Psalm 23:4 – Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for You are with me;
I wonder how much time I have wasted worrying about things that never happen? Shadows can be unrealized dangers that never come to pass, they are just shadows or lies that have nothing to do with our lives. If you look at the last phrase in this verse you will find the key to never falling under the influence of a threatening, lying shadow. Did you look up and find the secret? Its right there and so simple that many overlook this obvious answer. David said, “I will fear no evil because you are with me”. This is the answer to all of our struggles and worries, the Lord is with me.
As many of you know I had a close encounter with death several years ago. I was in the hospital, literally out of breath and out of strength with covid. I had a spiritual encounter, you could say a dream or vision where I found myself in a tunnel apparently between heaven and earth seeing a panorama of my ministry experiences in life. The audio in the vision was the Lord quoting Psalm 46 over me. He then called me Fisherman and told me to lift up my head and get up. From that moment healing began and covid started to slip away. I walked through the shadow of death and the Lord was with me. Here is how Spurgeon describes this passage,
It is not “the valley of death,” but “the valley of the shadow of death,” for death in its substance has been removed, and only the shadow of it remains…..Nobody is afraid of a shadow, for a shadow cannot stop a man’s pathway even for a moment. The shadow of a dog cannot bite; the shadow of a sword cannot kill; the shadow of death cannot destroy us. Let us not, therefore, be afraid. “I will fear no evil.” He does not say there shall not be any evil; he had got beyond even that high assurance, and knew that Jesus had put all evil away; but “I will fear no evil;” as if even his fears, those shadows of evil, were gone for ever. The worst evils of life are those which do not exist except in our imagination. If we had no troubles but real troubles, we should not have a tenth part of our present sorrows. We feel a thousand deaths in fearing one, but the psalmist was cured of the disease of fearing. “I will fear no evil,” not even the Evil One himself; I will not dread the last enemy, I will look upon him as a conquered foe, an enemy to be destroyed, “For thou art with me.”
The conclusion I came to after my encounter was that the Lord is with me no matter what I am facing and He is there with me to usher me over to the other side. Don’t be afraid of shadows, the Lord is here.
