My Shepherd Will Defend Me
And so let's look at the second chorus of this lovely song. And again, it links to what we spoke about yesterday, to the second verse with these words: "To this I hold: my Shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley He will lead. Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome yet not I, but through Christ in me."
The Good Shepherd
Again, there's that phrase "to this I hold." "My Shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley He will lead." This is very much Psalm 23 language that said "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death", or the deepest valley, “He is with me” (Psalm 23:4 NIV). The Shepherd will defend me and lead me with His rod and His staff. Maybe you want to just go and breeze through Psalm 23 after listening to this and be reminded that if you're in a dark valley, if the night is dark as we spoke about yesterday, your Shepherd is there and He will lead you through it.
Victory Over Darkness
Then there's this beautiful turn around at the end of this chorus which links back to the verse yesterday. Remember the verse said "the night is dark"? Well, now the end of this chorus says, "oh, the night has been won." The night has been won. The darkness has not conquered, but God's grace and light has overcome the darkness.
Then again, there's that refrain: "Yet not I, but through Christ in me." In other words, I'm not going to win this battle, but Christ in me will win this battle. Friends, hold tight to your Shepherd today, because even in the darkest valleys, He is leading you. He's not forsaking you, and His light will overcome this darkness in your life if you'll hold on. But it's not through your own willpower. It's only through your reliance on Christ that makes all the difference.
So may you open yourself up to Christ today so that He, your Great Shepherd, can lead you through even the darkest nights.
