point prey on his flock. He knows these valleys can be subject to sudden storms and flash floods that send walls of water rampaging down the slopes. There could be rockslides, mud or snow avalanches and a dozen other natural disasters that would destroy or injure his sheep. But in spite of such hazards he also knows that this is still the best way to take his flock to the high country.”
The shepherd knows there are dark valleys on the right paths, but they are still the right paths. Now some people are dogmatic about the fact that God has nothing to do with the dark valleys. They firmly believe that He only deals in green pastures and quiet waters. Their reading of Psalm 23 assumes that the sheep are either in a dark valley because they have left the shepherd or that the shepherd is as surprised by this dark valley as the sheep are. This view has no foundation in Scripture.
Scripture is clear that God leads His people on the right paths and that right paths do contain dark valleys. That is one of the best summaries of the book of Job. One of the main points of the book of Job is that Job didn’t enter dark valleys because he left the right paths. Consider Abraham’s darkest valley, “take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Abraham didn’t enter that dark valley because he left the right path. God took him to that dark valley. Consider Jesus. He didn’t enter dark valleys because he departed from the right path. God lead each of them on the right path into the dark valley. The dark valleys did not make it the wrong path.
If your view of God isn’t big enough to make sense of dark valleys, you have to ask yourself about the power of your God. Take Israel’s slavery in Egypt for instance. Joseph invites Jacob and the whole family to enjoy the abundance of Egypt. They have children and their children have children and eventually these descendants wind up enslaved. If you think that God is powerful enough to put Joseph in charge of Egypt to invite his family to live in that abundance, why wasn’t God powerful enough prevent them from becoming enslaved? He was. The God of the Bible told Joseph’s great-grandfather Abraham, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.” At the worst moments of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, Scripture tells us, “God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” God was taking Israel on the right path to green pastures; He had a plan; His plan led through this dark valley, but God was with them.
Now the idea that God leads us into dark valleys might be hard to accept, but the alternative is far, far harder to accept. Ask yourself if you would rather have a shepherd who leads you on the right paths even though these right paths dark valleys or if you would rather have a shepherd who was either too foolish to know this path contained certain dark valleys, or too weak to do anything about it. The God of right paths and plan even in the dark valleys is far preferable.
In a little while we are going to sing a hymn by Horatio Spafford. He wrote it in light of two events in his life—the death of his two year old son in the Chicago fire, which also ruined him financially, and the death of his daughters. “When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know, it is well, it is well, with my soul.”
What was well with Spafford’s soul? It wasn’t the fact that God was a God of sunshine all the time even though Spafford was in a dark valley. It was that God had a plan, a right path, and that these dark valleys were part of it and God was still with Spafford in it. That is what was well with Spafford’s soul. The shepherd leads me in the right paths and even when they lead through the darkest of valleys, He is still with me and it is still the right path.
What was well with Jesus’ soul? One of the darkest valleys on Jesus’ right path was the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knew that this path led through dark places. He prayed what any of us would have prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Yet what made it well with Jesus’ soul? “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Jesus found solace in the fact that the shepherd was still leading him on the right paths even thought this path led through the cross.
What I want and what I imagine you want is to know that life will never hurt again. We want to find the right path that avoids all pain, but that, of course, isn’t reality and it isn’t the plan of God. His plan is the right paths which lead to green pastures and quiet waters but along the way there will be dark valleys. In these valleys, He will be with you.
Tonight Dolan professed his faith. He didn’t profess that now his life is going to be perfect. He didn’t profess that since God is in charge there will be no dark valleys. He professed that the Lord is his shepherd. He professed that this shepherd is leading him along the right paths. He professed that the shepherd has a plan for his life. He professed that these right paths sometimes lead through dark places. He professed that the shepherd is with him even in the dark places.
The Lord is Dolan’s shepherd. Even when Dolan walks through the darkest of valleys, he need not fear the danger because God is with Dolan. “You are with me.” Those words are the heart of the Psalm and they make up our second point: God with me.
You may have noticed the change in voice from the last verse to this verse. In the last verse, God was referred to in the third person; “He guides me along the right paths for His name sake.” In this verse, God is referred to in the second person; “I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” The focus is now on the intimacy between the sheep and the shepherd. It is no longer “he.” It is now “you.”
This focus on intimacy is certainly experientially true. It is in the darkest valleys that the Lord is nearest. It is also in the darkest valleys that we need this intimacy. Thinking of God in the third person doesn’t do much for you when you are suffering. It isn’t knowledge about God that helps in suffering. It is knowing God that helps you in suffering. It is God’s presence that helps you in suffering; “for You are with me.”
Those words “for You are with me,” are the heart of this Psalm. Psalm 23 is doubtlessly the most loved Psalm and it is because the entire Psalm communicates those words in dozens of ways, “for You are with me.”
Those words, “for You are with me,” are the grammatical heart of the Psalm. In the Hebrew, there are 26 words before the phrase, “for You are with me,” and there are 26 words after the phrase, “for You are with me.” This centering is part of Hebrew poetry. English poetry has its own techniques to give attention such as rhyming—“how odd of God to choose the Jews”—Hebrew poetry has its own techniques and centering is one of them. The most important idea is often found in the exact middle and that is the case with this Psalm, “for You are with me.”
