Walking Through the Valley

The 6 verses that we will be looking at this evening will be incredibly familiar to most of you. So the danger is that you will switch off, thinking ‘Oh, I already know this’. But it will be relevant to us all.

As I’ve been talking to people this week, what God has been doing in many lives, he has been sorting out the foundations in our life. For David here, this encapsulates his whole understanding of who God is.

Psalms 23:1-6

V1. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Turning that verse around, He will always but always provide for my needs. I shall not want. It’s an impossibility with the Lord as my shepherd, that I will be in need of anything. The reason why it’s an impossibility is because the Lord places his name to what this psalm is all about.

Amplifying the words about God being our shepherd, this is Jesus speaking:

John 10:1-5

Jesus, in like vein to the psalmist, portrayed this whole concept of he himself being the shepherd. In verse 6 it says ‘Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.’ So then Jesus amplified his meaning:

John 10:7-19

I am the good shepherd (New Testament). The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want (Old Testament). I shall not be in a situation where God will not make provision in its entirety for me. I lay down my life for the sheep, Jesus says. When Jesus spoke about being the good shepherd, it was he himself. But it’s he himself who has laid himself down for you. He has made full provision for every single thing that you require both in this life and in the life to come.

I physically lay down my life for the sheep so that the sheep will be cared for; so that they will be able to find pasture; so that they will be able to go in and out. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Where we go through life; where there are pressures that some people are encountering that they never had to encounter before, your reaction to that pressure will determine how much you will rely on God for your provision.

I won’t want. I won’t be in need. The answer and the provision to meet the requirements, have already been sorted. And bang on time and at the right time, those answers will be there for you, so then you will say, “God, only you could have provided the answer and provided in that way, because I wouldn’t have been able to sort it out in that way.”

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

So there’s a place of peace in my life, as it says in verse 2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. But that isn’t the place where I’m meant to remain in. I’m not going to be in a place where peace prevails and that’s the only place I’m going to be. That’s not how you are going to live your Christian life. God will provide that peace in the midst of adversity. I am walking through this situation; I am not going to stop in this situation and let fear grip my heart or stop and let the whole circumstances overwhelm me. I am going to be able to say, later, I can see the way God has led me and the paths of righteousness that he has led me into, and I know that it has been God. At times, I have looked around and I’ve seen the problems and I’ve listed them. But I learned, in the middle of the situation (this is what you will be saying when you look back) that I somehow managed to keep going and look forward.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

They’re the key four words: for his name’s sake. Everything in your life is set so that when you go through the circumstances you’re in, when you walk through that, you will be able to proclaim, loud and clear, it’s Jesus Christ who has made provision all the way through; he has kept me and it’s for his name’s sake that I'm saying this because I want to give the glory to him. That’s what I'm going to do.

Don’t ask the question, “Why am I in this situation?” It doesn’t help to analyse. No, I’m in this situation and I’m going to look to God as my provider.

Hebrews 20:13-14

He’s the shepherd of the sheep. But the purpose of what you’re going through at the moment, is to make us perfect in every good work, for us to do his will, for him to work in us and to do that which is pleasing in his sight. If we try to plan it out, we get it totally and utterly wrong. The way God sorts our life out, he loves us, he causes us to walk in the paths of righteousness and the outworking of this is that he works in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight. We’re not here to make a camp, we’re here to walk through. And the outworking of this will be that it is well pleasing in his sight.

In your reaction to what is going on in your life at the moment, is it that you are going to go like a clam into its shell and hope against hope that something will happen. OR are you going to be like the man with that pound and think “Right I’m going to do something with my life. There’s no way I’m going to blame God for where I’m at.” I’m going in and out of new pasture. Whatever it is, the outworking of what I’m doing and my reaction to these pressures is crucial. Because those reactions will either work out something that is well-pleasing in his sight or like the man in the parable where he just kept the pound safe and did nothing with it. We want to be like those men who did something with the pound and saw how God provided through our situation.

The concept of walking through is there in Psalm 23V4:

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.

I’m walking through. It’s an active verb. It is not something that I’m becoming stuck in; so absorbed in the analysis of the situation that I’m like a rabbit in the headlights; I can’t move. NO I’m walking through; I’m trusting God; the Lord is my shepherd...’and he has already prepared the answer. And It will come bang on time, every time, always. Never too early and never too late; bang on time.

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.

V5: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Psalms 92:10-16


Fruit is possible in old age. Fruit as unto God; communicating the life of God to someone else. If you’re of old age here, God wants to bring forth fruit in your life. God has brought pressures to you because He loves to communicate to you his faithfulness and his love and who he is. He wants to freely make available that knowledge of him.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can still flourish.

V5: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Let me just read you the Psalm in a more paraphrased version,

Eugene Peterson - The Message:
1-3 God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. 4 Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. All the days of my life.

He used the word ‘pursue’ as the verb there. Goodness and mercy pursuing me, following me, surrounding me. By his holy spirit, God’s life is inside you. Christ in you the hope of glory is prompting you that the opportunities that you have at the moment, despite all the pressures, is to prove his faithfulness and his love and who he is to you. I don’t know your circumstances but I know that God uses these to convey to you his love and how he can provide. He loves you.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

In Revelation 19:9 it refers to the marriage supper of the lamb. When you look back, what is going to be the testimony of your life? It is going to be ‘the Lord is my shepherd and I know the Lord has brought me through.’ It is God who has put that faith in your heart. And what we have examined tonight is timely for you. He loves you. It makes you think, if someone doesn’t have a faith of Jesus Christ in their life...The pressure you’re in is not too much. The circumstances of your life are not impossible.

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Not some days, not when you’re being good. ALL the days of my life. And what we need to do is align our thinking with who God is and so that our reactions to the circumstances in our life is to bring gory to him. There is no way I am going to get bitter in any situation that I’m going to throw something at God, “Why!?” No. He has given his life for me. He is the Good Shepherd, I shall not want.