The Song of the child of God, v. 4. “Praise.” God’s house should be a place of praise. Psalm 22:3, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” The Strength of the child of God, v. 5. Not our own. “Is in Thee.” We can do some things alone. And we can do certain things with the help of others. But we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us. The Sorrow of the child of God, v. 6. It is no accident that God would precede our sorrow with His song and His strength.

Let’s study closely the three major phrases of verse 6.

1. “The Valley of Baca...”

What is a “valley”? Is it not a low place?
Valleys are deep places, fixed between two mountains.
Valleys are dark places.
Valleys are discouraging places.

The word “Baca” is a word that means “weeping” or “sorrow” or “tears.” It was not a geographic place located somewhere in the Holy Land. Rather, it is a generic word that describes any place of suffering or any place of sorrow.

Truth: Don’t be Discouraged by your Difficulty.

Valleys are Inescapable. I don’t mean to add to your sorrow, but there have been and will be more valleys of “Baca” for all of us. There have been times of sorrow and weeping. And there will be other times of sorrow and weeping ahead for us. The end of on valley is usually only the beginning of another valley.

The preacher Philip Brooks said, “In every pew there sits a person with a broken heart.”

Job said, “Man that is born of women is of few days, and full of trouble,” Job 14:1.

* Valley of death. Like Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” This was a spiritual analogy used to describe the death experience of a child of God.
* Valley of disease (sickness).
* Valley of divorce. More than 1,000 times a day in America some judge’s gavel falls and with two words, “Divorce granted,” somebody’s love story comes to an end.
* Valley of dismissal (loss of job, livelihood).

Jr. Hill warns about the “Gee-Whiz” theology of our day. It goes, “If you love God, and trust Jesus, and read your Bible and live in obedience you’ll always be happy, prosperous, and successful. You will be healthy, you’re wife will be beautiful, your children will be obedient. Your house will be big, your car fast, your money secure.” That is a lie! No one is exempt. No one escapes a tour of the valley.

Further, Valleys are Inexplicable. This is what makes our time in our valleys so difficult and dark- we don’t understand them. We can’t explain them. If we understood why we had to go through the valley it would be easier to take. There is a great mystery to the things of God.

2. “Who Passing through...”

“Who passing through the valley of Baca...”

Some of us get stuck in our valley and we have a tendency to set up camp there and stay awhile. We check things out around us and give the impression we are going to be in that valley for a while.

Truth: Don’t be Distracted from your Destination.

Don’t forget where you are coming! We are passing through, as my friend Herb Morphis use to say, “this low ground of sorrow.”

But the point is, we are passing through! The psalmist knew his destination - he knew where he was going. At that moment he might have been a valley, but one day he would be walking out of that valley.

I am afraid we have gotten our eyes off our destination. When I was a boy 45 years ago the old saints of God use to sing, “I am bound for the promise land..When we all get to heaven...When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there...Won’t it be wonderful there.” We sang about the “Sweet bye and bye” because we knew where our destination was - we were passing through to a city where sin and sickness and sorrow would be no more.

We have a generation of people today who have pitched their tents in this world and they think they are here for the duration. Listen, we are all just passing through this life. You guys who have worked hard and saved up all that money. Do you know what is going to happen? You are going to die! And your wife’s going to marry some carnal man and he is going to spend every dime of your hard-earned money.

Folks, we need to keep our minds on our destination. I’ll tell you why. If you know your destination, it will help you to be able to endure your tribulation. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning...” Psalm 30:5. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

Please forward all correspondence: “I’m just a passin’ through.”.

Job. How do you like it on the ash heap? “Well, I don’t like it that much, but I am just passing through!” “For I know my Redeemer liveth...Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Daniel. “Is thy God...able to deliver thee from the lions?”

Three Hebrew children. “Our God is able...nevertheless...”

Tomb of Jesus. “He’s not here. He has risen!”

3. “Make it a well...”

Allow me to give you some timely spiritual counsel when you find yourself passing through your valley.

Here is what happens with far too many. People find themselves in a temporary valley and they give up their class, quit the choir, drop out of church, but just until things get better.

* Will that work on your secular job? Call in, “I’m down. When I’m better I will come in.” I’m sure your boss would say, “God bless you. We will call the prayer chain. We love you.”

* Will that work in a family? “I just don’t feel like taking care of the baby. Maybe next month I’ll feel like it.”

Here’s the counsel: When I don’t know what to do, then the best thing for me is to keep doing what I know to do. I am going to stay in church, pray, tithe, stay connected with my Christian friends, until I get out of this valley.

Truth: Don’t be Delinquent in your Duty.

When the person in Psalm 84 found himself in a valley of sorrow he did something unusual - he dug a well! “While I am here I might as well dig a well.”

Water was a scarce and precious commodity to the pilgrims of Bible days. Wells were one of the ways to survive the dry and hot climate. Wells were dug by hand. Wells were hard work. Wells were the work of the patriarchs.
- Abraham dug wells, Genesis 21:30.
- Isaac dug wells - Genesis 26:15-18, 19*-21.
- Jacob dug a well.

Wells are for...
Later. No one benefits immediately. “The rain also filleth the pools.” Dig a well the first time through our valley. The next time through - the rains had filled the pools. Others.
- Jacob dug a well that survived hundreds of years and refreshed Jesus, John 4.
- David longed for the water of the “well of Bethlehem,” 2 Samuel 23:15.

Many are the valleys of the people of God; few are the wells! Don’t waste your sorrows. Dig out a blessing in the place of barrenness.

We are drinking from the wells the saints of God dug before us. Paul dugs some wells in his valleys. Prison epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon.

2 Corinthians 1:4-6

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was arrested at age 32 for conducting religious meeting without permission of the state church. For 12 years he stayed in jail, but there he dug some wells. There in the Bedford jail he wrote 9 books, including Pilgrim’s Progress. By the end of his life he had published 60 books before dying at age 60.

What's important is not what you go through, but what you leave behind.

Song: "Leave a Well in the Valley"

Sermon by Evangelist Junior Hill