Greek:
For if even I should go in the midst
of the shadow of death, I shall not be afraid of evils, for you with me
are. Your rod and your staff they
comfort me.
I spent most of my study time on
this verse, dissecting each word, searching out how it was used in the
Scripture, and also if and how it was used in the Torah. This passage seems the heart of the
psalm. The verses before speak of God,
as do the verses that follow it. This
verse seems to speak more personally of the writer.
Key words and terms in the verse are
‘valley of the shadow of death’, ‘fear no evil’, ‘your rod and your staff’ and ‘comfort
me’.
What seems peculiar to this verse is
the traditional interpretation which gives the impression of David ‘fearing’ or reverencing something with awe, of being
afraid of some vague ‘evil’, right after he’s been so very clear that God is
His shepherd. Shepherded sheep don’t
fear things when they’re with their shepherd, they only fear when they’re away
from their shepherd, when he’s not in their sight. So why, if David has firmly established his
trust in the provision of YHVH, does he speak of fear of something else?
The term ‘shadow of death’ isn’t one
found in Torah. It’s found most often in
Job (9 times) and there, seems to refer to things that are unknown or unseen,
primarily what happens after death. The ‘land
of darkness and the shadow of death’ (Job 10:21) speak of Hades, the place souls
were considered to go after death. Remember that Job was facing severe calamity and quite possibly his death.
In Psalm 44, David speaks of the ‘shadow
of death’, the pattern of this psalm is very much like the pattern of psalm
23. He begins by expressing his sure
trust in God. Then suddenly the tone shifts
to ‘now You have rejected and humbled us…my face is covered with shame’. He seems to ask ‘Why?’ expressing a great
unknown. ‘We had not forgotten you, we
had been faithful to your covenant’. Yet
‘you have broken us, you have covered us with the shadow of death’. Here the 'shadow of death' seems to refer to being cut off from God's provision, presence, love and care.
In Psalm 107, David speaks of the shadow
of death as imprisonment, bondage or slavery, another picture of being ‘cut off’
from the land and from God’s provision. Isaiah
9:2 also has this kind of reference. So
does Jeremiah 13:15-17, ‘Give glory to God before He cause darkness, before
your feet stumble…while you look for light, he turns it to the shadow of death,
and makes it gross darkness…the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.’ Jeremiah
2:6 refers to the time of wandering in the desert, in ‘a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and the shadow of
death, a land that no one crossed and where no one dwelt’. Amos 5:8 speaks
of God who ‘turns the shadow of death or deep darkness into the morning and
darkens the day into night…who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them
out onto the face of the earth…who causes sudden destruction’.
