Psalm 23
There is one thing that we all can be sure of God is always at work.
When you are at some crossroads in your life, when you are forced to face the trials and tribulations of life, when you are at the point of not knowing what to do you can always trust in God because He does. Every one of us goes through valley experiences in our lives, in fact these valley experiences are a part of life.
Every time we go through these valley experiences we tend to wonder why God allows us to go through them. In this 23rd Psalm, David is speaking of a deep, dark valley where there seems to be no ray of light and you feel like you are not going to make it. But, valleys are not dead-end streets and the disappointments, frustrations, discouragements, and dilemmas of life although they are valleys, shouldn’t be classified as a disaster. David even refers to them as a shadow.
Nonetheless, I submit to you that the valley is the only route to our own personal promise-land; there is no alternate route. When the Egyptians chased the Israelites to the Red Sea there was no way for them to go around it. But God made a way for them to cross — when we journey through the valley we must always keep in mind that God will make a way.
We must always keep in mind that His grace, His leading, and His mercy will never fail. His way may not always be the same as the one we would have imagined. In other words, He may do the opposite of what we expect Him to do. And sometimes inadvertently or otherwise we have acquired the habit of trying to tell the Lord exactly how we want Him to help us and ignore the fact that He knows just what to do.
It is GOD Himself who walks with us through life’s trials to deliver us from all evil and fear. Yes, the valley is where we do our struggling, it is where we have to cry sometimes, and yes the valley is inevitable throughout our journey in life, from our earliest existence all the way up unto our departure from this world, but GOD comforts us with the assurance that even earthly death will never separate our souls from dwelling in His holy presence forever in Heaven!
This is why Paul declared that our deliverance from evil by the loving sacrifice of CHRIST on our behalf in GALATIANS 1:4, “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of GOD and our Father!” Truly, as it is written, we will fear no evil, for Thou art with us! And truly, as it is written, we shall dwell in the house of The LORD forever!
I don’t know about you but in the midst of all my struggles and the fact that the valley is only a temporary place is worth shouting about because it is our reassurance that trouble don’t last always. Amen.