It is with sadness we mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Many of you will have watched some of the pageantry. Very noticeable are the military guards of honour in their ceremonial uniforms. Just as we have seen these modern guards in uniform, in Paul’s day the people would have seen the Roman soldiers in their uniforms. Those ancient people would have been quite familiar with the image of a soldier equipped for battle. It was an inspired moment when Paul used the image of Roman armour to teach about spiritual armour. Paul’s idea was so good, that even today we can form a mental image of the armour of God based on the uniform of Roman soldiers.
We love Psalm 23 because of the rich poetic imagery that paints a spiritual landscape we feel we can step into. We love this Psalm because as Christians, we don’t see it in isolation, in a purely Old Testament setting, but we view it through the lens of the New Testament and the relationship we have with Jesus, the Good Shepherd. We could profitably lose ourselves in this Psalm, however, today I want to focus on verse four, particularly the image of the valley. “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.” (Psalm 23:4)
Speaker: Tristan de Chalain
When I was young I was blessed to be part of a lively youth group called Caleb Club. Caleb was one of the twelve spies Moses sent into the land to do reconnaissance. Only Caleb and Joshua brought back a good report. They had faith God would be with them if the people entered the land. The other ten returned overwhelmed by fear and a lack of faith. God commended Caleb saying, “But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” (Numbers 14:24) The reason the youth group was called Caleb club was to inspire young people to follow God wholeheartedly as Caleb had done.
When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? Some of us may have dreamt of being an astronaut or a princess or a movie star, but in reality most people grow up to live very ordinary lives. We might wonder how we can live effective faithful lives for God in the ordinariness of our daily life. But the good news is that God uses ordinary people. 1 Corinthians 1.5 says God chose what the world considers ordinary... to fulfil his purposes on earth.
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