Out to me, and it seemed like such a wonderful thing.
But I was reading through Psalm 84 in my devotions a few weeks
ago, and I decided to dive a little deeper into a study of
this passage. And what I found was even more
wonderful than what I had initially thought.
I'm going to read the entire chapter.
It's not a real long chapter. It's just 12 verses here in
Psalm 84. But I want to pull a few things
out of there this morning that'll hopefully be a help to
us. Psalm 84 and verse #1 The Bible
says, How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, My
soul longeth, yeah, even fainteth, for the courts of the
Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out
for the living God. Yeah, the Sparrow hath found in
house, and the swallow and nest for herself, where she may lay
her young, even thine altars. O Lord of hosts, my King and my
God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house.
They will still they, they will be still praising thee, Seala.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose
heart are the ways of them who, passing through the valley of
Baca, make it a well. The rain also filleth the pools.
They go from strength to strength.
Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer, Give ear, O God of
Jacob. Seala, Behold, O God, our
shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed, for a day and
night Courts is better than 1000.
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to
dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a son and shield.
The Lord will give grace and glory.
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Boy, I tell you what, there's there's several verses in there
that really stick out and verse 10 is one of them.
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to
dwell in the tense of wickedness.
Verse 11. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. But I want to focus this morning
on that verse that we find on the passage that we find in
verse #6 who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well?
Now, baca comes from the Hebrew word that is related to weeping
or sorrow or tears. Nobody really knows exactly
where this place is. It's been suggested by several
scholars that I read that that here the word baca is signifying
some kind of balsam tree. The balsam trees would flourish
in a valley. They love the dry places, the
the dry areas. But balsams also have a sort of
a of a weeping because of the SAP that flows out of them.
And so the valley of Baca was some waterless, gloomy valley
that the pilgrims would have to pass through on their way to the
city of God, on their way to Zion, on their way to Jerusalem
for worship. And so the psalmist here, I
believe, is recalling the the pilgrims entering this valley
with maybe misgivings overnight, weary and thirsty.
And they would find rain sometimes in the morning that
had filled those pools and covered that that barren valley
with a carpet of green. This was a valley of lamentation
or a valley of weeping. It's probably not even worth the
attempt anymore at trying to figure out exactly where this
place is. It's, it's long since gone, if
it, if it was ever actually a, a, a real place.
But as useful as a this place is for us is as a lesson today,
it's, it's, it's has so much that it represents.
In fact, there's, there's the possibility, as I just
mentioned, that Baca was not even a real place at all, but it
was a symbolic place that so many people find themselves in.
And it, you know, more than likely it was a, it was an
actual place that, that the pilgrims would have known about
the travelers going to Jerusalem would have known about, because
he references it and talks about it as if it's a place that they,
that they know. But either way, whatever,
whatever it happens to be, they understood the meaning of what
he was talking about passing through the valley of Baca and
making it a well, it's a place of weeping.
It's a place of hardship. It's a place of, of dryness or
trial. And, and at the very least,
whether it's a real place or not, it represents the, the
difficulties that we face in life, the difficult seasons that
we go through times of sorrow, times of testing times.
And, and sadly, we get into this point as well, But times of
spiritual dryness where we just feel like we're not close to
God, where we just feel like we have a hard time praying, where
we just feel like we have a hard time reading his word, where we
feel like we just have a hard time just doing what's right.
And it just feels like sometimes we're just going through the
motions. We're, we're coming to church
and we're involved in ministries and we're doing things, but it's
just, it's just spiritually dry. That's what this valley
represents. It's the painful or the
challenging valleys that we walk through on our way toward God's
presence. Every one of us knows what it
feels like to walk through a valley because we're all humans
and all of us will go through valleys at some point in our
lives. Low points, difficult times,
hardships, and maybe you're not in the middle of a valley right
now, but there's a good chance that you just came out of one
and there's a good possibility that you're getting ready to go
into one. But I know there's a lot of
people who are who might be in that valley this morning.
