Thou Art with Me
…Thou art with me…
Psalm 23:4
Up until this line, the psalm has described the Lord in third person terms — “He makes me lie down,” “He leads,” “He restores,” “He guides.” Only in the valley of the shadow of death does the Shepherd become “Thou” or “You.”
The psalmist David, as an artist, is giving us a message in this way — as we go through life with the Lord, it is in our moments of trial and difficulty that He becomes to us a real and eternal Person. In sorrow, in danger, in grief, in need, God becomes “Thou” to us.
“Thou” is misunderstood today. It has fallen out of use in today’s world, and many think these ancient forms, thee and thou, are formal terms. But in actuality they were the familiar, intimate terms one used with his close friends, like “tu” in Spanish or “Du” in German. Today “you” has replaced them all in English, but this is precisely why they appear so often in Scripture and especially when addressing God. Like calling your mother “Mrs. Smith” rather than “Mother,” 200 years ago to address God in terms other than the intimate was a sign of irreverence and disrespect. It is the heart of faith that bows to Him as the One who is “closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24) and who will be faithful even if both mother and father desert us (Psalm 27:10).
It was at Peniel that Jacob wrestled with God and God became more than just a word to him. In the face of the threat of his brother Esau, justice for his act of betrayal so many years earlier coming upon him and all that he loved, in his hopelessness and desperation he spent a night alone wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22–32). The next day’s deliverance from what could have been disastrous for Jacob and his family, began that night. His experience with God that night was a turning point in his life, as He surrendered himself into the hands of God and trusted in His plans for his life.
Has God become personal to you? Have you been through a dark valley where danger lurked and cried out to Him and heard Him answer you in your heart with a voice of love and protection? Just as the threat of predators drew the sheep closer to the shepherd, so the challenges of life draw us closer to God.
But let us not forget that Christ has also suffered in this world, and He has come through victorious. We do not only rush to the Savior for protection from danger, for comfort in sorrow, for wisdom in temptation, or for peace in conflict, but also because we know that all that threatens us today is temporary and is passing away. Only Christ is the Eternal One. G. Campbell Morgan in his classic, The Crises of the Christ, wrote:
…when the work presses, and the battle thickens, and the day seems long in coming, it is good for the heart to remember that the present conflict is with defeated foes, and that there is no room for question as to the final issue, for the Man of Nazareth is not only seated in the place of authority, He carries forward the work of active administration… High over the throne of earth, stands that throne of the Eternal, and seated on it is the ascended Man, watching, ordering, preventing, and through all the apparent chaos, moving surely towards the ultimate triumph of the Infinite Love.
So in the darkest moments of life, Christ becomes most personal to us. Then we see as Paul did that He and His grace is sufficient for us. We are threatened by defeated foes who will vanish soon enough, leaving us in the presence of our Lord and Savior and Shepherd.