I love Psalm 23. Perhaps it’s because I especially love the verses about being in calm, beautiful, and peaceful situations. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”1
I was meditating on this Psalm and realized that it’s somewhat of a snapshot of life. In that short chapter, just six verses, you get a brief picture of the cycles of life—the highs and lows, the good times and bad, the peaceful and chaotic. Yet through it all, one thing remains: God’s presence. The enduring and unchanging truth: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”2
I’m a creature of comfort and routine. I like the times in my life when I’m resting in the green pastures and drinking from the beautiful still waters—those periods of time when everything is going well, when I’m seeing and feeling the blessings, when everything is chugging along pretty seamlessly.
I naturally feel the Lord’s presence more during times of peace and plenty. There’s not as much need; I feel more confident that He’s there and with me. Perhaps that’s why the psalmist didn’t need to remind himself that the Lord was with him in verse 2. We don’t often need to be reminded of God being with us during such times, because we already feel it—we’re in the green pastures and beside the still waters.
Sometimes, though, when things go haywire or not according to plan—the “dark valley” parts of life—I start to feel less like He’s with me, it’s easier to feel distant, and I have to keep reminding myself that He is there. Perhaps that’s why King David reminded himself of the Lord’s presence in verse 4, because he also had to boost his faith in times of difficulty: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”3
The Lord is with us, He is comforting us, even if we can’t sense His presence as strongly when we’re in the dark valley parts of life. He’s there, even if the dark valley portion of our journey is a little bit longer (or maybe even a lot longer) than we had hoped.
I’m going through a dark valley time right now. And, unfortunately, I’m impatient. I want the challenge over and done with. I want the Lord to supply what I need right away. I want to move from the “dark valley” part to the “green pasture” part as quickly as possible. And then I have to admit that when I get to the “green pasture” months, I will want that portion of my life to last as long as possible before I’m interrupted by another time in a new “dark valley.”
I read a quote this morning that clearly expressed my natural inclination, and yet reminded me that God’s perspective and plan is so much bigger and better than mine. So often I want Him to be “done already!!!!” And yet it’s just going to take that little bit longer for Him to set everything in place as He has planned.
“God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease—smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see—but God likes to go off-road. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension—and yet don’t. By His love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.”4
I’d like the stomach churning to end, but I also like the thought that God is loving this ride, that He’s somehow going to work things out for my good. And in the meantime, I hope that I will gain all that He has for me to experience before this off-road journey ends and I reach the green pastures again. I’m sure I will reach the green pastures at some point; we always do. I just need to be patient and wait for His timing.
This was His promise to my heart: “You can trust that I will lead and guide you into pleasant places. Those ‘pleasant places’ won’t be clear right away. There will be a period of time that will be pretty tough, that will be challenging, that will even be dark and bleak at times. But as you continue following Me, the ‘pleasant places’ will come, you will see.”
Another personal favorite promise that I love to claim during times of uncertainty or change is the verse “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”5 I know that verse is talking about what the Lord has prepared for us in heaven, but I like to also claim it for the things that I’m sure He has prepared for me here on earth as well. Since I love Him and He loves me, I know that He has good things lined up ahead.
Here are a few more of the promises that I remind myself of when I’m in a time of uncertainty or change, or am waiting for the Lord to supply a need:
The thoughts and intents of your heart are ever before Me. I have always been with you, caring for you and leading you in the way that you should go. My love for you is the same today as it was yesterday, and as it will be forever—and it will never change. It is the constant, unchangeable, and unmovable factor—the God factor—that you can depend on, both now and in the days to come.6
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I will keep, support, and protect you, regardless of the circumstances or the conditions in which you may find yourselves, just as I have done throughout history.7
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I will do whatever is needed, and use whatever means are available to care for you, and you will not be left comfortless or uncared-for.8
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I am the one responsible to care for you and provide for you and see you through any circumstances you face. Everything else can come and go—but nothing changes or impacts My ability to care for you, or My knowledge of your needs as an individual. What you give, I give back to you. What you trust Me for, I provide in one way or another.9
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Place your confidence and trust where it belongs—firmly in Me and in My leading in your life, in My strength for what I ask of you, in My supply when I’m directing you to take on a certain venture. I’m committed to you, and that’s the bottom line. You can bank on it.10
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Place your faith and trust in Me, and know that as you have given to Me, I will give to you. As you have served Me, I will serve you. I might not do it in the ways you’ve anticipated, hoped for, or planned for, but I will not fail. I am a man of My word.11
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Everything else can come and go and change, but My care for you, My promises to you, will outlast it all. My nature and My goodness and My care are not limited to a time or circumstance. They transcend all.12
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For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of My people; My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.13
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Those who seek the Lord shall not lack.14
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My times are in Your hand.15
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The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.16
1 Psalm 23:2–3.
2 Psalm 23:1.
3 Psalm 23:4.
4 Tony Snow, “Cancer's Unexpected Blessings,” Christianity Today, July 20, 2007.
5 1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV.
6 Originally published March 2010.
7 Originally published March 2010.
8 Originally published March 2010.
9 Originally published March 2010.
10 Originally published March 2010; adapted.
11 Originally published March 2010.
12 Originally published March 2010.
13 Isaiah 65:22 NIV.
14 Psalm 34:10 NKJV.
15 Psalm 31:15 NKJV.
16 Psalm 92:12–13, 15 NKJV.
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