Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
(Psalm 23:4 ESV)
I experienced what I once dreaded. I had no hope of the hard season changing anytime soon. All I could see ahead was more of the same difficulty. I saw myself in my mind’s eye walking into more patient endurance, of which I thought I had none. I don’t want this. I didn’t want this to happen. And…I can’t really believe this is happening.
I was in denial about my suffering.
Have you ever been here?
Moving from Denial About My Suffering to Peace
It dawned on me—I’m doing everything in my power to refuse to believe that this is my story. Foolishly, I believe my own will can somehow stop God’s—my stubborn refusal might change my script. This is not how my life ought to go. I just have to fight hard enough to reject reality. Psychologists call this denial.
Then I had a moment of clarity: This is what’s happening to me. Staring truth in the face for a moment felt like fresh air. This is my story right now. Disillusionment faded away, and I realized how hard I had been striving—striving to do everything in my power to not submit to God’s present plan for my life (Psalm 139:16).
The way to peace, I saw, was to make peace with reality—to say okay, Lord, this is how things are. This is somehow part of the story you have written for me.
Yet the pain remained.
God’s Word Reframed my Suffering as Walking Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death
I opened a book and began reading about suffering. It described suffering as a form of death. Death, yes, that’s what this feels like. Before I could ask the Lord why he would choose what feels like death for me, an old familiar verse from the Bible came to my mind: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” (Psalm 23:4 ESV).
The Bible is honest. At some point in our lives as followers of Jesus—as sheep led by the Good Shepherd—we will find ourselves walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
I stood in the valley and wanted to deny that’s where I found myself. I did not want to walk on through it but I knew it was the only way forward. Even in this valley I resisted entering, there was a comfort waiting for me. The comfort comes as the verse concludes: “…for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4 ESV).
God does not abandon his children in death. When we have to die to our own desires, dreams, and will, when we experience the death of a loved one, the death of a relationship, the death of anything we love, or when we are truly on the brink of death, the Shepherd holds our hand all the way through it.
Do You Have a Hand to Hold in the Valley of the Shadow of Death?
Jesus is familiar with the valley. He entered it before us when he walked the earth. He cleared it of enemies through his sacrificial death on the cross. Because he rose from the dead, he offers us new life—life where he walks with us through every terrain of the journey of faith. He promises to never leave or forsake us until we find ourselves safe at home with him on the other side of death. There is no fear left for us in the valley of the shadow of death if we have put our trust in Jesus.
And if you do not know Jesus, here in this dark place in your life, Jesus’ hand is outstretched to you. He offers you forgiveness from your sins so that you do not have to walk through the ultimate valley of God’s just punishment for your sin.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31)—saved not from the valley of the shadow of death, but from the death that comes to sinners unreconciled to God. When you trust in Jesus, he deals with the sin that separates you from God, that you might become a friend of God and not his enemy, a child of God and not a slave to sin and fear (Colossians 1:21; James 2:23; John 1:12; Romans 8:15; 1 John 3:1).
Are you in the valley of the shadow right now? Take the hand of Jesus who is there in the valley right beside you; he wants you to know him more deeply as you venture onward (Psalm 73:23).