Walking with Jesus through the Valley

4/15 Reading Portions: Leviticus 19; Psalm 23-24; Ecclesiastes 2; 1 Timothy 4

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4/15 Reading Portions: Leviticus 19; Psalm 23-24; Ecclesiastes 2; 1 Timothy 4

Psalm 23:4

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.

DEATH

While this certainly speaks prophetically of the Lord Jesus as perfect Man led of the Spirit to do the Father’s will, it also applies to you and me, we who are in Christ because He has saved us by His grace. The wicked world in which we live is a valley to us. The exhilaration at the heights of the mountain peak are ours when we commune with God in Christ through prayer, meditations upon His holy Word, in fellowship with believers, hearing the preached Word, and all other graces with which God has blessed. The shadow of death is ever present during our sojourn. Those we know die. We are all but a step away from our own demise. Yet in Christ, our Good Shepherd, you and I will fear no evil. Jesus is with you and me. He has promised:

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

The most evil of things is the final enemy the Lord Jesus will put under His feet when He returns— death (1 Cor 15:25-26). Yet for you and me who are in Christ, we need not fear death: it is merely a door by which we will pass through to enter His presence (2 Cor 5:8). All things will change when the Lord Jesus returns; until that Day, however, the Lord Jesus is changing us (2 Cor 3:18). Death will not be feared because we die daily for Him (Luke 9:23; Gal 2:20). Christ’s care for His children is His eternal joy and activity; and therefore, He blesses us with His rod and staff. His rod of discipline teaches us, conforming us to His image through our obedient exercise of the graces He lavishes upon us. His staff of guidance leads us, feeding us in green pastures and bringing us beside still waters. No one cares or comforts us like Jesus. No one! For He is our God, and we are the sheep of His pasture. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

My friend, the valley’s dark and dank,
Yet we twain need not fear;
Our Shepherd, Christ, is whom we thank,
He’s with us, close and near.