Week 18: Chapter 17 — Christ With Us in the Darkness

1.Psalm 23:4 shifts from "he" to "you" — "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." Ortlund notes this grammatical shift as significant — in the darkest valley, the psalmist stops talking about God and starts talking to him. Why does personal address become necessary in the place of deepest darkness?

2.Isaiah 43:2 says, "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." Note that God does not promise the waters will be avoided but that they will not overwhelm. How does this distinction between deliverance from and presence through suffering change the way you pray in dark seasons?

3.Ortlund argues that Christ's suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross was the deepest darkness anyone has ever walked through — and that he walked through it so that no believer ever walks through darkness alone. How does the cross function not just as payment for sin but as companionship in suffering?