Psalm 23:  The Blessing on the Other Side of the Valley   ebc 2 15 09

Context:   We don’t know when David wrote the 23rd Psalm but I’m going to speculate it was when his son Absalom led a revolt and tried to take the crown / power from King David- 2 Sam 15.  Maybe it while David was on the run, wondering at every town who was a friend or enemy.  Maybe it was during this time that he stopped and looked down into a valley and in a meadow saw a shepherd leading his flock to graze by a pool of water?   As David fled, some people would come out and feed him & men: David was a shepherd as a boy who came to fame when he took on, killed the great Philistine giant G.  Maybe David thought:  “Lord, I’ve shepherded many sheep and I’ve tried to shepherd and lead your people but now I’m the sheep who needs protection and help.”   I’m just guessing but it seems to me that the 23rd Psalm was written during a time of crisis & trouble so it’s a powerful passage to look at today. 

God is not just King/Rock but our Shepherd:  he lives with us, loves us, protects us, knows & guides us.
David said, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures." He is the Lord Jehovah Jirah: the God who provides for me like a Shepherd.   Here’s David’s dilemma: he was king of Israel, called by God to shepherd his people but he’s also a sheep that needed a Shepherd.  As a leader, David is always working to make sure he fulfills his calling which means he can lose perspective and forget that he is also human, a sheep that needs rest and help, protection and guidance.  Sheep are stupid and mindless, always getting lost, always in trouble.  So to admit you’re a sheep is humbling.
*Is. 53:6: “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”  That’s me/ you?

I’ve read Ps 23 1000s of times but never really noticed the phrase: “*He makes me lie down”  When I get caught up in my life and work and responsibilities, I’ll walk right past green pastures & quiet waters.  I can be so involved in serving others and helping others that I’ll walk right past God’s blessing for me.  Call it being compulsive or being insecure or driven but how many of us get so focused on living life that we stop taking care of ourselves and God literally has to “make us lie down?”  Remember the naps you had to take in Kindergarten?

This is a rough area because most of us are doing good things (working/ parenting/ serving) but we’re still sheep… God commands to rest.  Remember the Sabbath Day is the 4th commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy…”   The idea is stop, pull back, relax, rest and reflect on life.
 
God rested on the seventh day of creation & he tells his sheep to do the same if they want to be blessed.  Interesting that part of the rest our Shepherd provides is found in nature:  green pastures/ still waters.  It’s also interesting that if we refuse to rest, our bodies will shut us down.  Stress and anxiety is a cancer that eats away at us, inside; we can find ourselves lost in the “valley of the shadow of death.”

*Valley Reflections:
-We get into a *valley many different ways:  death, divorce, marriage struggles, parenting issues, illness, living life: losing perspective and balance in the monotonous routine of daily life, decisions we make: peer influences, being part of a sinful world affected by the decisions of others- marriage/ parenting, economy…, family influence and genetics- some of us are predisposed to depression & anxiety.  Paul’s thorn in the flesh, valley of despair, 3 times he prayed for God to take it away, and Jesus' response was: "My grace is sufficient and My power is made perfect in weakness."

-A valley is place where life gets tight and we feel the pressure of dark rocky walls closing in all around us, a valley is confining, its' hard to move, like the movies where the hero gets in a room with walls that are slowly moving in.  Star Wars comes to mind....

-A place of *waiting… once we’re lodged in a valley ravine, sometimes we’re stuck, and we spend our days just waiting.  Waiting is rough. 
Isaiah 40: 30-31:  “God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall,  but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” We may soar on mountain tops but in the valley we’re trying to survive day day, to walk and not faint.

-The valley can be a place of *dark despair & death… “valley of the shadow of death”  A valley can be a dark, gray, shadowy, depressing place and you’re not sure where the EXIT is… is there hope?

A recent NPR segment dealt with the psychological toll of job loss on US families.  Interviewed a single mother with 3 kids.  Making 52,000 public relations firm.  Let go.  Hid it from her kids. Cycled down.  Called a Suicide Hotling, hung up, took overdoses or pills, survived.  In tears the mom said:  "You feel so worthless when you can’t provide for family."  The report said that calls to Suicide Hotlines have risen significantly in the last year.        

