Let’s be real. Our world is in a pretty dark valley right now.

I have been reading Psalm 23 most mornings for the past several weeks. Slowly, deeply, attentively. What stood out to me this morning were the words “through” and “darkest”. As in,

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23 verse 4

We face lots of different valleys in life. David, this psalm’s writer, would have been familiar with valleys from his experience as a shepherd. In and out, down and up. Some valleys wouldn’t have been too deep, allowing him and his sheep to see more.

Others would have been deep like ravines, so dark that he would not have been able to see even his hand in front of his face. If there’s a light/dark spectrum for valleys like there is on an Instagram filter, he is talking about the darkest one you can get.

These are the valleys that steal your sight. That make you wonder if you are all alone. That cause you to become so disoriented that you question everything you ever believed.

I am so relieved that David talks about walking through the darkest valley. Not sitting in the darkest valley. Not staying there forever. But walking through it, because we are with someone who knows the way out.

There is hope. There is an end. The one who leads us has already faced the darkest valley there could ever be – the one we have just remembered at Easter – when he experienced the deepest darkness of death to bring u out into the endless light of relationship with Him.

In the valleys we walk through, the end may not yet be visible. We may lose sight of the one who is leading us. In those times, we can find comfort from his presence that never abandons us to the darkness, and his voice that leads us and reminds us he is there.

The one leading us knows how to turn darkness into light, so in Him we always go through our valleys. Light is where he is leading. That is our destination when we follow him.

Our world is in a dark valley right now. I’m so grateful that even though we might not be able to see God, we can hear his voice and know he is right there looking after us as we make our way to the other side.

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