Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd"

Sometimes we may  find ourselves in a dark valley of depression or grief, we seem to have no answer for our "pain" but it is then we can realize,  we have a "Gentle Shepherd"  who has walked this road before us. He has been everywhere we will ever have to go and suffered every pain we will ever suffer. He  will be with us through the darkest valley,  we have to go through and  He will  bring us out of our deepest valley and into His  "Marvelous Light",  if we will learn to trust ourselves to His keeping,  for the Lord is our defense and the Holy One of Israel is our King. We can say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God in Him I will trust. 

The suffering of our Lord  began before He went to the cross of Calvary, as He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane and felt  deserted and alone while his followers (His very own Disciples) slept as He prayed through the night, He was then betrayed by one of  them with a kiss. He was brought as a lamb to slaughter and said not a word in His own defense. He was taken from Pilate's Hall,  bent over a  whipping post 39 stripes were laid on His back for our healing. Now this was no ordinary beating as the Romans soldiers were good at their job, and they used a cat of nine tails, a cruel whip that had pieces of metal and glass that cut deep into the flesh every time it lashed out,  the beating alone killed many of  the victims.

The suffering did not end here however,  as Isaiah continues,  He also bore our sorrows and grief's to Calvary and  in Chapters 52 - 53  the story as we realize in our reading, is that His visage was marred more than any man, meaning He was no longer even recognizable,  after the cruel beating and scourging men put upon him, then made to carry His own cross,  and hanging on that old rugged cross suspended between Heaven and Earth, our Lord and Savior took our place, that we might go free..
Oh! What a Savior.

Isaiah tells us further that  the chastisement of  our peace was upon Jesus. So, we can look to Him in our hour of distress and know that every thing we are experiencing in our dark valley, He has already suffered that we might be able to be comforted by Him in our hour of need. He is indeed our peace that passeth all understanding and He has promised to keep in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon the Lord. Romans 15:13  Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

One of the the main causes for severe grief is the death of a loved one. This is a time of loneliness. In times like these we must have the utmost confidence in God to see us through.  We must not blame the tragedy on our Lord either. Satan comes to kill, steal destroy and take away. We can realize that God is our refuge and fortress as we dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He will cover us with His feathers and under His wings we can trust. He will give His angels charge over us to keep us in that day and in that hour. He has set His love upon us, He knows our name.

We must keep in mind that no matter how bad our circumstances may be, God can work redemptively in our situation. His grace is sufficient for us. The valley may be a deep one, but we must not look back, but rather press forward, expecting to come to a new mountain top experience of God's blessings. We can experience His glory through this trial. We must trust the
Lord completely.  He will soothe the heart that is mourning and give comfort. Sometimes we can hear Him speak in a small still voice or perhaps in a dream or vision, but He will always bring comfort if we will yield our grief to Him.

We must learn to stay in the presence of  God in the midst of any trial or discouragement, and He will help us to overcome the loneliness which has us engulfed. He will give us the strength and peace, we must have for the future, as we seek Him. He is the rock of our salvation and on Him we can firmly stand.

Remaining in  a  grief-stricken state of mind, can sometimes open the way for oppressive forces to put us in real bondage.  II Timothy 1:7 - Fear is referred to as a spirit. Spiritual forces can oppress with a spirit of grief. This type of oppression is the same as  the  spirit of fear and we need to take authority over these forces and bind them.  God wants us to be comforted and  to walk in His joy and peace.

Scriptures on Grief:

(Josh. 1:9) "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

(Neh. 8:10) "Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

(Isa. 66:13) "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."

Copyright 2001 Betty Lester