Remember shadows vanish when we turn and face the light.  Valley has shadows but it's reminder that a light is shining.

-The valley is a place of * surrender.  Surrender is not a popular concept but key to our faith.  We like people who overcome not surrender.  Paper: “Steelers Surrender to Cardinals” We want to win. Rom 12: 1-2.

I’ve often mentioned that I find it interesting that on these 911 Crisis TV shows where people are calling in their crisis, you often hear them say, “Oh my God, help me.”  People who don’t go to church or have any interest in God/ Bible from day to day, suddenly call out his name in a dark valley. Why? We know deep down God is real.

A lady who attended DivorceCare, brought in a poem called "It’s In the Valley I Grow…"  Good reminder.
 
* In the valley, God restores our soul.  Frederick Buechner:  "To remember my life is to remember countless times when I might have given up, gone under, when humanly speaking I might have gotten lost beyond the power of any to find me.  But I didn't.  I have not given up.  And each of you, with all the memories you have and the tales you could tell, you also have not given up.  You also are survivors and are here.  And what does that tell us, our surviving?  It tells us that weak as we are, a strength beyond our strength has pulled us through at least this far, at least to this day.  Foolish as we are, a wisdom beyond our wisdom has flickered up just often enough to light us, if not to the right path through the forest, at least to a path that leads forward, that is bearable.  Faint of heart as we are, a love beyond our power to love has kept our hearts alive.  So it is possible to find peace, the peace that comes form looking back and remembering to remember that though most of the time we failed to see it, we were never really alone."

* Notice Ps. 23 says we go "through the valley…"  Think about the idea of a valley: a valley is found between two mountains.  If you’re in a valley, you’ve just left some mountaintop & on my way up to the next mountain. In between the mountains, there is a valley that often seems to consume us.   It’s in the valley we feel weighed down, discouraged, overloaded, place of struggling, doubt and questions.  The valley forces us to reflect and re-examine:  who am I?  how did I get here?  where am I going?

The catch is, you can't stop in the valley. "Yea, though I walk thro." Not just into the valley but  through," which means you came in one side; if you keep on walking, you'll make your way out the other side. God allowed a valley but when you’re there, remember:  your journey is not complete.  It came to pass

God blesses us even in the valley:  In 1 Kings 18 we find the story of where Elijah stood for God and won a great victory over the false prophets of Baal.  Elijah bet that his God would send fire from heaven to devour a sacrifice.  Prophets of Baal tried and failed.  God sent the fire.  People fell down in worship.  The prophets of Baal were seized and destroyed.  The long drought ended as God sent rain on the land.  Then Queen Jezebel sent a death threat by messenger to Elijah.  Elijah, powerful prophet, who was just experienced a mtn top victory, “ran for his life in fear into the desert.”  What?  He stops under a tree and tells God he wants to die. Asleep.  God sent an angel with some food and water.  He ate and drank and then traveled 40 days to Mt Horeb where he hid in a cave.  God appears to Elijah in the dark cave.  Elijah is depressed:  I’m all alone and I want to die.  God came to him: mighty wind not wind, powerful earthquake: not there, great fire: not in the fire.  After the fire came a still, small voice or gentle whisper.  I think of this story and I’m amazed that someone who had experienced the power of God so clearly could so quickly, run into a cave and hide in fear.  But God was always with him. 

Like Elijah,  we’re in the valley of depression and failure and discouragement and God acts and moves.  He provides a meal for us when we’re too weak to eat and our enemies are all around us.  See what Jesus says in Revelation 3.

Ps. 23 gives us the picture of the shepherd feeding the sheep when, lurking in the shadows, there are wolves and coyotes pacing back and forth. But they cannot get to the sheep, because on one side of the shepherd is a rod and on the other side of the shepherd is a staff, and the sheep are protected by the presence of the shepherd himself.   No matter how dark it may be in that valley, you have the protecting hand of God and the protective presence of the Spirit. The enemy does all he can to stop you, but God is with you. Look at where you are right now: In spite of all the challenges God, has still blessed you. In spite of all the opposition, God has still blessed you.   In spite of all the problems and failures, God has still blessed you. The enemy would have destroyed you, and yet God is with you.

