Man, if I’m not in the valley of the shadow of death right now, then I don’t know where I am…
I wanted to find a bible verse to comfort me yesterday, so I Googled for one. As I was sorting through the results, I ran across the 23rd Pslam. I am sure I must have memorized this verse in cofirmation class as a 12-year old Methodist, but I could only recall about half of it. As I read it, I saw the line:
He restores my soul.
which was meaningful to me because I had just posted on Facebook that I felt my soul had been ripped in two. I copied those whole Pslam into Word.
The next morning, when I was re-reading it, I saw verse 4:
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
Now, you always think you might know what the bible means by valley of the shadow of death (or I did) but reeally it’s kind of amorphous. So I checked the notes in the Application Study Bible, New International Version and suddenly I understood. And I knew I was there.
“Death casts a frightening shadow over us because we are entirely helpless in its presence. We can struggle with other enemies – pain, suffering, disease, injury – but strength and courage cannot overcome death. It has the final word. Only one person can walk with us through death’s dark valley and bring us safely to the other side – the God of life, our shepherd. Because life is uncertain, we should follow this shepherd who offers us eternal comfort.”
Here is a site that I really like. It has stress/comfort Bible verses… http://www.whereisgod.net/stress.htm
TO RESTORE YOUR SOUL MEANS TO TAKE IT BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS. GOD WAS IN COMMUNION WITH ADAM AND EVE HE WALKED WITH THEM AND TALKED WITH THEM. HE CREATED THEM SO HE COULD HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM. THAT IS WHAT HE WANTS FROM YOU. THE SHADOW OF DEATH REFERS TO THIS LIFE HERE AND NOW THIS PLACE IS WHERE DEATH RESIDES. TO PREPARE A TABLE BEFORE YOU IN THE PRESENTS OF YOUR ENEMIES IS TO LAY OUT BLESSINGS FOR YOU HERE IN THE PRESENTS OF OUR ENEMIES, (THE DEVIL AND HIS FALLEN ANGLES).