The Darkest Valley: Psalm 23 offers confidence and hope through the disruptions of life

In his book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Peter Scazzero wrote of “The Wall,” which he described as a juncture in our spiritual walk typically found somewhere between where life is good and where we are compelled to embrace substantive inward transformation. “For most of us,” Scazzero explained, “the Wall appears through a crisis that turns our world upside down” and causes us to “question ourselves, God, [and] the church. We discover for the first time that our faith does not appear to ‘work.’ We have more questions than answers as the very foundation of our faith feels like it is on the line. We don’t know where God is, what he is doing, where he is going, how he is getting us there, or when this will be over.”

We hear similar notes in Job’s lament: “If I go east, he is not there, and if I go west, I cannot perceive him. When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him; when he turns south, I cannot find him” (Job 23:8-9). So also, St. John of the Cross wrote in the sixteenth century of “the dark night of the soul,” and King David described it in Psalm 23 as “the darkest valley” or “the valley of the shadow of death.” Indeed, it would seem that such a moment, whatever we may call it, is inevitable. We will all face such a juncture. In fact, one could argue that we will not reach Christian maturity without first passing through such a moment.

If we all must face a darkest valley moment, it behooves us to consider how we might navigate it with confidence and hope and so emerge on its far side with a stronger faith. Fortunately, David’s words in Psalm 23 offer us tremendous insight into how we might do exactly that:

The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Psalm 23:1-6 (Christian Standard Bible)

We must encounter darkest valleys.

The progression of this psalm is interesting. In verses 1-3, David described the Lord as his shepherd. A shepherd, of course, was one who guided, protected, and provided for sheep. David continued, writing that God let him “lie down in green pastures” and led him “beside quiet waters.” It reminds me of a pasture near my childhood home where I would go with my dad and brothers to fish for trout. I do not wonder, therefore, why David would say this shepherd God “renews my life” and “leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” In all my life, I have found few places as serene and life-giving as that pasture. It is easy to trust the Shepherd in such situations.

In verses 5-6, however, the scene is changed. Now, David describes a banquet table prepared “in the presence of my enemies.” In other words, God continues to provide and protect, but there are now ominous overtones. Fights are brewing, and storms are looming. Yet, David declares that God anoints his head with oil – a symbol of healing, blessing, and purpose – and his cup overflows, signifying that even in this more sinister scene, God continues to provide abundantly. All of this leads David to conclude with confidence, despite the dark forces lurking, that “only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of the life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.” Even now, I long for such confidence and hope!

Yet, notice what lies between these images. In verse 4, David went through the darkest valley, and that was no accident. Indeed, we must scale Scazzero’s wall, endure St. John’s dark night, and traverse the darkest valley. In fact, the Hebrew word translated in verse 4 by the CSB and others as “even when I walk” is in the imperfect tense. This suggests that, while the the actions are not yet completed, they are happening right now or in the near future. In other words, it is not a matter of if we encounter these valleys, but when. We must traverse the darkest valleys.

More than that, though, it was his time in the darkest valley that enabled David to dine and recline with confidence and hope in the more precarious latter scene. This suggests that spending time in the darkest valley is more than an inevitability. It is actually a necessity. In the valley is darkness, and we will struggle to sense God’s presence. There is dryness, where Bible study seems dusty and irrelevant, and prayer bounces off the ceiling. There are dangers lurking; there is a reason the King James called it the valley of the shadow of death. Yet, going through these terrible things bolsters our faith so that we can trust God even more on the other side.

When I was in high school, our class was invited to go rappelling with the Iowa National Guard. If you are not familiar with it, rappelling is when you hook yourself onto a rope and then use that rope to descend a sheer cliff. I will always remember the advice the National Guard instructor gave us: lean back over the cliff until all of your weight is on the rope. You see, he knew that we would never fully trust the ropes until we knew that they alone would hold. Similarly, David learned in the darkest valley that it is only when we are stripped of our security, strength, and stuff that we are finally convinced that God alone will hold and his promises will never fail.

Conversely, when we avoid the darkest valley, we deprive ourselves of this opportunity. Therefore, as painful as it is to traverse this disruption, it is truly unfortunate that many people will do just about anything to avoid the darkest valleys. Instead of relying on God or following his will, they depend on their own strength and search for their own way. Often, however, they discover too late that this only takes longer, causes more hurt, and only leads them back to where they started because God has to bring them back around for another pass.

God is with us.

The question, however, remains. How will we navigate this darkest valley and come out the other side? Fortunately, David again revealed the key in verse 4 when he declared, “I fear no danger, for you are with me.” Could it be that the key to navigating the darkest valleys of our lives is really as simple as recognizing and leaning into the fact that God is with us? Actually, the fact that this realization – that “you are with me” – is at the exact structural center of this psalm suggests that is exactly the case!

