Daily Devotional

The Shepherd does not only lead to green pastures. Sometimes the path runs straight through "the valley of the shadow of death." Read carefully: the psalmist walks through it, not around it, and never alone. Something shifts in the poem here. David stops speaking about God and begins speaking to him: "for you are with me." In the valley, doctrine becomes conversation. His comfort is not the removal of danger but the nearness of the Shepherd, whose rod drives off predators and whose staff steers wandering sheep back to the path. Both instruments hurt the enemy and help the sheep. This is why Christian rest is not the same as ease. Our peace does not depend on cooperative circumstances. It rests on the presence of the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep and rose again. Because Christ has already walked through death and come out the other side, death for his people is now only a shadow: real enough to darken the path, powerless to destroy us. If you are in a valley today, rest is still available to you. Not because the valley is short or the pain is small, but because he is here, and he is not letting go.