Listening to a student read the Scripture in seminary chapel, Joseph Sittler, now blind, heard something he'd never heard before. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." "The text does not speak," said Sittler, "of the valley of death but the valley of the shadow of death. There is a difference... The wonderful truth... is that God is with us now. It is not simply that God will be with us in the experience of death itself; it is that God will walk with us through all of life, a life over which death sometimes casts its shadow."
—Quoted by Martin Marty in "Context," August 1 and 15, 1984. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 2. Elesha Hodge, comp., Today's Best Illustrations – Volumes 1-4, (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "PRESENCE".
Psalm 23:4 (KJV) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Genesis 28:15 (NRSV) Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Deuteronomy 20:1 (NRSV) When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots, an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 43:2 (NRSV) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
Matthew 28:20 (NRSV) And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
