I would suggest that the words, “Valley of the shadow of death” (Psa. 23:44Yea, 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. (Psalm 23:4)) mean simply this earth, the place where death reigns, and he who has the power of death, that is, the devil, “the prince of this world” and “the god of this world.” The whole scene around us bears the stamp of death, and is under the shadow, i.e., the power of death. We meet with almost the same expression in Matthew 4:1616The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. (Matthew 4:16), where it is said there about Galilee of the Gentiles, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
The prophet does not speak there of the dying or dead, but of the inhabitants of that portion of Canaan which was called “Galilee of the Gentiles,” partly on account of the ignorance of its inhabitants, and partly because that portion of Canaan was, more than any other, frequented by Gentiles. They are, therefore, represented as “sitting in darkness,” and in the “region and shadow of death,” i.e., this world. As to the believer, in the Old as well as in the New Testament, he is supposed only to be walking or passing through this world — “the valley of the shadow of death” — while the children of this world are sitting in this shadow of death, in all the false security that has characterized them from the days of Cain.
The Prince and god of this World
And has this world, with its fair appearances, lost anything of its solemn character as the “valley of the shadow of death,” since the Lord of glory has been murdered here? It was when our Lord was on His way to Gethsemane, that, for the first time in the Word of God, we find Satan called “the prince of this world.” The great enemy of God and man had never before been so clearly manifested as “the prince of this world” as when he combined the Gentiles and Israel around the cross, to slay God’s well-beloved Son.
But there is a still more solemn aspect under which we find Satan mentioned in 2 Corinthians. A still more solemn title is given him there; He is called there (2 Cor. 4) “the god of this world.” It is because Satan, who is behind the Antichrist, will soon set himself up in the temple at Jerusalem, “showing himself that he is God.” He is now blinding men’s hearts against the glorious light of the gospel. He is now preparing everything for the time when the world will worship the beast, his first agent, for the final rebellion against God. It is for this reason, I think, that we find Satan called, “the god of this world.”
An Enemies Land
Fellow Christians, do we sufficiently bear in mind, that it is a terrible enemy’s land through which you and I are passing? A land, where the stream of events is driving fast towards the closing awful catastrophe! Would you like to stay in a land that is on the eve of war with your own country? Where massacre is preparing all around you, and feet swift to shed the blood of all whom you love? Would you sleep, even for one night, in such a place if you could help it? Certainly not. On the contrary, your only and constant care would be to find a narrow and safe footpath to pass through it as quickly as possible. You would not forget for a moment, that you were in an enemy’s land. Or would you like to live in a house, the walls of which were stained with the blood of your nearest and dearest relations? Shall I remind you of an Old Testament saint, to whom the land which God had promised to him and to his seed, was like a foreign country, after he had entered it. And why? Because the Amorites then dwelt in that land; God’s time, when Abraham and his seed were to possess the land, had not yet arrived, “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15:1616But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)).
Is this earth, where the blood of the Son of God has been shed, something else to you besides the valley of the shadow of death? Or is it to you something more than an empty tomb where your Lord was buried? “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1-31If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1‑3)).
J. A. Von Poseck (adapted)