Forward
From time to time an inkling of an idea will come into my head and appear so vivid and detailed that I’ll perceive it to already be in existence. Then the reality dawns that the idea may exist, but it has yet to take shape in any perceivable form outside my mind. To perceive something that exists that has as of yet no shape or space in the tangible world: that is the dilemma of every painter, sculptor, architect, gardener, teacher, coach, entrepreneur, poet and writer who would attempt to bring a fresh idea into being. The need to not only perceive it in your mind, but to also see it in its fullness- the drive to bring the hidden thing out into the open. To create.
I don’t know if someone else has already written a work similar to this already. That doesn’t matter. The work has not been discovered from my perspective at the very least and that is cause enough to investigate it. Besides which if it already has been discovered and written about it only confirms that it must be a universal truth of some sort. But I don’t know if it already has been found. How can you know if a mountain has gold unless you dig into it? Besides which I’m writing this with the silly notion that perhaps it can be encouraging and enlightening. This being said I must admit that I approach this subject with all humility. Normally when I write, I’ll write in the form of a short story or biographical essay, simply because those mediums are less intimidating and far less scrutinized. They will not do for an analysis and reflection such as this.
Creation is not an act of sheer will. Will power is certainly involved in the process, but it is more an engine to keep you moving forward (more like a valve within an engine made up of desire, curiosity and endurance as well). In my own experience, creation is more akin to groping around a dark room while trying to figure out where you are and what’s inside the room. It’s feeling and crawling and squinting and shouting and doing whatever else you can to open up your mind to the realities that are around you that are as of yet imperceptible. I do not write this for the pleasure of writing it, but for the pleasure of knowing what it is I mean to discover and reveal.
Introduction
There once lived a man named David. David started his life as a shepherd of his father’s flocks. In time he became a great warrior. Sometime after that he became king of a country called Israel. He saw his country grow mighty and rich under his rule and authority. But David was just a man and in time he grew old and died. And in this he carried out the legacy of every man: to die.
Some might say that the above description is too short and ill-elaborate for a man such as David. I say that in the expanse of eternity it may just be too long. It could be that a better description would read, “David was a man who lived and then died.” I don’t say this to be harsh or disrespectful, but to point out the obvious: David was just a man. Humanity has this well-engrained habit of elevating a man’s status among the rest of the world simply for the events and resources that were a part of his life. In the end it may be said that a man did many great things and that he possessed great riches, but that doesn’t make him any more than just a man. Indeed the events that make a person wealthy or powerful can happen to any individual. Conversely these events can persistently dodge another. It could be said that greatness is what a person chooses to do with the privileges that have been given to him, but even then that doesn’t stop death from coming. So what it boils down to is that no matter what a man has or does he will die. Death tinges every aspect of our lives. From the moment you are born you are guaranteed to die. And this does not stop at humans: birds, trees, grass, fish, flowers, whales, wheat…everything around us is in a constant state of decay or perpetual eventual decay. This is our reality and David knew this even in all his greatness.
One aspect of David’s life that I left out of my initial description of him was that he was an accomplished singer and songwriter. Music was always a part of his life. In fact it was his talent with the harp that won him favor with the king as a young man. It could be said that the start of David’s earthly greatness can be attributed to his love of music. Indeed it might be that his love of music was the reason he was great. David did not write and sing merely for the sake of enjoyment. The psalms that he wrote and sang are full of his struggles and introspections and reflections. Music was his primary means of processing his dilemmas and talking to God. He reminded himself about what he believed through his songs. He saw this as so important that he even appointed a family of priests within the tribe of Levi to dedicate themselves to writing and playing songs as an act of praise to God and a means to minister to the people of the kingdom. He saw music as a necessity in processing the woes of life and in reorienting one’s self back to the truth- to joy.
The last statement of the above analysis perplexes me in that it seems that music made these days is great at either creating a joyful feeling in celebrating carefree, extravagant lifestyles or in dwelling on the morose aspects of heartbreak or loss with no resolution or consolation, just anger and frustration. There is no real point to it outside of letting your feelings out or making your voice heard. It is a shouting into the void in the hopes that someone will resonate with what you say. It does not reorient your feelings or frustrations to a truth, but rather gives your feelings or frustrations a voice in the belief that it is the truth. They are however, just fleeting thoughts: sliding on and off the radio with passing trends, sometimes to be relegated to oldies stations because the truth they offered was accompanied by a catchy beat. They are a vanity. They hold out a promise of truth and purpose, but in the end they only serve as a distraction from the cares and worries of life.
