The Valley of Baca

The Valley of Baca Psalms 84:1-8

Wouldn’t it be great if we never went through valleys in our Christian experience?

If things were always on an even keel, or better yet, high up on the mountain slopes.

Years ago Hanna and I visited Switzerland in the Summer. We stood on the side of a mountain and below us was our hotel in the valley.

Even though I have a real problem with heights it was great while up on the mountaintop.

But, we knew that we could not stay there.
The valley was a place we knew we had to come down to eventually.

Spiritually speaking, our walk with God is often the same way.

He allows us to experience, from time to time, the wonderful heights of the mountain and also the lowest depths of the valley.

We wonder why?

Why can’t we stay on the mountain top?

Why must we walk through the depths of the valley?


The truth is that valleys are part of life, every person has their share of problems, troubles and valleys.

Regardless of how isolated some may appear to be from such troubles, everyone spends some time in the valley.
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Let me tell you about Norma.
Norma was a person who appeared to have everything.

Famous men courted her.
Even presidents desired her.

She made millions, her name was splashed across almost every newspaper in the country.

Yet, she died from an overdose,
choked to death on her own vomit,
ruled a suicide by the doctor.

Most of you don’t know her as Norma.
Maybe some of you might know her as Norma Jean.
Most of you know her by her stage name Marilyn Monroe.

She appeared to have everything going for her, but she didn’t. Job said in Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
That’s life.

Psalm 84 is a song of pilgrimage, about going on a journey through a valley. Let’s read it together.

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you. Selah
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;
listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah
9 Look upon our shield, O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
12 O LORD Almighty,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.
Every Jewish male was required to worship at the temple at least three times a year if at all possible