The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,  I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.  Psalm 23

I sit in a hospital waiting room in Birmingham while a doctor and his team repair Lori’s broken bone.  The doctor described the situation as a “run of the mill break, nothing special,” which was comforting news, and he described the procedure as a simple surgery, but to me all surgeries are big, going under anesthesia is big, post-surgery pain management is big, and recovering from surgery is big.  It may have been a short step and a simple fall, but it created significant consequences, altered the path we thought we were on, and created new unexpected opportunities.  If we think we know our plan for the future, we are probably wrong, and if we believe our plan would be best, we should realize our knowledge and vision are inadequate to make that judgment.

Four years ago, I sat in a similar hospital waiting room while a surgeon and his team removed a large sarcoma mass from Lori’s thigh, and later I sat with her while she endured months of chemotherapy that nearly took her life.  The chemo was vicious.  From our perspective at the time, it all seemed incredibly bad.  Well, it drove us closer to God and closer to one another, so okay, perhaps it wasn’t all bad, but it seemed really bad.  Over the years since, Lori has been scanned every few months looking for signs of the sarcoma’s return and while it has not returned, about a year ago doctors saw a mass growing on her lung.  The scans triggered by the sarcoma allowed doctors to detect a commonly fatal form of lung cancer very early, and because they detected it so early, they consider the removal of a lobe of her lung to be curative.  While the sarcoma was awful and the treatment was gruesome, the resulting scans quite possibly saved her life.  Without the sarcoma the scan would not have happened, so was it good or bad?  Sometimes it is difficult for us to know in the present.  

As an early winter storm moved from the west dumping snow across mountains and leaving ice on the plains, I hear some friends celebrating the snow that quenched forest fires while others are stranded without power on the icy plains.  Often our view of an event depends on our perspective.  For some the storm represented answered prayers while others saw it as the source of problems.  

I think about friends praying for Lori, headlines warning of the pandemic’s advance, friends in hospitals with very serious ailments, friends grieving loss, and other friends concerned about an advancing hurricane.  We each face powerful foes, some physical, some spiritual, but God is with us, and He is more powerful than each of the problems and all of them combined.  He is more powerful than and has sovereign authority over all spiritual foes and the entire physical realm, and prayer connects us with God and He responds to our prayers.  We know that He has reached into our realm in the past and answered prayers and we should trust He will do so again.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”  It is a present tense, personal declaration.  He leads me to pastures and streams filled with abundant blessing, and He restores my life.  Yes, He restores my life, and your life, and the life of each person who accepts His awesome gift of life.  This is an awesome promise and an awesome claim, but how can we possibly claim this promise while surrounded by calamity and chaos, and experiencing pain and suffering?   

The promise expects calamity, chaos, pain and suffering.  The promise anticipates darkness.  In fact, the one claiming the promise walks in a dark place filled with evil.  Jesus explains, “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).  John explains, “For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd.  He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).  And David explains, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

The messages contrast death with life, darkness with light, suffering with glory, evil with good.  Jesus dies for His sheep, recognizing that His death is necessary to provide life for them.  God wipes tears from their eyes, indicating they must have suffered to the point of weeping.  David walks in a dark, frightening place, a place where most fear the evil surrounding them, yet he trusts in the Lord.  He knows he is surrounded by evil, he is not blind to evil, but he refuses to fear it because he trusts the Lord and he trusts that the Lord is who He says He is and he trusts that the Lord will do what He says He will do. 

We may find ourselves in a dark place, surrounded by evil, facing powerful foes, but God is with us.  If we focus on Him and His promises rather than the scary things around us, our faith and trust grow, we gain His peace, rest and comfort, and we receive the blessing of His holy, healing life.  Jesus came that we might know life abundant (see John 10:10) and to provide eternal life (see John 3:16) and the blessings of His holy kingdom.

David describes this indescribable gift of life abundant in terms of dining at an abundant feast with his cup overflowing with wine and God’s mercy and kindness and goodness following him every step of the way (see Psalm 23:5-6).  

Paul describes this indescribable gift in terms of comfort and satisfaction regardless of the physical conditions surrounding him saying, 

“I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:12-13

How can we claim the promises of Psalm 23 while surrounded by calamity and chaos, and while experiencing pain and suffering?   We realize how much we need light when we find ourselves in darkness.

As we inch forward, each step of the way through this dark realm that we live in, our vision is cloudy, our knowledge is incomplete, our ability to reason is limited, and our judgment is often flawed.  With this in mind, our ability to discern good from evil and right from wrong is also often flawed.  So we should continuously seek Him through His holy word and prayer, desire His Holy Spirit to transform our souls more and more, ask for His discernment to flow through us, and ask for Him to enlighten our minds that we might see and hear.  As we seek Him, we should continuously praise and worship His holy name, because He is worthy of our praise and worship.  And as we do, perhaps we will gradually begin to see the world around us through something closer to His eyes, and perhaps the situations we find ourselves in will seem more like opportunities to grow in Him and to serve Him, and less like burdens to bear.

Life is but a glimmer.  It is frighteningly short.  Even the longest life is a flash compared to eternity.  May we each discover our purpose in and through Him, may we truly commune with Him, may we breathe Him in fully, and may we allow His light, love and life to shine through us in the world.  This spiritual communion is what David described when he penned the words, “you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” 

As His love flows through you, through your intimate relationship with Him, may your cup overflow with His life abundant, and may His goodness, kindness, mercy and justice flow through you all the days of your life.  Amen.