Some valleys come suddenly, maybe a phone call in the middle
of the night. Some of them come on slowly and
gradually, through months of pressure or discouragement, or
in some cases a slow backslide away from God and away from His
Word and away from the things that you know that you should be
doing. But valleys are not just places
of pain. Now there's, there's many
valleys that are mentioned in the Bible and, and many times
they are there. It's it's almost always
associated with a, with a low spot because it is a low spot,
but it's associated with a place of pain, a place of hardship, a
place of difficulty. But in Scripture, valleys are
often places of transformation. And Psalm 84 describes one of
those valleys, the valley of Baca.
It's only mentioned one time in the Bible right here in Psalm
84, but it is packed with meaning.
And the psalmist here is showing us that God can turn valleys of
weeping into a place of wells, into a place of strength, into a
place of fellowship with God. And so this morning I want to
show you some of those things in this passage.
The title of my message is Wells in the Valley.
Wells in the valley. Let's pray, and then we'll look
at a few things from this passage, how God can use this
valley in our lives. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you for the opportunity we have to be together here this
morning. I pray that this would be a help
to us. God, I know some people are
going through valleys right now. They're going through
difficulties. I pray that this would be a help
to them, those who may not be in a valley right now, but are most
likely and most certainly going to face a valley at some point
in the future. God, may this be a help and a
reminder to us of the things that can be gained in the
valley, things that can be learned in the valley.
May you help us this morning and thank you again for all you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. First thing I want you to see is
this. The valley is a place we all
must pass through. Now notice here in Psalm 84,
keep a bookmark there, if you will.
We're going to come back. We don't have a lot of different
passages to turn to this morning, but I do have a few and
and we'll be coming back to Psalm 84.
But there in verse #6 the Bible says, who passing through the
valley of Baca make it a well. And I don't mean to hammer this
point, but I want to mention this again to help you
understand what I'm trying to say here.
This this is a valley of weeping.
It's a valley of sorrow. It's a valley of dryness.
And it represents those seasons of grief, the seasons of loss,
the seasons of discouragement, the seasons of spiritual
dryness, the seasons of unanswered question tears,
seasons of tears that you cry when nobody else sees.
And here's the thing, Sometimes we bring those seasons upon
ourselves. Sometimes that spiritual dryness
is our own fault. Sometimes that, that, that that
hardship that comes, we, we bring those problems onto
ourselves. But sometimes we're just living
our spiritual life. And God brings trials into our
lives the same way that he did with Job.
Job didn't do anything to bring that trial on himself other than
live up right before God. And Satan came to God and said,
Hey, here's a man that I know will curse you to your face if
you allow hardships to come. And God said, all right, let the
hardships come, Job wasn't doing anything wrong.
Now many times, I believe many times, we do bring the problems
on ourselves, but sometimes they're not problems of of our
own making at all. Has nothing to do with us.
But here we find ourselves in the middle of a valley.
But sometimes there are things that just come upon us as
trials. But notice what the psalmist
says. Actually notice what he doesn't
say. He doesn't say who's staying in
the valley of Baca. Make it a well, what does he
say? He says who passing through the
valley, turn over to Psalm 23. See, every believer has valleys.
Everybody goes through difficult things, but valleys were never
meant to be the final destination.
Probably the other. I mean, as I mentioned, there's
a lot of valleys that are mentioned in the Bible, but
probably the one of the, but one of the probably the only other
one that you would know if I asked you to mention a specific
valley that the Bible talks about in relation to a
difficulty or a trial would be in Psalm 23.
And he says this, Yeah, 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.
See, valleys were never meant to be the final destination.
Sometimes we have to walk through a valley.
And that's what he's saying. It's a he's in Psalm 23.
