Psalm 23, Part III: Dark Valleys, Rods, and Staffs

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  I have everything I need.  We may not have everything we want.  We may not have everything that we have asked for.  However, we realize that we have everything that we need.  God sees us and knows us…and knows what will truly bless us, strengthen us, and sustain us.  We find as we ask, seek, and knock in accordance with the will of God, seeking out His Kingdom and His Righteousness, that we will receive, we will find, and the doors will be open before us.  God has, will ,and always will provide.  As we learn to be content rather than covetous, we find that God has blessed us with an abundance and we can truly say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
God also brings us to grassy meadows and tranquil waters…to green pastures and still waters.  God gives us times and places for rest and peace.  God gives us an opportunity to be renewed and strengthened,  places and times to have our lives refreshed and our souls restored from our day to day labors and the stresses that plague us.  Why does he provide these places?  In order that we might leave from that garden spot, that we might head back down the mountain, that we might return from the beach, in order to enter back into the world from which we have taken a Sabbath rest.  He sends us out on paths of righteousness…he sends us out to carry His saving justice.  God sends us into the world to encounter those places of need and provide, for His Name’s sake…to provide for those who find their lives are wanting and in doing so they realize that it is not us providing but God providing through us, that they may be able to say with us, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
And yet…and yet…there are still those times…
Down East, NC. Mexico Beach, Florida. Paradise and Malibu, California. A doctor’s office. A treatment room.  A courtroom.  The morgue.  The cemetery.  Dark valleys.  We’ve seen them.  We’ve walked them.  Some of us today are right in the midst of them.  They are those places where the darkest night has settled in; places where hope seems to have been ripped right out of our lives; places where we feel like we are about to or have already given up; places where our anxiety is ratcheted all the way up; places where we do not know what might be lurking waiting to attack next.
Take moment and think.  Where is that place or where are those places for you?  Where is your dark valley?  Where is the place where it seems as where it seems as if midnight has become permanent?  As you picture that place or that situation, as the darkness settles in, hear these words again…
“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me….Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me…Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me.”
Let the darkness begin to lift…and hear the words of the prophet Isaiah: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.  On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.”
As the dawn emerges into your darkness, hear the words of John and let the darkness and dread be expelled from your life: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the word was God.  The Word was with God in the beginning.  Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.  What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light…The true light that shines on all people was coming onto the world.  The light was in the world…The light came to his own people…The Word became flesh and made his home among us…”
Enter fully into the experience of that light with these words of John’s vision recorded in Revelation: “The city doesn’t need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory is its light, and it's lamp is the Lamb.  The nation's will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.  It’s gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there.”
Let these words, God’s Words, disperse that darkness from you and know this you are not alone and the darkness will never swallow you…Light has come into the world to dispel the darkness and assure us that we are not alone.  God, Himself, comes to us in those dark places.
The dark places, the dark valleys will come again…they will keep coming until John’s vision of New Jerusalem comes fully into being.  They will come in genocides and natural disasters; they will come in school shootings, church bombings, and terrorist attacks; they will come in  job layoffs, cancer, divorce, death of a parent, death of a spouse, death of a child…
The Psalmist doesn’t promise that with the Lord as our shepherd that we won’t encounter dark valleys, but that when we walk through those dark valleys God will be with us…God will enter into our dark places and travel through them with us, and that his rod and his staff will comfort us.
Do you remember our first Wednesday Night considering this Psalm my saying that despite its popularity and familiarity, that I struggled with it?  There was one other place that always gave me pause…God’s rod and staff comforting me.  I didn’t think so much about the staff, but the rod was an issue.  Why?  Because the only other way I ever heard “rod” mentioned in the Bible was the often quoted Proverb, “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” used as a frequent endorsement of corporal punishment.  This is not a sermon about whether spanking is an acceptable form of punishment, but I I will say that the idea, which as a child is what frequently came to mind, of a parent taking a rod (I often pictured metal, but a wooden one would be just as bad), and beating a child with it to correct the child is absolutely wrong.  This is the kind of imagery that came to my mind as I heard and read this psalm as a child and grew older.  How in the world am I supposed to be comforted walking through the dark places in life with God carrying a big stick to beat me down?  Why would any loving shepherd beat his sheep into submission?  That would not bring light and peace into the darkness…that would move me directly to midnight.
Again, a reason why the continued study of Scripture is important in our lives, and why it is important to engage in resources other than our own thinking…to read commentaries, to engage in conversation with brothers and sisters in Christ, to listen to teachers and preachers…for the rod of a shepherd's staff was never used to beat a sheep into obedience.  It wasn’t used on the sheep at all.  The sheep were able to feel safe and secure when the shepherd used that rod because it was used against their enemies.  The shepherd would use the rod against any enemies seeking to harm the sheep—such as lions, bears, wolves, jackals, and human thieves.
When it comes to the sheep, the shepherd would not beat his sheep into obedience, but would either extend it to guide them along the path they were supposed to travel or use the crook to hook them and pull them back into the fold or if he or she needed to examine the sheep for any injury.
How does this understanding bring us comfort?  With the Lord as our shepherd, and the promise that God is with us through those dark valleys, we have the assurance of God’s protection and direction.  We can find peace in knowing that God is going to protect us from our enemies—that there is nothing that we will encounter that God will let destroy us.  God has laid His claim on us, branded us through our baptism, and will protect us completely.  God has declared that He and He alone, as Alpha and Omega, will have the final word in our lives and has already defeated our greatest enemy, death.  Secondly, we can trust that we can make it through the valley with God’s guidance.  With His Word, God has extended His staff and offers us direction and will lead us through the darkness.  God’s Word becomes not only the staff that keeps us from wondering off into the wilderness and constantly draws us back to the flock.
That’s important to remember while we are in the valley…we are not alone.  We have made it clear that God is with us, but we have to remember, so is the rest of the flock.  A sheep that has wandered off is easy prey, but we are not a lot of individual sheep walking through this valley by ourselves, we travel through these dark valleys with one another. We are one flock.  We are guided by the shepherd and travel with one another in the green pastures and the dark valleys.
Most importantly, though, is a key word in the verse that I think we most often miss: “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me.  Your rod and your staff—they protect me.”.  God comes and is with us in the dark valleys, His light disrupting the darkness that surrounds us…God protects us from our enemies, guides us on safe paths, and keeps us together.  Yet, maybe the greatest promise is found in the word “through.”  Why is that important?  It means that we will not always be in the dark valley…we will not always be in the darkness.  We will come through it…we will, with God as our shepherd endure and emerge from the darkness in to the light…we will find ourselves back by the tranquil waters and back by the grassy meadows.  And enduring, we will find ourselves stronger…our faith stronger…all because of the dark valleys, the rod, and the staff.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.