I made a generalization. I know not all music currently made exemplify these characteristics, and I must admit that there have been some popular songs that touched on subjects that tug on the heartstrings of our humanity and stick around because they ask the questions we feel need answering, but these types of songs have existed for thousands of years, and in the end they fade away with the rest of the world. Popularity has a quicker mortality rate than most humans, and even the most powerful of songs are usually only remembered for a few generations (you don’t hear anyone whistling a classic Hittite tune). The point I’m trying to reach here is that David saw music as a method of conversation. It was not a display to just evoke some sort of emotional experience, but a form of surrender. Song was the method he used to bring his problems to God and the method that brought him back to trusting Him. It was not shouted to the void as truth, it was shouted to God in the beauty of humility and frustration and desperation in the hope of a response from his Creator. In the hope that he would be given help to believe in times of struggle. In times of desperation and possible death. This is why they are still around today.
David’s psalms can be read a few different ways. Typically what people always note is the emotion he puts into all of them: he cries out to God, he shouts to Him in joy, he weeps to Him in bitterness. If you focus on just this aspect of the psalms then you will probably think these songs were just for David’s benefit because they describe his feelings and what he has noticed about God. The more useful approach to the psalms is to view them as instructive: they demonstrate how a conversation with God should progress- how one can go from raw, emotional turmoil in the face of adversity to reliant, calm trust in the love and power of God through rehearsing with God the facts of life. This theme is presented throughout the Psalms, but in a variety of different ways, making them quite useful as a tool in approaching God while under the sway of the whole spectrum of human emotion, but only if you understand that the psalms were written as much for you as they were for David and the other psalmists.
David lived a life that was extraordinary in comparison to the lives of most: the vast majority of us will never be kings, never command grand armies, never initiate and oversee grand building projects, never be outrageously rich and never be loved by thousands. Fortunately, most of us will also not have to experience the extraordinarily terrible things surrounding his life either: murder of a friend to cover up an affair with his wife, death of several children due to inter-family conflict, death of thousands of your citizens because of your own sins, the hatred of thousands…in the midst of these extremes, however, David goes through things many of us have to: estrangement with his spouse, estrangement with his family, estrangement with his friends, betrayal, shame, frustration, sorrow and guilt. He was just a man, though he was fated to be a great man. And in the end he knew he would have to face death just as every man did. What sort of fear and trepidation might that have caused to a man with such great responsibilities and such great guilt? A man who made at least as many bloody mistakes as he made glorious successes? The Scriptures say he was a man after God’s own heart. As much as this implies that he and God were friends, it also infers that David knew what the consequences of sin were and that judgment awaited him. He sang to God in the midst of his frustration and shame and guilt and uncleanness to process with Him how he was to be made right before the One he loved. He praised God and relinquished himself to His care despite not knowing how the thing of his guilt would be taken away. He ultimately trusted Him despite not knowing. His psalms are songs of faith and that is why they are so useful to us as a guide not only to navigate our own hearts but to navigate conversations with the Almighty.
There is a special uniqueness to Psalm 23. The psalm’s calm and serene presentation invokes feelings of trust and peace. It can make you feel strength in times of weakness. It is unique in that it brims over with such a firm confidence. These aspects about the psalm can make it a bit tricky when it comes to interpreting and applying it: people like to recite it with the idea that God will make everything go their way eventually. This is a misinterpretation of the song, though that is understandable given our humanity. It must be remembered that even the writer of the psalm did not get his way in life. In fact, David’s life is one of continually having to learn to submit to the authority of God. This lesson increased all the more every time he gained prestige or power or wealth. The confusion can be linked to Its uncharacteristic nature in comparison to David’s other songs which usually start with an almost panicked desperation or anger and gradually work its way to contentedness and worship or which focus almost exclusively on exultation. This song is one of declaration rather than pleading, but we must not be fooled, it is like all the others despite its presentation. This is a psalm about death. More than that, it is a psalm about hope in the midst of death, a hope that transcends and even breaks through it. It is that hope that stabilizes David as he writes this psalm, thus giving it its unique bent towards the calm as he grapples with the reality of this life and how God walks in it with us. It is the truth about Who God is. And it is this reality that should give us our confidence: not the delusion that God will give us what we want if we endure and believe He will, but that He walks with us in the darkness and gets us through it, giving us what He knows we need.
Psalm 23
Verse 1- The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Verse 2- He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
Verse 3- He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Verse 4- 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.
