This is part of the worship series,
"Psalm 23"
Series Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5
Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10
Week 11 | Week 12
Week 5
Shadow of Death
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4a).
Weekly Email
So far Psalm 23 has described us being led to green pastures, still waters, and paths of righteousness. Now the psalmist imagines a more sinister road: a shadowy valley where the threat of death lurks behind boulders. The sheep and shepherd walk a path that reminds the sheep how close life and death are. How does the shadow of death appear in your life? Are there broken relationships, physical ailments, withered hopes, or livelihood insecurities? The sheep in this verse remarkably faces the shadow of death and says, “I will fear no evil.” How does your shepherd give you the courage to look at the shadows around you and say the same?
Sermon
Psalm 23, “Everyone Needs a Shepherd”
Sermon notes by Rev. Scott Hoezee are available from the Center for Excellence in Preaching.
Children’s Message
[Spend time wondering together, asking questions and reflecting.]
Do you remember where God, our shepherd, leads us? “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in . . . [green pastures]; He leads me beside . . . [the still waters].” Do you remember wondering what it was like to lie down in green pastures and lie beside quiet waters? Then we talked about how God leads us on paths of righteousness. That just means that God teaches us how we are to treat the world around us and everything and everyone within it. But now the Bible teaches us that God leads us in scary places too. It says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4a).
I wonder what the valley of the shadow of death is like? It sounds like a scary place, doesn’t it? Are there places that scare you? The Bible is saying that even if we are in the scariest place ever we don’t need to be afraid. Why do you think that is? [Because God is with us.] We don’t have to fear because God is there! Next week we will think some more about how wonderful it is that God is always with us.
Song Suggestions
“Don’t Be Afraid” Bell
“Abide With Me” Lyte
“Precious Lord, Take My Hand” Dorsey
Prayer of Lament
[The following prayer is interspersed with singing portions of “My Soul in Stillness Waits” Haugen.]
Throughout this prayer, after I pray the words “We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows,” we will sing together the chorus to “My Soul in Stillness Waits.” We will end the prayer with the first verse and chorus together.
Even though we know we don’t need to fear the shadows of death, that doesn’t mean we have to ignore them or pretend they don’t exist. Let’s come to God this morning, lamenting the shadows and praying for the light. Please pray with me.
Creator God, out of the darkness you spoke, and there was light; you banished the first shadows with the power of your Word. But humanity rejected partnership with the Light in favor of the shadows. We see the way shadows now darken your good creation: polluted waters, decimated forests, species extinction, and unbalanced ecosystems.
Lord, we lament these shadows, and we confess our part in them. Show us how to care for your creation so we can be bringers of light. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows.
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.
God, ruler of all the world, we trust in your sovereignty over the nations, but we lament the shadows of death that loom large in wars, oppression, terrorism, and corruption across the world. We pray in faith and hope for an end to these shadows, and we beg that the light of truth, justice, and peace would shine among the nations of our world. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows.
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.
King of kings and Lord of lords, we look closer to home and see shadows here too. We lament the shadow of partisanship that divides much of this nation and seems increasingly bitter. We pray for the men and women we elect to be guided by your light so they might promote the flourishing of all life. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows.
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.
Holy Spirit, our guide and comforter, whose coming heralded the dawn of the church, be with your church now. The same shadow of partisanship that affects our government has crept into your church in North America, dividing communities. Shadows of abuse, theological disunity, and idolatry creep into our sanctuaries. We beg you to bring your church into the light so it can be the light it is meant to be to a shadowed and dying world. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows.
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.
Father God, who cares for his children as only loving parents could, here in this space there are people walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Shadows of illness, broken relationships, bereavement, isolation, exhaustion, and despair threaten us. We lament these shadows in this room today. We pray against them and ask for your light. We wait and hope for you to banish these shadows.
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.
God of light, in whose light we see light, bring us to the end of the valley of the shadow of death and into the radiance of your glory. Amen.
For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits; truly my hope is in you.
“My Soul in Stillness Waits”(st. 1) Haugen
—Bethany Besteman © 2022 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Prompts for Reflection
Music: Listen to the hymn “Abide with Me,” which uses much of the same symbolism as Psalm 23:4. Each hymn verse goes deeper into the dark of night before the final verse, which brings us to the dawn. Reflect, journal, and pray about the ideas the hymn considers. What does it mean for God to abide with us? How does God's presence help you deal with people letting you down? With change? With pain? With sorrow? Spend time in prayer, in the abiding presence of God. Faith Practice: Prayer
Artwork/Activity: Make a memento mori (Latin for “remember you have to die”). Sometimes, when life is going great and we aren’t walking through any shadowed valleys, we have a hard time remembering that we are dependent on God for everything. The early Christian practice called memento mori, in which one meditated on death or kept a visual reminder of it, helped combat this forgetfulness. The point of the memento mori is not to become constantly focused on your own death or keep you from being happy with life. The point is to remember that God holds both your life and your death in his hand, and for that reason you don’t need to fear. Symbols for death included a skull, an hourglass, or wilted flowers.
You can do some art journaling and choose one of these symbols to draw. Or you can buy or pick some flowers and hang them upside down to dry. Once they’ve dried you can put them in a vase without water somewhere you’ll regularly see them to remember we flourish like a flower of the field (Psalm 103:15). Faith Practice: Remembering
Revised Common Lectionary
Year A: Easter—Fourth Sunday of Easter
Year A: Season after Pentecost—Proper 23 (28)
Year B: Easter—Fourth Sunday of Easter
Year B: Season after Pentecost—Proper 11 (16)
Year C: Easter—Fourth Sunday of Easter
