"Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff will give me breath. ” Psalm 23:4.
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Charles Spurgeon
Checkbook from the Bank of Faith.
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These words that describe the security experienced on our deathbed, are very sweet. How many people have repeated them with intense delight in their last hours! But the verse is equally applicable to the agonies of the spirit in the midst of life.. Some of us, like Paul, die daily because of a tendency to darkness of soul. On his pilgrimage, Bunyan puts the Valley of the Shadow of Death long before the flowing river at the foot of the heavenly hills. Some of us have walked through the dark and dreadful gorge of the “shadow of death” several times, and we can testify that only the Lord enabled us in the midst of their wild thoughts, their mysterious horrors and their terrible of pressures. The Lord has sustained us and kept us above all real fear of evil, even when our spirit would have been overwhelmed. We have been wrinkled and beaten down, yet we have lived, for we have felt the presence of the Great Shepherd, and we have had the confidence that his fall would prevent the enemy from delivering a deadly blow to us.
If the present time were darkened by the raven’s wings of great affliction, we must glorify God through quiet trust in Him.