Through The Valley of the Shadow of Death

October 6, 2015

Devotions:

        “He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  ‭Psalms‬ ‭23:3-4‬ ‭NASB‬‬

        Here the psalmist David says here that the Lord will guide us for His name sake not for our perfection.  Of course God cannot guide us unless we are willing to follow.  The second phrase here is that even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  That is talking about the world as we know it.  God created everything alive.  He said of His creation that it was good and very good.  god did not create death because He is life and there is no death in Him.  Death came into this world when Adam turned from God, the author of life, and sinned.  Our stay down here on this earth is walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  Many use this at a funeral but upon physical death we are either in the presence of the Lord or we are in hell.  The valley of the shadow of deathe is here and now.  We see it all around us, plants die and rot, animals die and rot, metal rusts and so on.  God through David says that He will lead us in this existence here on earth that He would lead us safely through this valley and keep us out of trouble.  We are to fear no evil because God is with us.  Many fear the presence of God because they know that they are not perfect and they are in fear of punishment.  The fear here is to respect, honor and reverence the presence of the Lord.  We do this by obeying His leading knowing that He is smarter than us and He only has our best in mind.  So we embrace His presence because there is our blessing.  The weapons that He has given us are very effective against the enemy.  The weapons are His word and His name.  We must learn to use these two weapons against the enemy in order to walk in total victory.  

        What is necessary for us to walk successfully is that our souls be restored.  This God does through His word as applied by His spirit. His word is a revelation of His love which is the greatest restorative ever.  The more we feed upon His love the more we walk in His wholeness.