Psalm 23 misunderstood but well-known (iv)

Lesson Four

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

For those facing death this verse if often a great source of comfort, however, in terms of ‘discipleship’, we would be missing the point if we do not consider this verse in that context. Each verse is an important stepping stone towards spiritual maturity, and we have reached step four.

To recap:

• The disciple has, at some point, decided to follow the Lord and sees the Lord as their shepherd

• In encountering the Lord they encounter His love, peace, and priority: rest and the restoration of their souls

• Once established in peace and restored new paths of righteousness open up. The disciple may not realise it at this time but these paths are ‘for His sake’, there is a divine purpose at work. Dishonesty replaced with honesty. Courage instead of fear. Love instead of bitterness. The new paths may also have included ‘ministry’, for example preaching or healing or miracles or provision or mercy missions and so on. All this may continue to grow and prosper over months and years.

And then, unexpectedly, the disciple who has been enjoying a transformed life full of new paths, is plunged into the ‘valley of the shadow of death’. However it arrives, externally or through internal conflict, death stalks its prey. Everything that was a result of putting one’s faith in Christ fails or is set aside or fails to satisfy. You may be the victim of circumstances or the author of your own downfall, or simply responding to a strange call to die, but everything that has happened to this point is disintegrating or is taken away. Your taste buds have changed, whereas you looked forward to a fine latte or cappuccino at 11 every morning, now it has no pull. You feel lost.

Gone, it seems are the green pastures and the quiet waters. One’s soul is in anguish.

Everything, it seems, is a living contradiction. We feel as if we have been baptised into Christ’s cry on the cross ‘Eloi Eloi Sabachtani’, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ All is loss and darkness.

This is a severe test. And yet, a glimmer of light comes from that anguished Messianic cry. The disciple realises that, although Christ felt abandoned, He still addressed God with His abandonment. Although He felt abandoned, he did not abandon the Lord but cried out to Him.

If we equate the progression through Psalm 23 with the progression of thought through Paul’s epistle to the Romans you may have realised we have reached Romans 6 and 7, chapters that are rarely preached and taught. We prefer to skip Romans 6 and 7 and skip from Romans 5 straight to Romans 8. And no wonder.

Romans 6 is about our death. And Romans 7 is about divorce.

Like the discipleship program in Ps 23, which was going so well, Romans follows the same pattern.

By the end of Romans 5 believers have peace with God, justification, they have been transferred from Adam to Christ, and the Spirit is at work shedding abroad the love of God in their hearts. All is set fair.

Then Romans 6 ‘Do you not know that as many of us that were baptised into Christ have been baptised into His death? Knowing this that our old man was crucified?

And Romans 7 ‘You have died to the Law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from he dead, that we should bear fruit to God’

In the valley of the shadow of death we may have intellectually understood that we have had to ‘leave our nets’ to follow Christ i.e. leave our old lives behind, in the valley we progress to realising this death to the old ‘you’ is not something that has happened as a consequence of your commitment to Christ or your love for Christ. It is an historical fact. When Christ died we died.

We are now convinced throughout our being that we are dead and buried as far as our old selves and that our new identity is ‘in Christ’ so that, just as Jesus was raised, we can now be raised. This is not the final ‘resurrection’ but a here and now type of resurrection. Even in this ‘death valley’ we realise that God is at work, just as he was in Jesus after He had died and that new life will emerge from the wreckage, the death and destruction in the valley.

One last note. This experiential ‘death’ may be forced upon us by circumstance, or we may feel ‘called’ to it; like Jesus was called to Jerusalem.

In John’s gospel, when Jesus had reached Jerusalem and was days away from crucifixion He said ‘Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain’

There is a purpose in this dying. It is to become more fruitful, but we must ‘die’ first. This death can be to die to whatever had been going so well. We can either resist, to switch to another parable and metaphor, the gardener’s knife or submit to some pruning.

John Mark Comer is a well-known American Christian writer (The Elimination of Hurry) and was the overall leader of a ‘mega-church’ a multi-site church of thousands attending each Sunday. This is his story:

“I was the co-planter then I became lead pastor when I was 28. We grew by about 1,000 people a year, for seven years straight. It was this wild ride – exhausting – wake up in the morning and work until I couldn’t move anymore.

We were successful on the outside by the American megachurch metrics. But on the inside, I was dying. At one point we had 93 people on staff – that’s not a pastor, that’s an executive director of a non-profit; it’s not what God made me to do! I had to learn the hard way that I’m a human being; I’m not a machine.

So I demoted myself, stepped down from leading our little family of churches, asked if I could just lead our one in the city. That was three and a half years ago, and I have not looked back. It’s been life-changing.”

It may appear to be ‘evil’ but we do not fear because, despite our feelings indicating differently, the Lord is with us. It is all part of discipleship.

Remember Peter. He had known Jesus’s love and friendship. Had participated in Christ’s miracle ministry, had seen the sick healed, the dead come back to life, the possessed set free and so on but then he denied Christ three times, and wept bitterly.

The valley of the shadow of death is full of weeping.

But then Jesus found Peter and asked him three times whether Peter loved Him. From the depths Peter answered, ‘You know that I love you’. Despite his failure, his love and faith in Christ had not been destroyed, only his misplaced confidence in Himself.

Next week: we find out what is the other side of the valley of the shadow of death. In terms of Romans, what is beyond chapters 6 and 7.