Verse 5- You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Verse 6- Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The Lay of the Land
Before delving headlong into an analysis of psalm 23, I believe it is important to stand back and take in the psalm as a whole in order to learn the obvious things about its structure. This will serve as a helpful reference when interpretation and breakdown of verses occurs. Think of it as looking at a map before going on a long hike: you know that the green patch, in reality, is much larger than the span of your hand and that the curvy lines are sorry excuses for the rough hills they represent and that the map can’t account for weather conditions or other dangers, but it can serve as a comfort in the midst of those things in that it reassures you that the trial does not last forever and that it can help predict for you where and when the next trial (or campsite) is so that you can be mentally prepared for it. That being said we can now move forward with pointing out the obvious:
- The title denotes that the authorship of this psalm belongs to David.
- No instructions are given as to what instrument(s) is to be used to accompany the singing of the psalm and there is no note given as to the octave the vocalists are to sing in.
- While it is not the shortest text of Scripture, at six verses it definitely qualifies as “brief”
Something to also take note of is that this psalm is very catchy- it is full of phrases that are well known in both secular and religious circles even today: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”. Three well-known phrases in so short a work is remarkable even by modern standards, and it can be assumed that since these phrases represent a major bulk of the psalm that memorization of the other verses (which are heavily tied to these popular ones) would come with minimal effort. These aspects of the psalm all taken together help paint the big picture of the meaning behind its creation: David wrote this out of his own experiences to remind himself of what the truth is. The fact that no instrumental or vocal instruction is given does not mean that the psalm must be recited without them, but that it could be recited without them- in other words there is no need for instrumentation or specific vocal tones or octaves, but it can be spoken or even whispered to yourself. The fact that the psalm is catchy without the need for instrumentation or clever vocal effects is significant: it almost lends itself to being a mantra of sorts. The psalm being filled with reassuring phrases in the midst of dark imagery reinforces this thought. It brings to mind the scene from The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and Scare Crow and Tin Man are traveling along the yellow brick road repeating, “Lions and Tigers and Bears, O my!” over and over again, whipping themselves into a frenzy of fear right before encountering, ironically enough, the Cowardly Lion. This psalm, however, is not designed to pile fear upon fear in the midst of doubt and uncertainty, but rather is geared toward encouraging and reassuring the reciter as he traverses the uncertainty of darkness. With this understanding of the psalm firmly in hand it should make the ease of traveling through and unraveling the meaning of the verses and the psalm itself a bit more manageable.
A Valley and a Mountain
Imagine if Psalm 23 started in the middle: from verse 4-
“…I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”
Later we will analyze why it doesn’t start out like this, but I believe to gain a greater insight to the psalm we need to delve right into the environment from which the writer is speaking from. This is important because if this psalm were written with the intent that it was to be recited by others, than it would mean that this not only represents David’s experience, but any who would choose to recite the psalm for themselves. Ruminate on this idea a while- what is the significance of all this?
The imagery David conjures up makes this significant in that he describes a truly frightening scene. In order to understand this we must look at the scene through his eyes; drop ourselves into the environment he describes. A visual exercise of this sort requires that we break down even this fraction of a verse to more component parts: your basic definition of a valley would describe it as being a low area of land between hills or mountains, typically with a river or stream flowing through it (this definition came from a simple Google search). So David describes a lowland that he is walking through. This is not insignificant in and of itself, because it gives a brilliant image to look at, but the significance of this image comes in the next few words.
The word “of” is a highly flexible word in the English language and is useful in sentence flow and in connecting points “A” and “B” in any given sentence. It is so often used in our language that we tend to glide over its meaning. “of” denotes ownership. It is a grammatical tool through which an object is given special meaning. In elementary school, children are taught to be efficient in the creation of their sentences, so the apostrophe is lauded as the primary tool for conveying ownership, since using “of” makes a sentence a bit more bulky and awkward: it’s a lot easier to say “This is Zack’s toy.” rather than “This is the toy of Zack.” Both of these sentences convey the same idea, though the later one isn’t really used in today’s vernacular. It is indicative of an older way of talking and expressing ideas, but then again this psalm is old too, and its definitive breakdown is necessary for our greater understanding. Now that we understand that “of” denotes ownership, we are forced to ask ourselves the question, “Who does the valley belong to?”
Often an area of land is defined either by the person that owns the property or a significant landmark that dominates the area. Examples of this can be seen in our own neighborhoods (“That is the Smith’s residence.”) and in exotic locales (“Welcome to the Nile River Valley.”). This next breakdown is layered in meaning: possession of the valley through which David is walking belongs to a shadow. The word “of” is introduced again. Shadows do not exist in and of themselves: they are immaterial- gone as soon as the object of their casting moves or when the lighting shifts. Shadows have no meaning outside of their object. Moving beyond the second “of” we see death. The shadow casted on this valley belongs to death. In our common vernacular, David’s description in the beginning of verse four might read like this:
“I’m walking in death’s shadow’s valley.”
