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Psalm 23.4 (NIV)
Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
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| Spiritual forces cannot work while we are trusting earthly forces.* |
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In
the sci-fi movie, Pitch Black (which
I have not seen in its entirety), a group of travelers gets stranded on a seemingly
deserted planet because their space ship crashes or malfunctions. (Told you I
haven’t seen the whole movie!) It turns out that the planet is inhabited by
blood-thirsty, flying creatures that only come out at night. This is a problem
because night on this planet lasts a really long time and the sun is killer hot in the day time and for some reason the
group (the ones who haven’t been eaten already) must get to the other side. Although
their trek across the pitch black wasteland was terrifying, they were safe from
attack as long as they carried some form of illumination. They could hear the
creatures flapping around (and eating each other!) just outside the circle of
light, but they had nothing to fear as long as they remained in the light as
they walked through “the valley of the shadow of death.” (I do not recommend this movie.)
What
is your “valley of the shadow of death”? According to one commentator, it was
significant that the psalmist uses the term “the valley of the shadow of death” rather than the “valley
of death” to indicate that “there is no substantial evil in it.”* We are often afraid of things
that don’t pose much of a threat while we rush headlong into the real danger of
temptation.
As
we travel the path God has prepared for us, it is good to remind ourselves: Bad
things might happen to me but evil can’t touch me as long as I am walking in
the circle of his light.
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| Faith is often the child of fear.* |
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