* God is a good Shepherd who surrounds us with his care:  The shepherd goes in front of the sheep, he’s got a rod on one hand, staff on the other, and there goodness and mercy following us as we go.
Rod: a heavy club for protecting sheep from deadly enemies.  Staff: a crook, a long slender pole used for guiding sheep down a steep mountain paths & saving sheep who were hanging off a cliff.

I'm protected on every side, and that means that I'm coming out of this valley. I'm coming out of this problem. I'm coming out of this discouragement. Coming out of this depression. Coming out of this failure, because this thing is not over yet. The psalm does not end in the valley. The psalm does not end in end in the shadow. The psalm does not end in discouragement. The Bible says surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, which means I'm still moving, still going somewhere. I'm still on my way out of the valley into the light of day. 

I will fear no evil for God is with me…  that’s the peace that comes from having a good Shepherd. 
Let’s remember our name and live it out.  Emmanuel:  God is with us and he calls us to be with others.
A valley is just a depression between two mountains.
Whenever I enter into a valley, my faith tells me there's a mountain in my path-but Jesus says wieth faith even as small as a mustard see, you move mountains.
My faith tells me that one day I'm coming out of this valley. My faith tells me the Lord has protected me and will protect me until I see Him face to face. 

What can do for others who are in a dark valley:  Be there:  Lyndal sang for his brother Randal in the final days of his struggle with cancer.  He brought his guitar, sang old camp songs and hymns like, “In the Garden.”  It blessed Sue and I think sometimes even when we don’t know if people can hear, they can.  We come across people who are run over, run down, weak and dying, all we can do is be with them.

Baptism is a time where we say, “You are my shepherd” and also, “I will seek to shepherd others”
Remember when the baptism heater broke and water was 140 degress, we spent the whole service draining the tank and pouring in ice.  Then I saw Earl Johnson with his pants rolled up, wading into the water to check it's temp.: that’s it.

Is. 53:6, “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”  That’s me. That's you.

I love Jesus’ story about the man who had 100 sheep (Matthew 18):  “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”  That’s God.  He never gives up on us.

A child was asked during a Children's Moment:  "What is a good shepherd?"  Child:  "He picks up his sheep when they fall down."

* Jesus: “Come unto me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

Heb. 13:5, God says to each of us, “I will never leave you or forsake you!”  So we can say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper;  I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?

God is seeking us right where we are.  “If we imagine that is it we who have to look for God, then we often lose heart.  But it is the other way around:  God is looking for us.   And so we can afford to recognize that very often we are not looking for God; far from it, we are in full flight from him, in high rebellion against him.  God knows this and has taken it into account.   God has followed us into our own darkness;  there where we thought finally to escape him, we run straight into his arms.  The goal is simply to respond to God’s gift of love that is being held out to us every moment of every day.”

The Good Shepherd is the only one who can guide us home, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  Our deepest desire is to make it home.  That’s the desire God has place in us for heaven.  Can’t work our way in, act of grace.

When I was a boy I used to love to watch the old cowboy movies. I noticed there was a formula. There were always good guys and bad guys. The bad guys would go after the good guys. Then the good guys would go after the bad guys. Eventually the bad guys would hole up in a hut somewhere. Then they would be surrounded by the good guys.  You’d always wait to hear them say the same thing: "Come out. You are under arrest. You are surrounded”… and then  * “Come out, with your hands high in the air."

God is our Good Shepherd, providing us rest and food, and surrounding us in our dark valleys of pain and when we finally begin to move again, maybe God says to us, “You’re surrounded, come out with your hands up!”   You're coming out of that problem. When you come out, you've got to come out with your hands in the air. That means you've got to come out praising God. That means you've got to come out giving God the glory. You've to got lift up your hands and bless him.    I'm coming out with my hands in the air. That means I'm coming out praising him. I'm coming out lifting him up.   Praise him by faith that he's already prepared a table for you. Praise him by faith that he'll make a way out when everything looks hopeless…. We raise our hands and say with Psalmist: "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph."

Prayer:

Hymn No. 51
Guide me, O Thou  great Jehovah,   Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but  Thou art mighty; Hold me with Thy powerful hand;
Bread of heaven,  Bread of heaven,  Feed me till  I want no more.