Given that two apostrophes were needed to describe what David was explaining, I’m glad the translators decided on using an older way of speaking when they wrote his sentences out rather than our modern way. This breakdown, however, was needed to give greater depth to the word picture David is trying to place us in. The valley is covered in shadow. This is significant because it describes just how large this shadow is (so large that the valley is named after it). And that is significant because it asserts that the object casting the shadow is massive.
The description of death is most certainly an allegory. We cannot look anywhere for a large structure named death. Likewise there is no one named death (and if there were, he certainly wouldn’t be massive enough to cover a whole valley in his shadow). This would denote that the shadow and its subsequent valley that David is walking through is allegorical as well. This, however, does not mean that these things are any less real- David just had to find words to describe truths that could be fully perceived, but not fully comprehended. So for our own sake let us go back to the image of the valley to help us gain a better picture of death and its shadow. As you may recall, a valley is a lowland usually bordered by hills or mountains. So imagine the valley again. He describes ownership of that valley to death’s shadow. So now in our imaginings we can overlay that valley in shadow. Death is singular. It is not the “valley of the shadows of death, destruction and chaos”, or the “valley of the shadows of death, doom and gloom”- just the “valley of the shadow of death”. This implies a singular entity that rises up and casts one shadow. So given that valleys are usually surrounded by hills or mountains, we can infer that the object casting this massive shadow on this valley is a giant mountain. The word picture can now be complete in our minds: David walks amidst a valley shrouded in the shadow of a mountain called death. The implication of this is that everything David sees has the shade of death upon it (including himself). Everything in this landscape is dominated by a single entity: death.
What is this valley that David is walking through? David is describing our mortal life that, while not taken by death presently, is dominated by its inevitability. Everything is tainted by its unavoidability, thus its shadow covers every aspect of our lives- from our own mortality to the lives of all animals and plants and insects and even the structural integrity of our things. Everything we look at is in a constant state of actual or eventual decay. Death defines our lives.
Fumbling in the Dark
The fact that David is not talking about something isolated to himself, but rather pointing out to the reader the reality of our mortality should be a stumbling block to our sense of wellbeing. David, in a rather artistic sense, has opened our eyes to see the utter horror of our situation: there is no escape from death. You live this life under the pretext that it will end one day. The fact that death’s shadow encompasses everything in this reality is a grim reminder of our own fate: every dead flower, every collapsed building, every rusty car, and every meal you eat- these are all reminders to you that in the end you will succumb. And this reality touches the new as well: every new life is guaranteed a time limit and rust and tarnish can be buffed away for only so long. We are surrounded by the shades of death. This is a heavy teaching.
The Bible speaks to death as a result of man’s sins. In Romans 6:23, the Apostle Paul goes so far as to state that death is the wage that we earn for our sin, as if it were a valuable commodity we work hard to earn. In John’s recording of the Gospels, he quotes Christ saying that men love the darkness because it covers their evil deeds (John 3:19-20). Let’s line up these teachings with the allegory of the valley of shadow:
- The darkness of the valley is caused by death’s shadow.
- Death’s shadow gives us a reassurance in life that our evil deeds will be hidden, despite the fact that it speaks to our inevitable death.
- By remaining in death’s shadow we earn death (by traversing the valley of death’s shadow we eventually find death).