He's using this as a, as a metaphor to say that, that
sometimes you are going to go through difficult things and
it's going to feel like the shadow of death is hanging over
you. But he says, yeah, though I walk
through that valley sometimes. And that's exactly what the
psalmist is saying here in Psalm 84.
Who passing through the valley of Baca, you're going to make it
out on the other side? There's a phrase that I love
that's mentioned in the Bible 453 times that says this.
And it came to pass. And it came to pass.
Everything always comes to pass. If you woke up today in a
valley, don't unpack your bags and settle in.
God didn't bring you there to stay.
He brought you there to lead you through that valley.
It will come to pass. You just have to keep walking
through that valley because all of us have to go through the
valley sometimes. Now He might have some valuable
lessons to teach you on the way through that valley, but a
valley is meant to pass through. I want you to see this number 2.
If you turn back over there to Psalm 84, the valley is a place
we all must pass through, but the valley is a place that
proves where our strength comes from.
The valley is a place that proves where our strength comes
from. Psalm 84, I'm sorry and verse #5
the Bible says blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee.
See, God often lets us walk through valleys not to break us,
but to show us what we're depending on.
And sometimes that valley exposes our own
self-sufficiency. Sometimes that valley exposes
our own pride. It exposes our own hidden fear.
It exposes our own misplaced confidence.
But when our human strength, strength runs out, that's when
God's strength begins. The sooner we come to the
realization that our strength is not enough, the sooner we can
understand that our real strength comes from God anyway.
The sooner we come to an end of ourselves, the sooner we come to
the source of our true strength. You cannot do it alone,
especially when you're going through a difficult time,
especially when you're going through a valley.
You cannot do it alone. That's what Psalm 23 is all
about. The Lord is my shepherd.
And so everywhere I go, He is there leading me and guiding me.
And He's with me. Yeah, 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, right? It doesn't have anything to do
with the sheep. It has everything to do with the
shepherd. And that's the point that we
have to understand here. Blessed is the man whose
strength is in thee. I read a story about a young man
who decided that he wanted to climb a mountain that he had
seen all his life. It wasn't a it wasn't a Everest.
It wasn't dangerous. It was just really it was a
tall, rugged hill that that he had seen in the distance his
entire life. And finally one morning, he
decided, I'm going to climb that mountain.
And so he he grabbed a bottle of water, he laced up his shoes and
he walked out of the house and he started up that mountain that
he had been seeing his entire life.
And he said in his mind, he thought, I'm, I'm strong enough.
I've got this. I've been looking at this
mountain long enough, I'm going to climb it.
And so for the first half of the climb, he felt great.
The sun was shining, the breeze was was cool.
The ground was steady underneath of his feet.
And he kept thinking, I knew I could handle this.
I've seen that mountain my entire life and it always looked
like an obstacle that I can never climb, but I knew I can
handle this. But about halfway up the climb
suddenly changed. Makes me think of the, the hike
that we took with the teenagers just a little bit ago when we
were in the mountains, the it's called the Devil's Marble Yard.
It was a nice little hike until all the sudden we turned into
this massive, massive stones everywhere and we had to climb
these stones. It was a great hike, but that's
what I think of when I think of this story.
But halfway up, he got to the point where he started thinking,
you know what? Maybe I don't have this.
Maybe I'm not as strong as I thought I was.
The rocks got loose, the sun got hotter, sweat poured down his
face, his legs started trembling.
The rocks started moving underneath of him a little bit,
and he started to get a little bit scared.
The next thing you know, and he slipped and he fell and he
scraped his hand and he got up and he kept going, but he
slipped and he fell again and he scraped his knee on a rock and
he got up and he kept going. He said, I'm going to make it to
the top of this mountain. I know I can make it to the top
of this mountain. He slipped and he fell again.
And that time he just stayed down there on his knees.
He was on a rock that was kind of balanced on what he felt like
was a little bit of a precarious situation.
And he didn't. He was too weak to go back down
and too unsure of himself to go back down because of the places
that he had already made it back up.
