"Test Drive" - May 15, 2011 Sermon

Scripture: Psalm 23

The Sermon:
I have been researching new and almost new cars recently. In the process of that adventure, I came across some of the ways in which cars are tested by the manufacturer. I was somewhat surprised that a lot of testing goes on in Death Valley, CA. The cars are put to extreme tests, more extreme than they will probably ever be driven in by a consumer. The hottest recorded temperature in the U.S., 134 degrees, was in Death Valley. Parts of Death Valley are 212 feet below sea level.

In August of last year, engineers from the automaker, Kia, put 3 of their models through a series of grueling tests. They started and stopped the car frequently…they let it sit, idling for long periods of time…they had the cars tow a 7,000 lb. load up and down some steep hills around Death Valley… they would park the car, roll up the windows and let it sit in direct sun for a long period of time, then they would time how long it took for the air conditioner to cool the interior of the car. There were many other tests done, and even though the cars will most likely never be driven in similar conditions, the car maker deliberately overtaxed them to ensure that their customers won’t have problems in normal conditions of driving. It is their way of taking the "scary or fear " out of driving in difficult weather conditions.

Psalm 23 also talks about going through a valley of Death. It is one of the best known passages of Scripture in the Bible. While it is appropriately used at funerals, if we only think of it as a funeral text, we may miss the fact that it is really about LIVING!

In the ancient world, shepherds were herders and tenders of sheep, much the same as today. However, back then "shepherd" was also a metaphor for King, and the role that Kings were to play in tending to their subjects: caring for their needs, providing for them and protecting them. So, for someone in that culture to say, "The Lord is my shepherd" it meant that the Lord is my King…and my King takes care of me. The person was saying, "I will live under God’s rule", and the rest of the Psalm describes the good things that come to that person who claims God as their King.

So, because the Lord is a good shepherd and I am a member of His flock, I shall not be in want…of anything. I will have what I need. Lying down in green pastures, being led beside still waters, and fearing no evil are poetic ways of saying the Shepherd/King provides what I need to stay alive.

While most of us remember vs. 4 as, say it with me, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death…". the actual Hebrew may also mean simply, …"a place of deep darkness." The NRSV translates it as, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley." I really like that understanding because then the Psalm becomes a statement of God shepherding us in the difficult and troubled times we go through in life.

The Psalm concludes with, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my LIFE." Why? Because the Lord is my Shepherd!

This can be described as a Psalm of Confidence, because that is the way Faith functions for us. We have nothing in the way of empirical proof that God will be with us in the dark places of life. What we do have is the testimony of Scripture and of those who have gone before us, that God has been there before and knows the way through the dark places. Now, the depth of the darkness may sometimes shake our confidence, our Faith tells us that God does not leave us alone in those dark valleys.

The Book of Psalms, in general, is about confidence that God is with us…no matter what. Most of the Psalms recount all sorts of human troubles, fears and despair…but guess what, at the end, they keep returning to our confidence in God, just like a needle on a compass always returns to point north.

I urge you to read Psalm 139. It provides evidence that God has TEST-DRIVEN the darkest valleys ahead of us. Here is an excerpt: ( Read vss. 7-12) That is a testimony of someone who has been in a dark valley and that person invites us to believe that our experience in the valley will be similar…if we trust in God. Let me be clear, confidence in God does not change the facts about the world or our life, but it does guide us to different conclusions about those facts. Here is an example of what I mean. Two people can look at the same facts and come to two different conclusions. One might look at the "dark valleys" in life and conclude, "There is no God. If there were He would never let us go through such troubles." Another person who looks at those dark valleys and conclude, "It is so comforting that God has gone through them first, so I can trust Him to shepherd me through them. Same facts, but different interpretation. You give some people lemons and they have a sour mouth, others make lemonade!

Kia car makers have plenty of photographic and video evidence of their Test Drive in Death Valley. We, however, have no photos of God with us in the dark valleys. We have only the testimony of others who have been there before us. Psalm 23 is one such testimony: Say this with me, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

AMEN.