Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 718 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Facing Fears in the Valleys

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 718 of our Trek time for our Philosophy Friday series.  Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.  We are focusing on how to live with less fear.  We are exploring the trails on our trek of life that will help us to be fearless.  This does not imply that we will reach the point where were are completely without any fear, for that is not only impossible, but also not wise.  There is a time and a place for an appropriate level of fear, but most fear that we experience on a daily basis has no grounding and can be eliminated as we grow in wisdom, insight, and understanding.  So our objective is to experience a Fear Less Friday on our trek of life.

We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, Ohio.  As I have often mentioned on the Wisdom-Trek podcast, we go through many different seasons in our lives.  It is now autumn in the US, and the leaves are starting to change and fall.  We will soon be covered in leaves here and invest many days with our large leaf vacuum picking them up between now and the end of the year.  I enjoy fall with its cooler crisp days and the anticipation of building roaring fires in the library as we enjoy the cold winter nights.  We could look at it differently and complain, but instead, we choose to embrace the inevitable and enjoy the changing season.  Life is much the same way, we go through times of sunny bliss, and times of bitterly cold.  Times when we are on the mountaintop, and times when we are in deep valleys that are cold and fearful.  Let’s explore today the times when we are:
Facing Fears in the Valleys
Today, we are going to explore one of the most comforting, and definitely one of the most well-known psalms in the Bible - the 23rd Psalm. It was written by David, who presents us with the scenes of shepherds life, which he was familiar with, since he wandered the hills and valleys of Israel as a young shepherd boy. In it, he describes God’s providential care in providing refreshment, guidance, protection, and abundance, and in so doing provides grounds for confidence in His everlasting kindness.

David is someone whom most of us can relate to very well. He knew what it was like to be a lowly peasant, because he served as a shepherd for his father’s sheep. He knew what it was like to be on top of the social ladder, because he became king of millions of Israelites. He knew what sin was all about, having committed murder and adultery. He was a brilliant fighter and an excellent musician as well. Maybe that’s why most of us know the story of David so well; we can relate to him in some way. He was a man with a vast amount of experience, but the best thing that can be said about him was said by God, Himself, He called David a man after my own heart. David wrote this psalm, but he wrote it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at the first two verses.

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.

What a peaceful picture! David, the shepherd of the sheep, said that God was his shepherd. The word LORD in this verse refers to Yahweh, which stands for the ever constant God, the one who had consistently been there for the Israelites, mercifully saved them from slavery to the Egyptians, led them for forty years through the wilderness, and brought them to the Promised Land. Jesus identified Himself to be that shepherd. David knew that this LORD was his shepherd. He is also the shepherd of Israel,