It’s as if death’s shadow on our lives is a down payment of death; a reassurance that we will get what we have worked for. Indeed, Christ says In John 3:18 that those who dwell in darkness are condemned already (they are marked for death and will receive it). But can it be that bad? In death we will get away with our sins as long as we remain under the shadow of death because death allows us to escape earthly punishment and/or repercussions and the pain, diseases and toils of this life. So the knowledge that we are going to die spurs us on to carry out sin since our life will end anyway and death will cut short any consequences we would have to face in this life. It’s as if death redefines everything including morality and justice and love: in the end since your life is limited and you ultimately have no one to answer to it makes the idea of sin null, and so the only point of existence is to fill yourself with self-satisfaction. Ideas like this one are expressed quite concisely in Psalm 10:
“For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’ His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, ‘I shall not be moved throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.’…He says in his heart, ‘God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.’” Psalm 10:3-6, 11
This is the reassurance of darkness, and this is what terrified David, because he knew it to be a false hope. He knew that death marked separation from the desire of his heart: God. This fear of death and separation can be seen in a number of his psalms:
“Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” –Psalm 6:4-5
“O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands is evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.” –Psalm 26:8-10
“Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!” –Psalm 27:7-9
“To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. Do not drag me off with the wicked with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.” –Psalm 28:1-3
“To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: ‘What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!’” –Psalm 30:8-10
David understood that death was the final stroke: the end of a relationship with God. The beginning of the book of Genesis details how God made mankind to certain specifications, most notably that humanity was made after the image of God. This phrase has a wide range of implications for mankind: man should be like God in the way he lives his life; we should create, we should love, we should live in peaceful fellowship with one another and with our Creator. We should be as He is. Within the first few chapters of Genesis we see sin enter the frame of man’s being: he freely chooses to disobey God in an attempt to be greater than Him. This causes a rift in the relationship between He and us and as the close friendship with Him waned over the subsequent generations, new ideas of ways to live without Him developed: out of selfishness, sin branched out to create all things that were not like God to captivate our hearts, manifesting itself in ways such as rage, injustice, murder, corruption and rape to name a few of the maladies humans suffer from. People are inclined to worship everything but God, and the result of this is separation from Him and eventual death (Romans 1:28-32). In the valley of shadow we can live in blissful ignorance that nothing we do can be seen, not realizing that we dance in the shadow of our own doom. In this view of the world, the paradise that God created for us to dwell in and maintain, becomes the holding cell used to display our folly before our eventual execution for profaning God’s image. This is what horrified David. Though he loved God and pursued after him, he knew he was just like any other human traversing the valley of death’s shadow, waiting for death and judgment. He knew that seeing the shadows doesn’t lift them from you. He knew he was implicated too:
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” –Psalm 14:1-3
A Path in Darkness
Every man dies. You cannot outsmart it or outlast it. Your end starts at your beginning: you fall in the valley of shadow. An image we have been presented with is a dark valley filled with people stumbling around, losing themselves in whatever solace they can find in the darkness.
“that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: ‘Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,’ says the Lord God of hosts.” –Isaiah 22:12-14
The conundrum is this: What of those people that no longer want to live in the shadow? Those who would give up the joys of playing in the dark for a life lived in the light? If death is the penalty for turning our back on God, is there alleviation for those who would seek Him out? This seems to be the heart through which David sings his psalms. If we reorient our hearts back to God, will He bring us out of the dominion of death?
“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” –Acts 2:29
David sought after God, loved God, feared God, worshiped God and yet his days still ended. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Boaz, Job, Samuel, Josiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, Ezra, Nehemiah- all these men devoted their lives to seeking God out, some even being labeled as “God’s friend”, and yet each of these men died. In this it is easy to cry out as Solomon did,
“It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.” –Ecclesiastes 9:2-6
David’s psalm, however, does not end with the valley of the shadow of death. Nor does it end in death. The psalm does not even begin with these images! Indeed, these are mere facts he points out in the middle of the psalm, almost a resignation. Verse four starts off with, “Even though”. David is merely admitting the facts of his current situation. Almost like saying, “Yes, I admit it, but…” It’s a qualifying statement used to show that the goodness of the psalm isn’t just wishful thinking, but grounded in the facts. David is fully aware that death encompasses him, but his hope exceeds the circumstances that defined his environment.
“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.’” –Ezekiel 37:1-14
Yes, the righteous die along with the wicked. As Solomon says, “This is an evil…”, but remember also that David says in Psalm 23, “I will fear no evil.” Unfortunately, all people sin, whether we are good most of the time or none of the time, and the payment for that is death. You were born into the valley of shadow and you will die here.
“You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” –Isaiah 64:5-7
Let us expand the image of the valley of shadow to incorporate Ezekiel’s prophecy from the valley of vision. So now we see a valley shrouded under the shadow of the mountain that is death and we see in it the bones of all those who have died there, specifically we notice the bones of the righteous. Now we must ask, “What is righteousness?” and “How does one become righteous?” According to Webster’s Dictionary, to be righteous is to be morally good, free from guilt or sin. To be free of sin means to not sin, just as to be free of slavery is to not be a slave. Since we all sin, no one can be said to be righteous. So why is David so calm and confident in this psalm? How can anyone serve God knowing that their end is death? That there is no apparent advantage to living for God, even if it means living more in line with the way you were meant to? This dips into the mystery of a hope that is not dependent upon works, but to unravel that we must explore the second question and jump back into Psalm 23.
