“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
In the very center of this Psalm of comfort, we encounter “the valley of the shadow of death.” That is because this valley is the place in which we traverse life. Every day, the enemy of human life, death, looms ominously like the shadow of a black thundercloud. At any moment, death may overtake us. Death is the thing, generally speaking, humans fear more than anything else. It is the one event in life we must all face, and it’s the one event that takes everything from us. It strips us of all of our relationships, all of our labors, all of our possessions—or so it seems.
But the great comfort is the one who leads us through this valley of the shadow of death called life is the Lord. The Lord is with us and it is the Lord who leads us in the right paths through the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord’s personal guiding presence is a sign of blessing and distinction for the children of God (Exodus 33:14-16).
Finally, the rod and staff are instruments of protection and discipline for the shepherd. He uses these to ward off the predators, the enemies of the people of God who threaten to devour them (1 Perter 5:8). The rod and staff for the Church of God, today, are the Word of God and the Spirit of God.
Because the children of God have the Lord as their shepherd, we have no reason to fear the evil that lurks all around us the way the rest of the world does. Our calm security and spirits of contentedness, even in the face of death, are signs to the rest of the world that the Lord is the Good Shepherd.