Finding Peace in the Valley | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

if you have your Bibles, open em up to Psalm chapter 23. As I was thinking, praying about what to even share on our time together here. I've been studying the life of David, getting ready for a series that I'm so excited to do probably in 2026 but

David's life is one that has so many lessons that that we can learn and as I was kind of just praying and thinking about, hey, who who's here? How can we

leverage this Sunday not as just a throwaway but really lean into what god is doing. I just felt led to share with you again a Psalm that you've heard before. Psalm 23, it's the the famous one. It's David sitting as an old man at the end of his life and he's

he's reminding I think himself and you and I, the readers of his words, the reality, the character, and the nature of who God is. And so, again, hopefully you have your Bibles by now. Psalm chapter 23, four verses.

I'll break them down quickly for us. David says that the lord is my shepherd. He says, because of that, I shall not want.

And then in verse two, he says that he makes me lie down in green pastures. He he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And then he kind of crescendos in verse four

when he says that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me and your rod and your staff, they they comfort me. I want to speak this morning to those of you who are finding yourselves today in what you would call a bit of a valley season.

They say that a lot of life can be summed up as being in the middle of a valley, getting ready to head into one, or for some of us, we're we're just coming out of one. But the unfortunate reality is that valleys are a part of our life. And

if there's anybody in the scriptures that I think is uniquely qualified to talk about the the high highs of life and then sometimes the subsequent low lows. It's it's David.

David is a guy if you don't know his story. At 13 years old, he was chosen to be the next king of the nation of Israel. He had a prophet come into his house, tell him in front of his family, hey, this guy is anointed to be the future king.

But that promise wouldn't come to pass for almost thirteen years. He just goes back into the field and he's a shepherd.

David's story again kinda starts to get famous when he meets Goliath out in the field one day. He he's not even supposed to be there. He's he's literally bringing lunch to his brothers who are out there fighting because they're kind of the warriors. They're the types of people that that god can use

and David kind of goes on famously and he he kills Goliath.

Has this incredibly high moment but then immediately after killing Goliath, the the king of Israel begins to hear about this guy named David and that king begins to pursue him and David has to go on a run for his life. Eventually, David will become king. He is probably the most important king that Israel would ever have. He has periods of times where he's leading the nation in victory, bringing all types of new things into their existence

And then in the same moment, he's also the guy that's standing on a balcony looking out and seeing a woman that he's not supposed to be interacting with, ends up having an affair. And because of that, he he ends up having all types of sin enter his life. He loses his son. Ultimately,

he ends up being a guy that would have another high high after winning a war. He's kind of sung as a hero.

And if you know David's story, at the end of that, his son tries to overthrow him and his family kind of falls apart. David is without a doubt one of the most important figures for us to look at in the Bible. Somebody that had incredibly high moments but also had some really difficult moments.

All of that to say what we're reading here in Psalm 23 is him sitting down telling us, hey, valleys are inevitable. They they are going to be a part of our life and what what do we do with them when we find ourselves there? I think the second thing that David tells us is that valleys are by nature,

they're unpredictable,

right? I think it it would be amazing if I could tell you all the moments where life would begin to be difficult for you but but the truth is is we don't we don't get that luxury, right? God, god doesn't call us the night before and say, hey, tomorrow on your way to work, when your kids are fighting and things are already chaotic, yeah, you're going get in a car and you're going to have a flat tire on top of all of that, right? It just it just seems to culminate and pile on top of each other.

The prophet Jeremiah actually says this in Jeremiah four twenty about this idea of valleys being incredibly unpredictable.

He says that waves of destruction roll over the land until the they lie in complete desolation. He says that suddenly my tents are destroyed and in a moment my shelters are crushed. The prophet Joshua or the prophet Jeremiah sitting there saying, hey, it feels like out of nowhere,

everything just is crushing, right? I think we also learn in the scriptures that the good news is is that though valleys might be inevitable and unpredictable, the good news is is that they're also temporary, right? You won't be in a valley if you find yourself there today forever.

I think one of the best things I ever heard in seasons of life when things were were difficult and hard is that you won't feel like this forever. How you feel today won't be how you feel forever and for some of you,

if you find yourself in the valley and it feels like things are just too hard to move forward, let me just encourage you to hold on that there are better days coming, right? We know first Peter one six says that we can be truly get, be truly glad. There's wonderful joy ahead. Even though you must endure many trials for

a little while. I've got three simple things that I think we see in Psalm 23

that David shows us as an old man who's walked through life, who's had difficulties, who's had triumphs, and has kind of through all of it gained an incredible perspective. Again, just to remind you, verse four, he says, even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, he makes some declarations. I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. See, David makes a declaration in the middle of his life falling apart. He says, I I will fear no evil. He made a declaration that he was going to refuse to be discouraged.

