Sermon of the Week: “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”

This week we continue our series through Spurgeon’s sermons on the twenty-third Psalm.

In August of 1880, Charles Spurgeon preached on the well-known “valley of the shadow of death” from Psalm 23:4. He had intended to save this text for preaching when he was near the end of his life. However, some twelve years before his death, he declared that this verse was not just for the dying, but for the living. “The words,” he stated, “are not in the future tense, and therefore are not reserved for a distant moment. Do not postpone to the future that which you so greatly need in the present.”

Every Christian will encounter dark days. Uncertainties, dangers, and temptations may shroud our path with gloom. What are we to do when we find ourselves in the valley? “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me,” the Psalmist penned. Spurgeon responds, “Was there ever a better reason given under heaven for being fearless than this— that God is with us? He is on our side; he is pledged to help us; he has never failed us; he must cease to be what he is before he can cast away one soul that trusts him.”

The Christian pilgrim, with Jesus as his Shepherd, can be secure in his hope. “Let us be sure that if we walk in at one end of the hollow way of affliction we shall walk out at the other.” Christian, in what way is God calling you to lay down your fears and trust Him today?

Excerpt:

“[S]ometimes it seems to us as if we could not make out our condition,— could not understand God’s dealings with us. We have seemed to be at cross purposes with providence. We have come to a place where two seas meet, and we cannot understand the current. Our temptation has been comparable to a cyclone, and we do not know which way the hurricane is sweeping; we are in the power of a whirlwind, jerked to and fro. Such things happen to God’s people now and then. And what are they to do when they get into these perplexities, these mysterious troubles, that they cannot at all describe? They must do— and God help them to do— as this blessed man did, who in the peace and confidence of faith went on his way singing, Yea, though I walk through the valley shaded by the mysterious wings of death, and though I know nothing of my way, and cannot understand it, yet will I fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

Read the rest of the sermon here.