By the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

King David, along with his company of mourners, crossed this depressing valley when fleeing his traitorous son. Even the “man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14) was not exempt from trouble. In fact, his life was full of trials. He was not only the Lord’s anointed but also the Lord’s afflicted. Then why should we expect to escape hardship? At sorrow’s gates even the noblest of humankind have waited with ashes on their heads, so why should we complain “as though something strange were happening to [us]” (1 Peter 4:12)?

“The King of kings” (1 Tim. 6:15) Himself was not shown favor with a more cheerful or royal road. He crossed the filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem flowed. God had only one sinless Son, but not one child who did not suffer the rod of trials. What great comfort and confidence come from knowing that Jesus “has been tempted in every way, just as we are” (Heb. 4:15).

What is your Kidron Valley this morning? Is it an unsaved friend, the sad loss of a loved one, a slanderous offense, or some dark trial looming over you? Your King has passed through all of these. Is your Kidron bodily pain, poverty, persecution, or contempt? Your King has crossed each of these Kidrons before you. “In all their distress he too was distressed” (Isa. 63:9). The idea that we are experiencing “something strange” or unique must be banished from our minds once and for all, for He who is the Head of all saints knows from experience the grief we think is so unique to us.

All the citizens of Zion, of which Prince Immanuel is the Head and Captain, will someday be freed from the Honorable Company of Mourners, for in spite of David’s humiliation he later returned in triumph to his city. And David’s Lord arose from His grave victorious!

So let us “be of good courage” (Ps. 27:14 KJV), for we too will triumph. We will still joyfully draw water from the well of salvation, though for a season we must walk beside the noxious streams of sin and sorrow. “Be strong and take heart” (Ps. 31:24), you soldiers of the cross. Your King Himself triumphed after crossing the Kidron Valley, and so will you!

By the pen of Jim Reimann:

The Kidron Valley in Jerusalem is joined by two other valleys, the Tyropoeon (Greek for Cheesemakers) and the Hinnom (or Gehenna or Gehenom). The Hinnom, considered the destination of the wicked, was a place of lepers cast from society, a place of sewage, and a place of constantly burning garbage. It was in this valley the children of Israel turned away from the Lord, “built the high places of Baal” and “cause[d] their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech” (Jer. 32:35 KJV) — human sacrifice that is an abomination to God. The sewage from the Cheesemakers and Hinnom Valleys flowed into the Kidron and finally emptied into the Dead Sea. Even the city gate by the Cheesemakers Valley was known as the Dung Gate, as it is to this day. (See Neh. 2:13.)

Although we must walk these filthy and dangerous valleys of this life — remember — our Lord has already walked them and walks them again with us.

I praise You, Father, that “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Ps. 23:4).

June