Before David describes the valley of the shadow of death, he says in the verse immediately before it that he is traveling along the path of the righteous. When we read the psalm, we must take the psalm as a whole- no two verses are strung together simply because they sound good that way, otherwise it would be of no use to us. Let’s look at the end of verse three and the beginning of verse four,
“He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil…” –Psalm 23:3b-4a
The word image David illustrates in these verses with regards to this path is that it cuts through the valley of the shadow of death. There are a couple of implications here. First is that righteousness is a journey: you are made more righteous as you continue on its path (your right standing is made more apparent and your character is changed). This is illustrated in Proverbs 4,
“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” –Proverbs 4:8
Second is that to be made righteous does not require you to transcend the reality of this world. You truly are stuck here, but the good news is that the path to be made righteous is not out of reach for anyone, God has made the path accessible to us. It is all a matter of walking down it. The question then becomes, “How do I find this path?”
Remember, it’s a valley veiled in shadow. One can assume it is a rather thick, dark shadow. While Proverbs 4:8 gives us encouragement about our character changing for the better and our way becoming clearer while walking down the path of righteousness, Proverbs 4:9 is a rather bleak perspective to those not pursuing righteousness,
“The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.”
If we are all born into this valley of shadow, how then do we find it in the midst of pitch blackness, let alone find out about it? David’s Psalm 119 shows how the word of God is the light that leads us to the path and shines upon it,
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” –Psalm 119:9-10
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” –Psalm 119:105
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” –Psalm 119:130
The suggestion behind this is that once you find God’s Word you must abide by it to see the path. This, however, does not guarantee that you will walk down the path. Sight in the darkness is only useful if you will use it to help you navigate your way out of the darkness. And what happens when you stumble? It is possible to wander off into self-righteous congratulation as you gaze and study the Word of God but never act upon it, or to be overwhelmed and discouraged by the sight and weight of your sins and thus seek their comforts in the shadow rather than expose yourself to what you consider to be the scorn of righteousness? Fortunately for us we have David’s example, who, while focused after seeking God, strayed from His laws and committed some grievous sins. We must now focus less on human effort in achieving righteousness and look to another.
“I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.” –Psalm 119:174-176
The Shepherd
Up to this point we have neglected the main character of Psalm 23 for the sake of better understanding the place from which David is writing, to demonstrate just how desperate our situation is as human beings and to come to terms with our need for help. We have seen that God provides a path through the darkness for us to be made righteous and that He provides His Word so that we can realize and perceive it, but we have also seen that even in these mercies we are seemingly hopeless because in and of our own strength we cannot keep to the path: we are drawn to darkness either by pride or discouragement. Herein we find David’s ultimate hope, namely, that God is good and that He is merciful.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” –Psalm 23:1
Here we find the reason for David’s calmness in the valley of shadow: he is not walking through it alone. Indeed he is being guided through it. David’s use of shepherding terminology insinuates that not only is God protecting and looking out for his needs, but that He knows more than him. David calling the Lord his shepherd not only suggests that God knows more than him, but that the knowledge disparity between he and God is so great as to suggest that David’s mind is that of a sheep next to God: he is completely dependent upon God to meet his every need. He is saying that he is helpless in being able to provide for himself and that he is prone to wander away from the direction the Lord would have him go.
Even though the psalm is only 6 verses long, the wide visual spectrum that is cast from it can cause you to forget that the Shepherd is the main character, even though the psalm is told from David’s perspective. Rather than being a self-congratulating pat on his own back, David is commending the Lord as He leads him (and ultimately anyone He is shepherding) through the various trials and obstacles that come along the path of righteousness. In this we learn the way the Lord shepherds:
- He sets the pace. He knows the journey is going to take longer than we want it to, but He also knows that we can’t rush. “He makes me lie down”, “He leads me”, “[He] prepare[s] a table before me”- these actions are synonymous with someone who is a well-seasoned traveler who not only knows the best paths to travel and the best places to rest, but also how far to travel and when and how long to rest before traveling again. It can be upsetting to realize that you cannot leave the valley, but it should be a comfort to know that if you must be here at least you are with Someone who knows how to travel through it.
