Go To The Valley
“1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.”
For most of my life, as I read through the verses in Psalm 23 it was easy to read it as a dichotomy of locations. The "darkest valley" versus the “still waters” and “green pastures,” with the former being evil, bad and undesirable - while the latter was the good that we hope and aim for.
But here’s the thing:
Where are we most likely to find the green pastures and the still waters? Is it on the mountaintops? Mountaintops are not where things grow. Mountains have tree lines above which vegetation does not exist, and any water on a mountain is likely a rushing river or a cascading waterfall. Where do pastures and calm waters exist then?
It’s in the valley.
Mountaintops are great - in physical, metaphorical, and spiritual terms - but that isn’t the main location for life and growth.
In our lives - as in nature - green pastures and still waters are found on the other side of the darkest valley, or what is sometimes translated “the valley of the shadow of death.” They are not in opposite locations.
Mountaintops are great, but that isn’t the main location for life and growth.
-Jeremy Sullivan Height
A number of years ago my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Black Canyon in western Colorado. It’s called the Black Canyon because, while it is as deep as the Grand Canyon in terms of its slice into the face of the Earth, it is not nearly as wide or expensive as the Grand Canyon. Due to this more narrow gap and the lack of light at the bottom, this dark valley is called the Black Canyon. It is there at the bottom of the Black Canyon where the vegetation and the water and the wildlife exist.
In fact, this geographic landscape is not unique to western Colorado, and similar pieces of land exist in the Middle East where this psalmist would have lived. The valleys are often where both life and the "shadow of death" reside.
Green grass and calm waters are on the other side of the darkest valley.
New life and resurrection are on the other side of death.
Redemption is on the other side of surrender.
On a seemingly different note, it has been pointed out that one major difference between cows and buffaloes is how they handle storms. When a thunderstorm rolls in, cows react with the innate response that might be expected. They run away from the storm. But - spoiler alert - cows cannot run fast. So the storm inevitably catches up to the cows and they end up running inside the storm and spend more time in the storm then if they were to have simply stood still. Buffaloes, on the other hand, will turn and face the storm, and then run towards it. This creates a harsher “collusion” with the storm, but the buffaloes come out the other side much quicker. So it is with life, unfortunately. There is not much, if anything, that we can outrun.
We can face the storm. We can go to the valley, and not to wallow in guilt or shame or pain. Rather we go - as the Serenity Prayer states -“Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.” We go knowing that the darkest valley is not the end, but merely the path to new life and green pastures and resurrection and cold waters and healing and wholeness.
When faced with hardship and brokenness in life, may you go to the valley. Do not run away. And go knowing that you do not go alone. You do not face the journey through the valley of the shadow of death in isolation. As this psalm reminds us, "the Lord is our shepherd" and the Lord is with you.
Face the Storm. Go to the Valley.
My local church family, Trevecca Community Church, is currently journeying through a sermon series about the 12 Steps of recovery and how they apply to all of our lives and to our Christian faith. I recently had the opportunity to preach on Step 4. You can watch the sermon here. This blog post is an adaption of a portion of this message.