But he was too. It wasn't strong enough to make
it back up the mountain. And so he was stuck.
No water. His bottle of water had run out,
sweating in this hot sun. And now he started to think,
maybe I can't do it in my own strength.
It wasn't long after that a hiker came up behind him and saw
him in this situation. And he stopped.
And he said, hey, are you all right?
And he told him about a situation.
And the hiker said, listen, man, I've, I've hiked this mountain
hundreds of times. I know exactly where you need to
walk to get to the top of that mountain without slipping and
falling. You just stay right behind me.
You stick with my pace and I'll get you to the top.
And sure enough, they did. They made it to the top of that
mountain. But he realized as he was
climbing up there, and especially once he got to the
top, if I had relied on my own strength, I never would have
made it. See, the sooner we admit our
weakness, the sooner we discover His power, because the Christian
life is not about proving how strong we are, it's about
discovering how strong God is. See, a man doesn't know that God
is all he needs until he realizes that God is all he has.
And that's why many times God allows us to go through the
difficulties and the trials and the situations that we find
ourselves in. We have to get in the valley
many times for us to understand. I cannot go through this valley
by myself. We have to get in difficult
situations to help us understand.
I cannot get myself out of this. I cannot do it in my own
strength. I need God's strength.
See, the valley strips away everything we use to prop
ourselves up so we can fully lean on Him.
Stop trying to survive the valley in your own strength.
God isn't asking you to be strong, He's asking you to be
dependent on Him. He doesn't need you to be strong
in the difficult times. Sure, it helps.
Be strong in the Lord, in the and in the power of his might.
The Bible says, yes, be strong, but be strong in His power, not
in your own. God doesn't promise a life
without valleys, but He promises strength in the valley.
Your valley will break you if you rely on your own strength,
but it will build you if you rely on God's strength when
you're going through that valley.
Because see, valleys are a place that we all must pass through,
but a valley is also a place that proves where our strength
comes from. I want you to see this number 3
back in Psalm 84. The valley is a place where God
provides wells. Psalm 84, verse #6 Who passing
through the valley of Baca, make it a well?
The rain also filleth the pools. See, only God can turn tears
into wells. Only God can turn dry places
into springs. Only God can turn hard seasons
in your life into testimonies. Only God can turn brokenness
into blessing. Notice the verbs in this verse
passing through the valley of Baca.
Make it a well. That's all responsibility.
Your responsibility is to dig the well.
But then it says the rain also filleth the pools.
That's the responsibility that God takes on himself.
You can't do nothing about the rain, right?
You can dig a well. You can dig a, a depression in
the ground and, and, and make it a place to, to receive water,
but you can't make the water come.
You can do all the rain dances you want.
You're not going to make it rain.
Only God can, can, can cause it to rain.
In other words, you dig the wells, God sends the rain.
Your obedience creates a place for God's blessing.
Your faith creates a place for God's refreshing.
Your tears carve out a deeper place for God's presence.
Turn over a few pages back to Psalm 56.
Maybe you've never seen this
verse before, but you know, you think about many times you're
going through a difficult situation, you're going through
a hard time. You're going through a valley
and you think God does not even know that I'm here.
God doesn't care that I'm here, even if he does know that I'm
here. He's just left me alone.
He's abandoned me and, and, and, and theologically speaking, and,
and when we're, when we're thinking clearly, we know that
God does not leave us alone. We know that God's not just
going to take us out there and abandoned us.
But you think about the children of Israel and that's exactly
what they thought, right? God was there, he was with them
the entire time. He was overseeing everything
that was happening. He was doing miracles for them
that they just overlooked. He did all kinds of things for
them. And how many times did they just
leave us out in the wilderness so that you can abandoned us?
We'd have been better off in Egypt if we did.
We had food, at least in Egypt. You brought us out here to
abandon us so that we can die, right?
And, and, and, and us looking at it from from our perspective, we
think, how stupid can you be, you Israelites?
