The believer's path through life is a mingled experience. Sometimes resting at an

Elim, with its palm trees and its wells of water; sometimes walking with weary step

through a waterless desert. Sometimes resting beside still waters, sometimes treading the

valley of the shadow.

The testimony of Psa. 23:, however, makes one thing certain. However varied the

circumstances of life's pilgrimage may be, one thing remains constant, the presence of

the Lord. "Thou art with me." His presence is not limited to experiences of joy or

sorrow, but irradiates them all. When experience is that likened to resting in green

pastures, it is He Who makes me thus to lie down. It is He Who leads me beside still

waters; it is He Who restoreth my soul. Further, the green pastures, or the quietest

waters would lose their charm without that presence, whereas the hardest couch is

comfort if endured with Him.

David therefore dwells upon this blessed fact as he contemplates the deepest of life's

trials, even there, in the valley of the shadow of death, he can say:

As in the language of the N.T., so in that of the Old, there is much to be learned from

the particles of speech. This little word `with' for instance is the hinge upon which the

passage turns. It is the Hebrew immadi, and is formed from the verb amad to stand. It is

used of the close and lasting relationship which God ordained should exist between man

and wife, as Adam makes clear when he spoke of Eve as "The woman whom Thou

gavest to be with me" (Gen. 3: 12).

The personal presence and fellowship of the Lord in the sorrows and troubles of His

own, is one of the most blessed and comforting of His many condescensions.

Keeping to the figures of Shepherd and sheep, David spoke out of his own shepherd

experiences when he said:

"The rod" refers to the shepherd's club, with which he defended the sheep. "The

staff" refers to the shepherd's crook with which he rescued the sheep from dangerous