- He provides for the person He is shepherding. This is made clear from verse one, “…I shall not want”. David is stating here that he is not lacking in anything with the Lord as his shepherd. The Lord leads him to places of stillness and refreshment and the Lord takes care of him in times of uncertainty and woe. His shepherd’s rod protects him from attackers and His staff keeps/shoves him back onto the path when he would wander away from it. Even in the presence of enemies He shows both His care for David and His absolute power by stopping and eating a meal instead of rushing by out of fear. On this path David can say that he “fear[s] no evil” because the Lord knows his needs and takes care of them (though perhaps not in the way we would expect Him to- after all, wouldn’t you rather have your enemies be destroyed then to eat in their presence? Alas, a shepherd serves his own purposes as he tends to the sheep. Though the sheep may not understand his reasons or methods, they must trust him because he is their only source of provision and protection).
- He cares for the person. This is not a task that the Lord begrudges. He does not declare that His word should be enough to get you through the darkness. He does not say that the darkness is something you should have to deal with because it’s your fault. He does not blame you for having enemies that He has to watch out for. If He did this begrudgingly than He would be rushing you through this journey. As a result of that He would provide you with scant resources because to give you what you need would result in delaying the journey’s progress. If He did this begrudgingly than the previous two statements must be booted out. But the passage remarks about Him leading David to quiet pastures to rest in. To streams of water to lie down by. To refreshing him. These are not the actions of someone who is cold toward you, but rather of someone who cares deeply about your well-being.
These are characteristics of someone who is not only skilled in shepherding, but who has a personal interest vested in it. This analogy of the sheep and shepherd who cares deeply suggests to the reader that David has given his life to the Lord. He belongs to the Lord and as a result of that submits to His timing, guiding, provision and mission. This reveals more about the nature of the path of righteousness: it’s long, it’s perilous, it’s frightening, and it’s a road traveled out of trusting obedience,
“And he believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” –Genesis 15:6
This above passage concerning Abram in the book of Genesis is indicative of the nature of righteousness in God’s grace. Earlier it was mentioned that righteousness is freedom from sin. According to this definition, if we sin, then we are not free from it. However, in the economy displayed above in Psalm 23 and in Genesis 15, God counts belief in Him as righteousness. This isn’t an airy belief in some god who exists and might help you or who might be good. This is a belief marked by a trustful reliance upon Him. This is a belief that convinced Noah to build a giant boat nowhere near water to preserve animals and his family members from a flood that no one would have expected. This is a belief that convinced Abram to leave his family and inheritance behind and to venture into a land that he was told would belong to his descendants. This belief also convinced him that he would have descendants. This belief convinced Joseph to care for his brothers and their families in the midst of a severe famine despite the fact that as a younger man they sold him into slavery because they hated him. This is a belief that convinced Moses to wander back into the land that he fled to demand the freedom of Israel from Pharaoh. This same belief led him to lead these people through a barren wilderness despite their rebellious nature. This belief is what drew David to God even in the midst of sorrow and hardship. This isn’t wishful thinking- this is decision making based on trusting in the nature and character of God. And despite their flaws, despite their lying and boasting and murdering and complaining and lusting and backsliding, despite being sinful, God counted their belief in Him and His promises as righteousness on their part. So it would now appear that the path of righteousness isn’t merely a list of commandments and precepts that we must follow that make us good, but rather, it is a reliant faith on Him that produces a heart that wishes to grow closer to God as you travel further and further down that path with Him. And this in turn teaches us more about the care the Shepherd has for His sheep: he keeps you on this path that brings you closer to Him. David says in verse 6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” These are characteristics of God. These are what David rely on as he walks down this road blanketed in darkness peering down using what little light he has. The Lord is gentle to David when he wanders off course: he makes the path visible to him and he puts him back on it, again and again. This is the love of the shepherd to all his sheep. The path is marked with hoofs wandering on and off course, and the footsteps of one coming up behind those tracks to search them out and to lead them home.
“So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’” –Luke 15:3-7
The Light Beyond the Mountain of Shadow
At this point we must ask the question, “What is the point?” If in the end you are going to die anyway, then why bother being righteous? Is it just to feel better about yourself before you go? Is it just so you could get a brief glimpse of what life was supposed to be like before you die? Is this path just a tease in the midst of punishment: a brief reprieve that some will be given before the inevitable doom that overtakes us all? What is the use when you will just end up being another set of dry bones strewn about the darkness? What is the use if death is insurmountable?