Look at what God's doing for you.
Look how God's leading you. Look at the miracles that you've
gotten to see that nobody else has ever seen before.
Nobody ever saw the Red Sea part and you walked across on dry
ground. You think that was an accident
that God wasn't leading you and you should have stayed back in
Egypt. Nobody else had seen manna come
from the sky. Nobody else had seen quail that
provided food for them. Nobody else had seen water come
from a rock. Nobody else had seen bitter
waters turn to sweet that they could drink.
Nobody else had seen those things happen.
And yet they still, because they got into a difficult situation,
into a dry place, into a place where they felt abandoned by
God, they threw their fish up and they said, didn't you just
bring us out here to kill us? You should have just left us in
Egypt. We get that way in our own lives
many times. God, why are you bringing?
Why are you making me go through this?
All I'm trying to do is serve you.
All I'm trying to do is live for you.
All I'm trying to do is just do the right thing.
And here you've brought me into this valley.
Are you just going to leave me here?
Do you even know that I'm here? Can you even see me?
Look at the Bible says in Psalm 56 and verse #8 Thou tellest my
wanderings. Put thou my tears into thy
bottle. Are they not in thy book?
Isn't that an amazing thing? Not only does God know when
you're in the middle of a difficult situation, but He
keeps track of every single tear, puts those tears in a
bottle. He writes them down in his book.
He knows what you're going through.
He knows what you're dealing with.
He didn't leave you in the wilderness.
He didn't bring you into the valley to abandon you.
He's trying to teach you something through that valley.
God knows exactly what you're going through and he's, he's
watching very closely as you go through that valley.
What looks dry can become a well turn over to Isaiah 43.
What looks hopeless becomes a pool of refreshing.
What seems empty becomes filled with rain.
His grace, His comfort, His presence.
All things you would have never experienced if you had never
gone through the valley. But here's what the Bible says
in Isaiah 43 and verse #1 But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not. I have redeemed thee.
I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and
through the rivers they shall not overflow thee.
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned,
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Chapter 44. Verse #2 Thus saith the Lord
that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help
thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
and thou just you run whom I have chosen.
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon
the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy
seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.
God doesn't just bring you through the valley of Baca, He
brings blessings out of the valley of Baca.
Your valley can become a testimony.
Your valley can become a place of deeper prayer.
Your valley can become a well for others to drink from later.
See, God uses your experiences to help someone else along the
way. When the rains came, the valley
became a place of blessing, not just for you, but for everybody
who comes after you. You dig a well and God fills it
with water. The people who come after you
are going to be able to drink the water of that well when
you're long gone. God doesn't just bring you
through valleys. He uses your tears to create
wells for others. Your deepest sorrow may become
somebody else's greatest blessing.
Your valley becomes a reminder of God's faithfulness back over
in Psalm 84. I want you to see this.
Not only is the valley a place that we all must pass through,
the valley is a place that proves where our strength comes
from. It's a place where God provides
wells, but also a #4 the valley is a place where God promotes
our strength. Psalm 84 and verse #7 they go
from strength to strength. In other words, God uses the
valley to make you stronger. You don't come out of the valley
empty, defeated. You don't come out of the valley
broken. The valley becomes a training
ground for your faith. What the enemy meant for your
destruction becomes part of your development.
You come out stronger in faith. You come out stronger in
endurance. You come out stronger in prayer.
You come out stronger in character.
You come out stronger in trust, stronger in compassion for
others. The valley doesn't weaken you.
The valley is what gives you strength.
There's strength and help by the indwelling Spirit of God for
every situation. And I think that those who who
burn out either were never born again or they're trying to do
the Christian life. They're trying to live the
Christian life in their own strength.
We should be going from strength to strength, not from weakness
to weakness, not from defeat to defeat.
We should be going from strength to strength.
That's what he says we should be living from faith to faith as
we're told in Romans 117. We should be walking the path
that shine us more and more unto the perfect day.