Indeed, as ridiculous as it sounds, the presence of God is the single constant in every darkest valley. Consider, when famine ravaged Isaac and his family, God promised, “I will be with you and bless you” (Genesis 26:3). When Moses faced a job change and relocation, God vowed, “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). When Joshua faced the notion of filling Moses’ giant shoes, God said, “I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you” (Joshua 1:5). When the nation of Israel faced deportation and exile, God comforted them: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous hand” (Isaiah 41:10). When sin threatened to condemn us all, the solution was Immanuel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). And even as Jesus ascended and the Church faced an uncertain future, the presence of the Lord was the ultimate solution to life in the last days: “And remember, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Yes, the secret to successfully navigating the darkest valleys of our lives is found in recognizing that God is with us even in the dark, and his whole purpose is to help us recognize anew that he will not abandon or fail us. He places us in situations which exceed our limits so that we must rely upon him for strength, support, direction, and correction and so find that he is undeniably real and infinitely more than able. God is with us.

The darkest valley is transformative.

But here is the thing. We cannot encounter God and come back unchanged. Thus, when we discover that God is with us, and we can rely on him, the darkest valley is transformative.

More specifically, Scazzero suggests four ways in which the valley transforms us:

• It frees us from judgmentalism by stripping away our pride and sense of self-reliance. It is, after all, difficult to judge someone else when we ourselves have hit rock bottom.
• It expands our appreciation for mystery. In the darkest valley, there is a lot of uncertainty. When we realize that God is with us and will not fail even when we cannot see where we are going, it enables us to more easily trust him in the dark going forward.
• It develops our ability to wait upon the Lord. Patience is like a muscle, and when we have no choice but to wait patiently for God to do something that we cannot do for ourselves, it is like going for a personal best on the bench press. The muscle will be stronger because of it.
• It enables a greater detachment from my identity and my stuff as we come to realize that there is no guarantee that life will be easy, we are not the center of the universe, and we do have limitations including death.

No doubt, when we finally emerge from the darkest valley, these will each be important, but greater still is the transformation that David subtly reveals here in Psalm 23. Consider that, in verses 1-3, he referred to God five times using the third-person pronouns “he” and “his.” Somewhere in the darkest valley of verse 4, however, that changed, and in verses 4-5, David referred to God five more times using the second-person pronouns “you” and “your.”

Suddenly, David was not just talking about God. God was no longer some remote entity out there somewhere. No, after going through the darkest valley, David was talking to God. God was, to David, tangibly real and intimate, and the result was that David’s faith was catapulted forward.

The US Navy is famous for using catapults to launch planes from its aircraft carriers, and although I have never experienced it firsthand, I have seen numerous online videos of the experience. My favorite videos are of pilots or passengers. One instant, they are sitting in the seat with the bustle of the flight deck all around them, and in the next instant, they are pressed into their seats as the flight deck disappears. Finally, the viewer gets a glimpse of the carrier, which is little more than a speck far behind and below.

Looking back after emerging from the darkest valley, David’s previous faith seemed small, and his previous degree of intimacy with God was remote. His experience was not unique. Jacob had a similar experience after fleeing from Esau in Genesis 28, and it changed the trajectory of the rest of his life. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah encountered God in the desert after fleeing Jezebel’s murderous threats, and God began to address his depression and lack of direction. Jesus’ disciples saw their whole world upended when he went to the cross, but God used that experience to galvanize them into the Church he needed to continue Christ’s mission. And in Job 42:5, after encountering God in the storm, the titular character marveled, “I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you.”

Certainly, David’s stroll through the darkest valley expanded his confidence in God’s direction, discipline, provision, and protection. There are indications in this psalm that his experience in the darkest valley effected all of the transformations Scazzero sugggested and more. Yet, the most significant result of David’s time in the darkest valley was this shift from knowing about God in an abstract, theoretical sense, to actually knowing God so that David could speak directly to him.

Christians are, of course, expected to grow gradually in grace every day of their lives through Bible study, prayer, fellowship, service, and various other spiritual disciplines. Yet, we see throughout Scripture and history that life disruptions are often catalysts for the most significant transformations in our lives, and the darkest valley is possibly the most powerful of them all. Indeed, it is only in the darkest valley, where we are wholly stripped of our pretentious self-sufficiency and compelled to rely utterly upon God, that God finally proves and reveals himself to us. Certainly, this process is painful and disconcerting, but when we find ourselves in the dark and discover that God is there, we cannot return unchanged.