Tranquil Thoughts from the Texas Hill Country
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Each of us has one final walk to take. Our Lord assures us we will not walk alone Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He will be with us. We do not know when David wrote the words we know as The 23rd Psalm. It is probably one of the most favorite of the Psalms. Young David tended his father’s sheep. We can believe David thought as he walked, as he sat, always within view of the sheep under his charge. David was a faithful shepherd. He thought about God as he went about his work. He saw an obvious comparison between his own life and his God. “The LORD is my shepherd,” he said. My LORD looks after me as I look after my father’s sheep. “I will not lack anything because the LORD is my Shepherd. I will always live under His protection. He will provide me with food and drink, clothing, all those things.” My LORD leads me beside still waters where both my sheep and myself may drink freely from unpolluted waters. My Lord leads me as I lead my sheep, only upon safe paths. Call them paths of righteousness. I go with my sheep wherever they go, even into places which can be dangerous. You prepare a table, Lord, so that I may have nourishment for my body. You do that while my enemies look on in envy. I am confident that my Lord will be with me always and that His goodness and His mercy will never leave me. He will be at my side always. We cannot know in advance all that we are going to experience. We do know from Scripture that everyone is going to walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. There is no escaping it. Each of us walks alone in that Valley. Alone, that is, except God our Lord walks with His believers. We are born one at a time, as individuals, even if we are a twin or a triplet. We die one at a time even if many persons die in the same disaster. We die as individuals. Sometimes it’s an instant death, literally alive one second and dead the next. For other persons death is long in coming. A final illness lingers for weeks, months, years. To anyone at our bedside during our walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death we may appear calm, relaxed, un- troubled, at peace. We do not know what is going on in people’s minds or souls in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. How many times do we recite the Psalm’s words in a lifetime? Eventually we actually are walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The familiar words more than suggest the presence of “evil” in the Valley. Satan is still like a roaring lion seeking to devour any soul he can up to the very end. Does he remind us of our past? Our past – of thoughts, of words, of deeds – sins; does Satan inject fear that we are not going to make it to heaven safely? We ask the questions but we cannot answer them. I will fear no evil because YOU ARE WITH ME!” God the Father Almighty is with us. His Son is with us. God the Holy Spirit is with us. Jesus Christ Himself walked through the Valley. The place was called Calvary, or Golgotha. Our Redeemer, our Savior died. Because He did, no one can accuse His believers of sin not atoned for. It is God who justifies. It is God who acquits. There is no sin for which Jesus Christ has not paid the full price due, with His own blood! We are headed toward THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. We have been since we were born. Each day brings us closer. God knows how many times we have read the 23rd Psalm or recited it. And how many times we have heard pastors talk about it and pray about it. The passage from life to death is described in various ways. In this Psalm David uses the words “the valley of the shadow of death.” We cannot describe that valley. An artist might picture the Lord Jesus as a shepherd in mountainous country with sheep surrounding him. They are on a path leading downward into a valley where the sun’s rays do not reach. It’s dark. And with the darkness an element of fear, fear of the unknown dangers lurking at the next turn. Such a painting, surely, would intend to assure believers that Good Shepherd that Jesus Christ is He is will lead His believers safely through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. At its end? The reality of the scene described in the Revelation of Jesus Christ written by St. John the Divine at the beginning of the final book of the New Testament. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard a loud voice behind me which sounded like a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. And I turned to see the voice which was speaking to me. I turned and I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in their midst I saw a Man like the Son of Man clothed in a garment down to His feet and a golden belt around His middle. The hairs on His head were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like fine brass, as if there were burning in a furnace ; and His voice sounded like the roar or many rivers coming together;, and in His right hand He had seven stars; and a sharp two-edged sword was coming from His mouth: and His face glowed like the sun at its brightest. And when I saw Him I fell to my feet as though I were a dead man. He laid His right hand upon me, saying to me: “Do not be afraid; I am the first and I am the Last, I am the Beginning and I am the End; I am He who was dead, but now I am alive for ever. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death. Write these things which you have just seen.” The Revelation chapter 1, verses 11 and following. That! Dear reader is where the walk through the valley of the shadow of death ends for everyone who believes Jesus Christ to be their Lord, their Savior! “Though I walk there I will fear no evil, because YOU ARE WITH ME!” Amen. Death is the beginning of the best life anyone can ever have!
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About the Book
My writings are spiritual. I want to transmit, to create a peaceful , tranquil spirit of faith within my readers.. I want to open up to the believing reader some of the Bible's jewels or whatever one wishes to call them. I want to inspire faith; to feed, to nurture faith in my readers. .
About the Author
The author is a native of Madison, WI. He served congregations as pastor in both large urban cities and in rural, small town parishes for over forty years before retiring. For many years he was a monthly contributor of articles to his church body's monthly magazine. He was associate editor for several of those years. He has served on the Board of Regents of his alma mater, Bethany Lutheran College and Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mankato, MN. and later on his church body's Doctrine Committee. He has translated more than one thousand pages from Norwegian to English of theological material concerning his church body, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He has long had an interest in the history of the Christian Church from its earliest time to the present. He is a ten year survivor of colon cancer, a subject he discusses in his second section titled Depression. He and his wife live in Canyon Lake, Texas. To see him in his living room chair is to see a man reading, sketching, scribbling notes which eventually may become prose or poetry of a spiritual nature. He often has to share his chair with his puppy.