That's not the path of self seeking.
That's not the path of worldliness.
That's not the path of doing it our own way.
It's the path of surrender to God's perfect will.
But if you're going through that valley and you are surrendered
to God, he will strengthen you through that valley.
You'll come out on the other side stronger.
You look at what happened with Job.
Oh, Job went through the valley of Baca.
Job went through a difficult time.
Job went through a horrible season in his life.
But he said when he had tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
That's what God wants for us when we go through a valley to
come out stronger on the other side.
He doesn't put us through those things to to destroy us.
He doesn't put us through those things because he's trying to
hurt us. He doesn't put us through those
things because I'm God and I can do this if I want to.
No, we realize that our true strength comes from him, but we
come out stronger on the other side because of him, Charles
Spurgeon wrote in his Treasury of David.
So far from being wearied, they gather strength as they proceed.
Each individual becomes happier, each company becomes more
numerous, each holy song more sweet and full.
We grow as we advance. If heaven be our goal, if we
spend our strength in God's ways, we shall find it.
Increase. See mountains.
Mountains give you views, but valleys give you victory.
You may feel we, but God says you're moving from strength to
strength, even if you can't see it.
I want to tell you this. Lastly, there in Psalm 84, not
only is the valley a place that we all must pass through, the
valley as a place that proves where our strength comes from.
The valley is a place where God provides wells.
The valley is a place that God promotes our strength.
But I want you to see this lastly, the valley is a place
that points us to God's presence.
The valley is a place that points us to God's presence.
Notice where they were going verse 7.
They go from strength to strength.
Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
See, Zion was the end of the March for those who are
travelling through the valley of Baca to Jerusalem.
They were on their way to Zion, the hill of Zion, to worship
God. That was the place where
everything met. It was the delight of all of
their hearts. Now, just a little side note
here, and obviously there's a lot in the rest of this passage
that I'm not going to discuss this morning, but the goal for
the devout Israelites as they marched through that valley was
to get to that, that, that that Mount Zion.
And it wasn't just because they were gathering together to
assemble is because they they were there to appear before God.
Zion is the place where God meets with his people.
And oh that that would be the desire of every sincere
Christian in this room this morning to not miss an
opportunity to be in his house, to look forward with great
anticipation to being in the presence of God.
Verse #10 makes it very clear for a day in thy courts is
better than 1000. I had rather be a doorkeeper in
the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of
wickedness. Your valley is not random.
Your valley is not meaningless. It's not wasted.
It's directional. It's taking you somewhere.
It's pointing you in a certain direction.
God uses every valley to pull you closer to Him.
He uses the valley to pull you deeper into His word.
He uses the valley to help you become more dependent on His
grace, to help you become more aware of His presence, to help
you, to make you more confident in His faithfulness.
The valley leads you to Zion, to the place of God's presence.
See, the valley of Baca is where God transformed your transforms
your tears into wells, your sorrow into strength, your your
journey into a deeper fellowship with him and into a deeper
relationship with Him. And if you're walking through
the Valley of Baca today, you're not alone, you're not forgotten,
you're not stuck, you're not abandoned.
God is with you in that valley. God makes valleys into wells,
and God wants to strengthen you through that valley.
And if you get to the end of yourself and realize it's not
me, it's him, then he will use that valley to help you get
closer to Him, to help you understand where your strength
really comes from. And you will come out on the
other side of that valley stronger than when you went in.
God will transform your valley into a well of blessing if you
allow Him to see. God never wastes the tears of
His children. Every tear has a purpose.
Every tear, everything that God allows you to go through, every,
every heartache that God allows you to experience, every
difficulty that God allows to come into your life.
God is not doing that just because he can, not doing it
just because he feels like it, not doing it just because he
doesn't care. God never wastes a tear.
