Getting Through the Dark Places
Psalm 23
April 17, 2005
4^th Sunday of Easter
First Baptist Church, Wilson, NC

I. NOT JUST DEATH BUT DARK PLACES TOO

For me the highlight and the climax of the 23rd Psalm is:

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."

The words come tripping out from my King James memory. Most of us still prefer "valley of the shadow of death" to the more contemporary translations that merely say something like "through the darkest valley." I do like the Moffatt translation which doesn’t mention valley or death either, but manages a little better:

"My road may run through a glen of gloom.

I fear no harm, for thou art beside me.

"I fear no evil; for you are with me."

I prefer the cadence of the old King James, bit I am grateful for the accuracy of the newer translations, because they let me know that not only will God be with me when death closes around, but God is also with me now whenever I am in any dark place. Whenever the path of my life passes through any dark valley or glen of gloom, whenever my way has to pass through depression or despair, even there the protective presence of God will shepherd me through those dark places.

II. THE DARK PLACES OF DAVID

As I read the psalm I can’t help but think of the dark places in the life of David, whose name appears in a superscription above this psalm: "a psalm of David." Notice it does not say, "a psalm BY David." "A psalm OF David" suggests someone else wrote this with David in mind. Even if there had been no inscription at all, it would still remind us of David’s life, especially of the dark places in his life.

We hear "The Lord is my shepherd," and we remember how David got his start as a shepherd boy. He knew sheep and the dangers of shepherding very well. We hear the other stories of David’s life here too. After David’s fight against Goliath, after his fleeing from a feverish King Saul, we can easily picture David resting in the care of God like a sheep being led to green grass and cool waters.

The psalm continues, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…" David had many enemies, and we can imagine God drawing David and enemies together into a peaceful banquet. The psalm says, "….you anoint my head with oil…" and we remember the day David was anointed by the prophet as the future king.

And there is another story of David that fits this psalm, the darkest story of his life: his affair with Bathsheba that led to the death of her husband. David in mid-life had seen her and taken her and then had arranged for her husband to die in battle. And then before God and everybody, the prophet Nathan "outed" David, who then confessed and repented. In the darkest period of his reign, the Lord was with David, teaching him by hard experience to deal with his passions. That dark story adds a deeper dimension to the words: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

The whole psalm is a comprehensive commentary on David’s whole life. And David’s whole life illuminates the psalm. Through the many dark places of his life -- the dangers, the temptations -- God was present and protecting. How vulnerable and dependent David was before God. How gracious God was to David.

III. THE DARK PLACES OF ANY PILGRIM

But the close association of this psalm with David did not keep other people from seeing this psalm as their story too. This psalm was used by pilgrims who traveled from their homes to Jerusalem for Passover. As they pondered the dangers of a multi-day journey through areas where food and water would be scarce, they sang together:

As the pilgrims walked through narrow rocky ravines and dark mountain passes where thieves hid in ambush, they sang:

IV. THE DARK PLACES IN OUR PILGRIMAGE

So the psalm that spoke to the dark places of David’s life journey also spoke to the dark places of the journeys of pilgrims after him. And this same psalm keeps on speaking… right to the dark places that you and I have to go through. Let me name three dark places that most all of us have to go through at some point in our lives. I will name them Doubt, and Desire, and Death.

DOUBT is a dark valley that nearly all of us pass through. Doubt doesn’t come just for those who are new in the faith, but also for those who have believed a long time. Doubt doesn’t come just for those who are weak in the faith, but also for those who are strong giants in the faith too. Doubt often comes in the form of questions, and that is a natural part of faith; the more we face honest questions the stronger our faith becomes. But the toughest form of doubt comes, I believe, in loneliness. To a new or an old believer, to a weak or a strong believer, doubt comes when the believer begins to feel alone, when the believer prays but feels no reply and no presence. The great saints of the faith call this the dark night of the soul. It is a time of spiritual drought, a time when the usual joys of following Jesus have lost their luster.

And yet the psalmist promises us that even in this dark valley,

Even in the dark night of the soul’s doubt we can trust that God is there even though we cannot feel that God is there. And then slowly, slowly, we realize that the empty void in our souls is becoming a wide open vessel ready to receive God’s presence. Even in the dark valley of doubt called the dark night of the soul, you are with me, O God.

I call a second dark place along our life path DESIRE. Here I do not mean the God-given gift of desire between a husband and wife. Rather I mean desire as the dark place that David struggled in when he wanted Bathsheba. Bill Clinton knew the same darkness of desire that David did, when his affair cast a shadow over his presidency. Clinton once said that all great leaders are a mixture of light and darkness. But in the great leaders, light overcame darkness. He once confessed, not only of his affair, but of all his struggles with his inner demons, "It was dark down there."

We shudder to think of all our own struggles with our own inner demons, or our own shadow sides, or whatever you wish to call it. But in this psalm we have the promise:

The good news is that God’s light is revealed amid the darkness, as it says in another psalm, Psalm 139:

One more dark place we all must pass through is DEATH. I’ve already noted that the 23^rd Psalm is about more than death, but it is still about death too.

I think the power of what Kubler-Ross did for this boy was in what she didn’t do as much as it was in what she did. She did not erase the cannon in his picture that pointed at the boy. If she had, the boy would have known that she was not being honest with him. That honesty gave more power to what she did do: a simple promise that she would stay with him.

I think that same honesty is what gives the 23^rd Psalm its power to help us through the dark place of death. Let me read part of it again while you listen for what God does not do and what God will do:

Like the good doctor, the psalm does not say that God will take us out of the valley. The psalm makes the honest and powerful promise that God will be with us in the valley.

And that is the truth for us. Our life will take us through dark places. Painful and terrible things will happen to us. We will be exempt from none of them, not even death. But through every dark valley, God is with us, guiding, strengthening, comforting. And so, as with that little boy, our fear gives way to the sun shining, and flowers everywhere, and a smile on our face.

-- Douglas E. Murray