Our mother wrote about Psalm 23…when she was still living on earth in August 2004.  I wanted to share this today as I was talking to a friend about her fear…   

Recently I had a new insight into a very old scripture.  When I shared with my girls later, Carol asked me to put this into writing for her…. (Thank you Carol for asking mom to put her thoughts into writing…  )

One of the very first passages of Scripture that I memorized as a child was the 23rd Psalm… so familiar that I seldom refer to it even think about it.  However, those words came to my mind, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”  It has been almost two years since my husband of almost 60 years left me for Heaven.  So I realized the Lord really had been my Shepherd and I had been cared for and never been in want.

So I continued quoting the verses until I came to this one: “Yea, tho’ I walk thro’ the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” – and that is when it hit me.  I had always connected that verse with meaning “not fearing death or dying.”  Twice in my adult life I was “sick unto death,” as the Bible puts it, and I asked God to either heal me or take me Home (heaven).  I would be content either way,  just don’t let me linger on in such illness that my family would all become exhausted caring for me.  I have seen that happen all too many times and that was my greatest fear.  I just could not bear the thought of that happening.

But now, I realize the psalmist was not talking about death at all.  But he was speaking of the very thing I was so fearful of.  “Yea, tho’ I walk’ – you don’t get there very fast walking, for it is a slow, prolonged process.  “Thro’ the valley.”  I’d rather be up on the mountaintop where I could overlook the valley, but the psalmist went ahead to say “of the shadow of death.”

Could God be preparing me for my own “walk” in the future?  And that I should not be afraid, “For thou art with me.”  Or am I to share with someone else who may be going thro’ their valley?  Only time will tell.

Then I am reminded that in Psalm  56:3 the same psalmist said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,” and I am blessed with that assurance.

 ( I wonder what mom is doing in heaven today….rejoicing I am sure and without fear!!)