The valley experience is when a person hits rock bottom and you feel you just can’t go on. It is that place when one is in despair and hope is almost lost. It is as if the ground has opened up and the there is an overwhelming seems of helplessness, pain, failure, abandonment…It seems that all the lights have been switched off. It the place where most ask the many ‘ifs’ questions. Everyone has valley experiences sometimes in life. David was a man who God described as after His heart, yet was he not shielded from such experiences.
Psalm 13:1-6 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord ? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? [2] How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? [3] Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; [4] Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. [5] But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. [6] I will sing unto the Lord , because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 22:1-21 is similar to Psalm 13. People respond to the valley experiences in three major ways largely based on the individual’s depth of relationship and dependence on God as well as the nature of the challenges.
- Sense of God’s abandonment/delay or lack of speed to intervene
- A great desire for God’s mercy
- Remembrance of and celebration of God’s goodness in midst of the problems.
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Matthew 26:38-39 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. [39] And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
We all desire that the cup of life’s challenges: illness, poverty, loneliness, abandonment, failure, loss, rejection…. pass us by, they are not things we desire. We question our belief, some get angry, others ask why it has to be them, while some others feel a sense of God’s delay in intervening on their behalf should such tarry. It can sometimes be a mixture of these emotions. The Psalms is replete with this sort of sense of delay on David’s part. This can be seen in:
Psalm 94:3-4 Lord , how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? [4] How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
Psalm 90:13-14 Return, O Lord , how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. [14] O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
- David declared in Psalm 13:1-2 just like Psalm 22:1-2, that God had forsaken him and his cries were not heard.
Jesus Christ re-echoed this same words.
The impending suffering and death brought heaviness to Jesus’ heart. He cried out in the throes of death,
Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Did God really abandon Christ on an assignment that He was commissioned for? No. At the point He bore the sins of the world upon Himself, it was imperative that God who is eternally pure and holy had to turn sadly from His own Son, while He became the atonement for the sins of man. This was difficult for both but God do not behold sin, this was the price His Only Begotten had to pay
Will God abandon those who are after His heart and those He is in a covenant with in the valley?
Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Isaiah 49:15-16 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. [16] Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
David was a man God declared after His own heart.
Acts 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
He was however, a man of much sorrows, he suffered just like Job but for a different reason. David suffered running from those he had built a strong relationship with. His valley experiences emanated from Saul’s envy and desire to eliminate a perceived competition and on the other, David’s sin in facilitating the death of Uriah so as to have his wife.
1 Sam. 19 He ran from Saul
2 Sam. 15 He ran from Absalom.
Delay and a sense of abandonment is abhorred by most
Delay is something none is comfortable with it and many find very difficult to handle. A sense of delay was expressed by Jeremiah, who moved by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans felt great sorrow in
Lamentations 5:20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
The Israelites demanded Aaron to make them a god and turned to idol worship because Moses delayed. Sarah demanded Abraham to take her maid so that she could have a child through her because she felt that God had delayed in fulfilling His to make Abraham the father of many nations. Are you waiting on God despite perceived delay?
Exodus 32:1 Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!"
Delayed promotion, delayed healing, delayed answer to prayers, delayed provisions…. all cause a sort of heaviness of heart. Delay can produce the following in people physical or emotional pain, a feeling of humiliation, suffering, disdain, feeling that none cares. How have you dealt with delay?
As humans because we want things within our time frames, we say, “delay is dangerous”. However, we see that there were many cases of felt delays in scriptures: Abraham and Sarah, Elizabeth, the man at the pool of Bethesda…There are things we are responsible for when we go through the valley experiences of life: simply to pray, hope and trust in God’s unfailing mercy. Job was not responsible for his experience, it was a test of his character as God had boasted about him to satan. Job 2:3
Troubles may cause our hearts to be faint, and our eyes to be dim, but the way to the mercy seat of God is always open. In all trials, we must put our whole trust and confidence in God. If there are sins to be confessed we must proceed and do so but we must watch against
Matthew Henry
repinings and despondency.
God’s perceived delay should rather cause us to refocus.
Psalm 56:2-4 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High. [3] What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. [4] In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.
2. David requests God’s mercy in vs 3.
He asks God to lighten his eyes and save his life. We cry in times of challenges and this causes our eyes to become heavy. He wanted to live that his enemies do not have cause to celebrate. We must not forget God’s mercy
Psalm 136 is largely an exposition of God's mercy
Psalm 136:1 O give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; [4] Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Lamentations 3:22-25 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. [24] The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. [25] The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
3. Remember and celebrate times of God’s goodness
Psalm 13:5-6 But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. [6] I will sing unto the Lord , because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
David's distinct character trait was that, whether in good or bad times, he had his focus on God's mercies. His cry in Psalm 51 asking God not to take away His Holy Spirit from him is very loud in the scriptures. Our challenges should begin to cause us to refocus on God. The perspective in times of valley experiences should change from one of burden to that of praise. God's words should not only sooth us during such times, they should make us stand with confidence because of He who said it.
Isaiah 49:15-16 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. [16] Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
The Egyptians that we see today shall be no more because of God’s everlasting mercy and love. Illness, stagnation, barrenness, loneliness, doubt, unemployment, marital challenges, deliverance for problematic children etc should drive us to the one who is merciful and compassionate and has all powers in the heavens and earth in His hands.
Matthew 18:19-20 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. [20] For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
We are more than two and we stand in agreement and declare victory and uncommon testimonies in all areas where a sense of delay is present. May you have the grace to wait on God by faith as you go through the valley experience, do not despair. God is not unaware of what you are dealing with, stand in the place of pray to fight.
Psalm 145:18-19 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. [19] He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.