The Shadow of Death

Today I was at a funeral of a woman who was a fully dedicated follower of Christ in the Cork area. The sermon given by the pastor of Lee Valley Bible Church in Ballincollig had an insight I thought was very good and wanted to share it here.

The pastor (I cannot remember his name) spoke on Psalm 23. Some of his insights I’ll repeat below.

Psalm 23 talks about going through the valley of the shadow of death. The pastor focused on the fact that the word used is “shadow.” Why shadow?

What is a shadow? It is imaginary, a projection and not something substantial. It is the result of two other things; substance and light. So when referring to the shadow of death, the substance is death and its shadow is caused by light – the light of the world. So why is the psalmist only going through the shadow? The answer is to focus on what happened to its substance. The substance, death, is discussed in the previous psalm; 22. This psalm is a clear, prophetic description of Christ’s death on the cross, which Christ fulfills just by exclaiming the first line as he hung there. Jesus experienced the full substance of death. But we do not. We only go through the shadow.

This is a beautiful picture. Jesus, who calls himself the light of the world, experienced the full weight and measure of death so we would not. He took our place. We only face a shadow.

This is emphasized in the Psalm even more by stating not that Christ sent us on ahead, but that he is with us. He went through death – its substance, so that as we now go through death, we only go through its shadow.

Thank you Lord!