Jesus Walked Through Darkness – And He’ll Lead Us Out, Too
By Dr. Brandon Steenbock, Family Minister
Psalm 23:4 – 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.
I use a phrase on the hard days: “The storm clouds are building.” It doesn’t matter if the sun is shining or the day is full of good things; some days, the clouds still build. I struggle with seasonal depression. For years, I couldn’t explain the crushing darkness that presses in, or why it comes more often in winter. Naming it – seasonal depression – didn’t make it less heavy. But it opened a window of hope. I stopped asking, “Why do I feel this way?” and started asking, “How does Jesus help me through this?”
The answer is simple: he walks with me under the storm clouds. He hasn’t taken away the depression. He hasn’t changed the way the world works so that winter is warmer and sunnier. He hasn’t moved me somewhere more tolerable. Instead, he walks with me through it.
I don’t know what David was thinking of when he wrote about the “darkest valley.” The Hebrew phrase is idiomatic – “the valley of the shadow of death” – and it refers both to a place of extreme danger and to the emotional reality of deep grief and mourning. Was David thinking about Saul hunting him? About his best friend Jonathan being killed? About the death of his child after his sin? Or about running from his own son Absalom, who wanted to take his throne? Whatever it was, David knew days of darkness – days when storm clouds gathered thick overhead.
But he also knew who walked with him. He knew that the Lord, his true Shepherd, would be with him even when the road turned pitch black. When he couldn’t see where he was going, he could still hear the steady thump, thump, thump of his Shepherd’s staff on the trail. He could feel the rod gently guiding him, keeping him on the path. The Shepherd didn’t lift him out of the darkness, but he did lead him safely through it.
It helps me to remember that Jesus went into the darkness too, and even further. He went all the way into the arms of death itself. And his Father did not pull him out of the suffering. He did not take him down from the cross. Jesus hung there while literal and spiritual darkness crushed him. He knows what it is to walk through the darkness. And because he came out the other side, he also knows how to lead us through it. And out of it.
That’s my window of hope when the storm clouds build. Jesus has been here before. He knows the way. And he knows how to lead me through it. So I trust him, the steady thump, thump, thump of his staff nearby, the gentle pressure of his rod keeping me on the path. He’s with me.