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” –John 10:11
Our focus must be drawn again to the Shepherd if we are to understand the benefit in following Him. Remember that the Shepherd cares for all the sheep under His care. He keeps them on the path that they may grow closer to Him. Indeed this is all well and good, but if His power is limited to just our lives here in the valley of shadow then His care doesn’t amount to much in the scope of eternity. But imagine this thought from His perspective: to care for beings that were only going to be taken away from Him anyway, after doing all the work to find them and after all the time spent with them and loving them. Imagine carrying that forever, over and over again. Think of the grief that would cause.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” –Matthew 9:36
“Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?’” –John 11:32-35
If you were an eternal being would you allow yourself to suffer in this way forever? As much as the creation suffers from rebelling against you, how much so would you suffer over and over, the memory of each soul you cared for layered on top of the memory of other souls you guided down the path of righteousness, only to watch them die, to waste away in the darkness, their bones a mockery to you?
“He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” –Psalm 23:3b
If God does this for the sake of upholding His name, for His glory, to show for all eternity His goodness and grace, then surely that must not mean that his compassion simply ends in eternal mourning. That His glory is displayed in how good of a memory He has for those who have followed Him and then were lost forever in shadow. Would an all-powerful God be glorified in His inability to do that which He most wanted to do and mourning forever over His inability to do so? Is He greater than that mountain that separates us from Him? Is He Himself greater than death? Is He great enough to bring us out of death? That would indeed show Him to be all-powerful and exceedingly worthy of glory and praise.
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” –John 10:17-18
This is the reason for Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who not only watches and guides us on the path of righteousness, but Who leads us to our destination beyond the mountain, where the light shines. God knew that humanity needed a pathway, a crossing through the mountain, to come back home.
“’Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’” –John 14:1-7
So Christ comes to earth and lives the life we should live and dies. His life is a living example of the path of righteousness, a life lived on complete trust and dependence on the Father, even in the way that it cuts through the valley of the shadow. Christ was a man like any of us, but unlike any man who was unable to be free from sin, He was because He was of the same nature of the only perfect Being, that being God. The Shepherd became flesh and lived among His sheep so that He could guide them in His life. We have spoken of our world being in darkness- the shadow of death, Christ’s coming is the shattering of that darkness with light, that is, life. For if one would overcome darkness one need only produce a light, and if one were to overcome death, one would have to live, to be alive again, in the midst of it.
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” –John 1:4
Christ dies and, as He says, He rises up again. He lives. He reverses death. He creates a pathway through it that is sustained by the precedent set in His death and resurrection. Through Him we have access to the Father. Through Him we are no longer trapped in the valley of death’s shadow. Through Him the dry bones are given life and hope. Through Him we can go home and live with Him forever as David proclaims at the end of Psalm 23.
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” –Hebrews 10:19-23
This is the hope that David looked to from afar. That Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Boaz, Job, Samuel, Josiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, Ezra and Nehemiah and so many others looked to: that though they die, they would live again. They didn’t quite know how this would work or when this would be, but they walked in faith down the path of righteousness, seeing dimly and from a distance God’s reward for pursuing Him in the valley of shadow.
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” –Hebrews 11:13-16
In all these things we see God imputing Christ’s righteousness to all who would believe His promises and walk in obedience. In this act of trust, we see that the righteous path we walk upon is the life that He lived and freely gives for us to walk on (For He is “the Way”). His Spirit is our Shepherd which keeps us on that path.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” –John 14:26
Furthermore, this Spirit is the guarantee for our eternal life even in this environment of death. As the shadow of death is the down payment and proof for our impending mortal death, so it is that the Spirit’s presence is the down payment and proof of our resurrected and everlasting life.
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” –Ephesian 1:11-14
Continuing on, Christ’s death and resurrection is the gate through which we enter by our flesh’s inevitable death and through which we live again by His overwhelming grace that imputes not only His righteousness, but His resurrection as well.
“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” -John 10:9
In this we find that our time in the valley of shadow does not have to be our holding cell before judgment, but rather a time to seek Christ out and grow in a relationship with Him so that He can bring us home out of the darkness.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…” –Acts 17:24-27
With all this said, it would be wise to end this analysis pondering the promises, comforts and implications of Psalm 23. This paper has covered a lot of ground and it would be good to look back over that territory and see the grand landscape on this side of our exploration. After any journey through an unknown land, to remember and reflect properly on the event it becomes necessary to personalize the experience and put it into your own words and descriptions. Here is my reinterpretation of the Psalm that I have trudged through with you,
Verse 1- I belong to the Lord, therefore He provides me with everything I need.
Verse 2- He knows when and where I should rest and He makes sure that I do.
Verse 3- He does not guide me out of obligation, but because He is good.
Verse 4- True, death surrounds me, but I’m not scared because You keep me safe.
Verse 5- Even in times of danger and turmoil You provide for me and refresh me.
Verse 6- You are gentle and kind with me as we travel, so I know You will get me home.
Greater Expectations 