He uses every one of those opportunities to help, to try to
draw us closer to Him. The sad thing is some people
will stay in that valley, or some people might come out on
the other side of that valley and never learn anything, and
they'll be right back in the middle of another one struggling
the same way. God doesn't just allow us to go
through valleys to not learn something through it.
He allows us to go through valleys so we can come out
stronger in His strength. On the other side.
A missionary told a story about a small village in Central
America that went through a severe drought.
The river dried up, the crops failed, the soil just turned
into powder. There was nothing that they
could do, and it was like the whole land had given up hope.
But there was an elderly farmer named Mateo who did something
very strange, at least in the eyes of the people that were
there in that village. Every morning, while everybody
else was complaining about the fact that there was no rain and
they were complaining about the fact that the ground was just
dust and there was nothing but heat, Mateo would walk out into
his property. He started digging holes in his
property. And every morning he did this
for for weeks on end, to the point where by the time he was
done, there was hundreds and hundreds of these holes on his
property. His neighbors thought he had
lost his mind. They asked him, why are you
digging? What's the purpose of it?
There's no rain. There's no, there's no point in
planting a seed in the ground. There's nothing here, there's no
water. We're in the middle of a
drought. Nothing can grow here.
But Mateo just kept digging, sweat pouring down his face,
hands blistered back aching. And he would always tell them,
rain always comes. Maybe not today, maybe not
tomorrow, but sooner or later. God is going to send the rain,
and when he does, I want the ground to be ready.
For weeks he dug in that heat that felt unbearable, and then
one night, as it always does, began to rain and the rain hit
that dry, parched ground for Mateo's property.
It filled up all those little holes with rain.
All those holes were finally full of water.
And within days, something miraculous happened.
All the seeds that he had planted began to sprout, and
actually trees started to grow on that property that they never
thought was going to produce much of anything.
Children played their animals, found water, their families
gathered for shade and rest, and eventually that place became
known as the garden in the valley.
The psalmist here in Psalm 84 says that the one who finds his
strength in God can walk through the valley of Baca, the valley
of weeping, the valley of tears, the valley of drought, and make
it a well. Bring your tears to God.
He can turn it into a well. Bring your weakness to God, He
can turn it into strength. Bring your valley to God.
He can turn it into victory. But only God can do that.
Walk through that valley with confidence because Zion, he's on
the other side, God's presence, where God is waiting to meet
with us. Maybe you'll find yourself in
the middle of a trial, a difficulty, A hardship,
something that you didn't know was coming.
It's a valley. Maybe you find yourself in the
middle of a spiritual hardship. Most of those we bring on
ourselves, but it doesn't make it any less difficult.
Maybe you're in a spiritual drought right now.
Most of those are brought on by us, brought on because of sin in
our lives and everything else. But it doesn't make it any less
difficult. You're in a valley, Valley of
weeping, the valley of of difficulty, the valley of
dryness. There's a lot of lessons that we
can learn when we're in a valley.
Hey, it's a valley that we're passing through.
It's not going to last forever, not going to last forever.
Keep your head up and keep your eyes on the one who can lead you
through it. Yeah.
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.
Hey, it's a valley that we have to pass through.
But it's also a valley that proves where our strength comes
from. It's a valley where God provides
his strength. It's where he provides his
wells. It's a valley where God promotes
our strength. And it's a valley that points us
to God's presence. Are you in a valley right now?
It's not pointless. God has a reason.
What are you going to learn through it?
Hey, you may not be in a valley right now, but you're probably
going to be going into one at some point.
Because we all do. We all face those difficulties.
We all go through those hardships.
They all go through those things that are difficult passing
through the Valley of Baca. Make it a well.
Maybe we can learn something from that.
This morning. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you that even in the middle of a trial, you're with
us. Even in the middle of a drought,
you're with us. Even in the middle of difficult
times, you're there. God, may we learn from it what
you want us to learn from it. May it be a help to us, but
thank you again for all you do for us.
In Jesus name, Amen.