Now this Psalm is bookended by the name of the Lord, YHWH. It occurs once in the first line, “the Lord is my shepherd,” and once in the last line, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
The name of the Lord is not only at the beginning and the end, it also weaved throughout. There are 26 words before, “for You are with me,” and 26 words after, “for You are with me.” 26 is the numerical value of the name of the Lord – YHWH. Each Hebrew letter has a numerical significance. The first letter of YHWH, ‘yod’ has a value of 10, the second letter ‘he’ has a value of 5, the third letter ‘waw’ has a value of 6, the fourth and final letter ‘he’ has a value of 5. Add them up and you get 26. So, in that fashion, Psalm 23 reads, “26 words, for You are with me, 26 words,” or, “YHWH, for You are with me, YHWH.” Now you and I might not be big on the numerical value of words in poetry, but the Jews were. David was and we must understand it as he wrote it. He wrote it to communicate that God is with is.
These words, “You are with me,” put the shepherd front and center. The sheep need not be afraid not because their circumstances will always be pleasant but because the Lord is with them. Psalm 23 does not teach that nothing is scary. Don’t take the words, “I will fear no evil,” to mean that the Bible says there is nothing scary in life. Cancer is frightening. Loneliness is frightening. Death is frightening. These are reasons to be afraid, but you need not be terrified because, and only because, of verse 4’s, “You are with me.”
Think back to David’s life. Why wasn’t he too terrified to fight Goliath? It wasn’t because he was more skilled in battle than Goliath. It wasn’t because there was something so peculiar about David that he was fine with the prospect of getting stabbed by a giant. It was because, as he put it, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” There were plenty of reasons to be terrified there at the Valley of Elah, but David knew the Lord was with him.
Now David most likely had some degree of fear, but he charged ahead anyway. Thinking about Psalm 23, John Calvin wrote, “David did not mean to say that he was devoid of all fear, but only that he would surmount it so as to go without fear wherever his shepherd should lead him.”
David probably was afraid when Goliath started charging him, but he was still willing to do what God led him to do. Abraham probably was afraid when he drew that knife to slay Isaac, but he was still willing to do what God led him to do. You most likely will still be afraid when you are in the dark valley of the right path, but God is with you so keep going.
After writing about the death of his wife, shepherd turned pastor Philip Keller wrote, “somehow, in a serene quiet way I am assured all will turn out well for my best because He is with me in the valley and things are under His control.” The presence of the Lord doesn’t erase the heartache; it doesn’t erase the trouble. It puts it in a bigger picture that includes God.
Fear tempts you to forget God. Faith reminds you of God. Fear tells you to look only at the dark valley. Faith reminds you to look at God and recognize that you are still on the right path. Fear says only, “be afraid.” Faith says, “You are with me.”
In many ways the story of Scripture is an expansion of those words, “You are with me.” All of scripture makes clear that God is with us. It begins with God with Adam and Eve and it ends with God again dwelling with His people. In the middle, you have God taking on flesh and living among us. There is nothing that says, “God is with me,” like the incarnation of the Son of God.
The disciples doubtlessly knew that God was with them after they recognized that the man with whom they spent the past three years was God Himself. How could they ever think God wasn’t with them in the storms of life after Jesus was with them in that boat in the storm? How could they ever think that God wasn’t with them in their sorrows after Jesus was with them in all the daily sorrows they encountered over those three years? How could they ever think that God wasn’t with them once they knew Jesus?
Perhaps that is a question to ask yourself this evening—how can you ever think that God isn’t with you since you know Jesus? If God is with you to the point of becoming like you, if God is with you to the point of taking on flesh and suffering rejection, pain, and death you us, why doubt that He is with you in whatever you are going through tonight? The clear message of Scripture is that God is with you.
The prophets, poets, and apostles drive home this point from angle after angle because we are all so very prone to forget. You are prone to forget that God is with you. It isn’t just you. Every believer is prone to forget that God is with them. When you woke up this morning was the first thought that came into your head, “well, God is with me and God is for me and if God is for me who can be against me”? Now if that has been the first thought in your head every day of 2020, please come and talk to me. I have so many questions.
No, I would imagine that you, like me, need to be reminded that God is with you. That is why the Holy Spirit inspired Psalm 23:4. This verse was inspired to remind you because you are so very prone to forget.
Jesus is the only man who always remembered and that is one of the many reasons that he is the most fascinating man who has ever lived. Read through the gospels. Many of us just finished up reading through Mark. We saw that there is no one like Jesus. His life is many things, but it is certainly a picture of the confidence that comes from a constant understanding that the Lord is with you.
The only interruption was when he cried out, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In that moment, the Father wasn’t with him because the Father was giving him what your sin deserved. We read Psalm 23 and wonder why there need be any dark valleys that might cause us to forget that the Lord is with us when, in reality, we should read Psalm 23 amazed that the Lord is with us at all.
I have given the Lord no reason to want to be with me. Last week, we heard that woman say to John Newton, “sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards.” What I deserve is to be forsaken by God, but Jesus took that so that the Lord might be with me. That’s grace. You deserve hell but what you are getting is a hug. You deserve to take the wrong paths you’ve chosen and follow them all the way to the end. What you get is to be led on the right paths that empty out into green pastures and when these right paths lead through dark places, even in those moments God is with you. That is what you get if the Lord is your shepherd. Amen.