23rd Psalm

We've just been discussing Psalm 23 in our small group bible study. We discovered a pattern that most of the psalms follow. We talked about how God can renew our souls as we sit silently in his presence. But what was really striking was walking through the dark valley. We saw that difficult situations are often the pivotal in the psalms. It isn’t until we go through it that a lot of the things in the psalm make much sense. Until then they can sound a bit like pat answers of happy-clappy people. After going through the time when we might rail at God, God leads us back to a second naivety. God is not just with us when we are happy; God is with us now in the middle of the problems. It is not that we can fulfil God’s purposes when we overcome the circumstances. Overcoming the circumstances is what the Christian life is all about. It is in the middle of this that we can know eternal life – a quality of life that we experience now as we deal with the dark valley of difficulties.

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