Inspired by Psalm 23
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they
comfort me.” Psalm 23:4 (New King James
Version)
One thing that many people have in common is the fear of
death. All we know, all we’re familiar
with, is this life. Sure, we have faith
in the life to come, but faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen. Knowledge is what we have with absolute
certainty. We know this life; we’re living it.
We can have faith in the life to come, but we don’t know it yet.
But the words of this psalm assure us that death itself is
not evil, and that even as we confront death, whether we succumb to it at that
time or not, the Lord our shepherd is with us.
We can be comforted by the tools of the shepherd: the rod he uses to
beat off the dangers that come to harm us, and the staff he uses to find the
way for us when we can’t find it ourselves, when we’re not sure where we’re
going. With his rod and his staff, our
shepherd is there to guard us and to guide us, in this life and in the life to
come.
Let us pray. Eternal
God, death is neither enemy nor obstacle to you. Grant us the comforting knowledge of your
presence on both sides of death, that we may not fear the unknown in this
life. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
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