See, this is the part where we might not be able to control the circumstances of our life but what we can control is how we walk through those circumstances.

David made a decision that that I'm not going to be discouraged. I I refuse to allow the enemy to take this from me and I love that David refers to this valley. Again, most theologians believe that David is talking about a real valley potentially even the valley that he defeated Goliath in. David's thinking about a real valley and interestingly, he calls it the valley of the shadow of death, right? And we begin to understand that a shadow

a shadow actually can't hurt you. It's just something that can scare you, but it can't actually do something to you. You could get hit by the shadow of a semi truck and be totally fine. Getting hit by a semi truck, potentially a different story,

but the shadow can't hurt you. And the enemy is really good at convincing us to be scared of things that really honestly they they can't do much harm to us because we we know who we are in Christ. David says the same thing. I would encourage you. If you find yourself today in a difficult season,

make a decision to refuse to be discouraged. The second thing is, when you find yourself in seasons that are hard and difficult in the valley sometimes feels like the shadow of death, remember

that god is with me. It's the only part in Psalm 23 where where David stops referring to god as he. He stops speaking to god in the third person.

When he gets to the part of the valley of the shadow of death, he moves from speaking to god in the third person and he begins to say, you are with me and he refers to god in the first person and he remembers that

god is with you even when it feels like life is falling apart and I know we all wish that life was just mountaintop to mountaintop to mountaintop but the truth is is there's going to be some valley seasons and when you're there, you you get to make a decision of how you're going to walk through that. You can make a decision to not be discouraged and you've gotta remember that god is with you and I love that David ends with the last thing that I would encourage you to do when you find yourself in tough seasons.

David reminds himself that God, his rod and his staff, they comfort me. See, David is reminding himself that we serve a really big God, that is a God that can defeat a lot of really big things in our life. And David starts talk about these tools that a shepherd would carry with him, this rod and this staff,

weapons that they've been given to defend their flock with. That we have a God in heaven that is fighting for us and that our best days are in front of us because the gospel,

it tells us that because the the grave is empty and that Jesus conquered death, that there's nothing in this world that can defeat us. But I know that there's some things that feel really hard and really big and really daunting.

I And think my encouragement, my challenge to you as you're sitting there watching this from wherever you're watching it is to remember it it doesn't matter how big the thing is that is in front of you. When you really know how big your god is. Again, just a simple silly story to kind of close this thing before I pray for us.

I grew up with a mom that was terrified of mice. And it could have been a mouse that was two inches wide. It didn't matter the size of it. She was terrified of the reality of a mouse. I remember being a kid, there was a little mouse that somehow got into our house. My mom was physically ill. It was crazy.

And she was screaming downstairs. This mouse was there. My brother, we're all kind of sitting there. My brother comes marching down the stairs. He literally takes his BB gun in the house. He shoots this mouse that's in this little plant in our living room, kind of a crazy scene.

But he shoots this mouse, he kills it, grabs it, throws it in the trash, and walks right back up to his room. He's like, What was all the ruckus about? And the reason I share the story with you is what was overwhelming,

what was terrifying to my mom, to my brother with his BB gun was was nothing. Right? It was something he could deal with really quickly.

I say that to say, no matter what we're walking through, remember who our god is And even when you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, we have a god that is with us. We have a god that is strong that can carry us through these things.

So if you're in it today, man, just hang on because I promise you there are better days ahead.

Let me pray for us. Father, god, I thank you. Lord, I thank you so much for every single person that's listening to this message. God, I thank you that even now through the camera, through technology, that, lord, you're speaking to your people. And so, father, I just pray right now for every single person that's

sitting there just wondering, God, are are are are my best days behind me? Father, I pray that right now the Holy Spirit would rest in their heart, would rest in that space, and begin to overwhelm them with your goodness. Father, would we begin to be convinced that because of you,

there's nothing in this world that can overcome us and and take us to a point that we we can't recover. And so, would you speak? Would you have your way? In Jesus name. Thank you guys so much for joining us. I hope to see you, on Sunday at Echoes Church.