September 14

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains, — Ps 107:10 BSB

God’s people are described here not as sitting in death—if they were, they would be completely dead—but as sitting in the shadow of death. Notice that death no longer has a true hold on them; it only casts a shadow over their souls. There is no substance to it. The quickening of the Spirit of God has taken away death’s spiritual substance, and the death and resurrection of Jesus have removed its physical power.

Yet, even though both the inner death of the soul and the outer death of the body have been conquered by “Immanuel, God with us,” they still cast a gloomy shadow over those who fear God. Isn’t your soul, dear child of God, troubled at times by this inner deadness? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the Word, deadness in hearing truth, deadness in desire for the Lord, deadness in everything holy, spiritual, heavenly, and divine? This deadness seems to numb and paralyze every movement of your soul toward God. Yet it is only a shadow. Don’t condemn yourself, dear child of God, because you feel this deadness and coldness in your heart from time to time. It won’t destroy you. In fact, it’s the life in your soul that makes you feel it. The more you have felt the life of God in your conscience, the more painfully you’ll experience the deadness of your sinful nature.

Do you think your carnal mind will ever become alive to the things of God? What is it but a mass of death, a huge weight of ungodliness, constantly rising up in your heart like some monstrous creature? Yet, even though God’s people are often troubled by the shadow of this death, this very trouble is a sign of life. If you were spiritually dead, you wouldn’t feel it. The worst thing about being dead in sin is that you don’t even realize it. But as long as you feel this deadness, as long as you sigh because of it, as long as you hate it and hate yourself for it, it may pain you and grieve you, but it will never destroy you. Death has lost its substance, even though its shadow still falls over you.