It is interesting to note the change in the personal pronoun in this verse. Up to this point the Psalmist has been speaking in the third person and using the personal pronoun "He"--"_He_ leadeth me." "_He_ maketh me." "He restoreth;" _he, he, he_. When he comes to speak of the valley of the shadow of death, however, the third personal pronoun is changed to that of the second person, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for _thou_, (_thou_--not _he_, is with me, but _thou_) art with me." There is no room for a third person in this valley. If one does not have Christ as Saviour and Guide in the dark hour of death, he goes through the valley of the shadow all alone. Surely, without Christ with him man will stumble and fall in this valley. Poor indeed is that soul who, when his feet are about to enter the valley, has no Guide, or, when he comes to the brink of death's river, has no Pilot. Oh, to have no Christ, no Saviour, How lonely life must be! Like a sailor lost and driven On a wide and shoreless sea. Oh, to have no Christ, no Saviour, No hand to clasp thine own! Through the dark, dark vale of shadows Thou must press thy way alone. --_W. O. Cushing_ But what a blessing and comfort it is for those who know Christ as Saviour and Comforter, to have the assurance that in that last hour of life He is by their side to guide them. It was doubtless this thought of the presence of Christ that comforted Tennyson when he wrote the words of that beautiful poem: Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And, may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea. * * * * * Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And, may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar. --_Alfred Tennyson_ Some one has called the fourth verse of the Psalm a song of the waters. Did you ever hear singing on the water? There is something wonderful about it. The water seems to take all harshness out of the music, and puts something exquisitely beautiful into it. Here then is "a psalm of the waters," a song for the believer to sing when his feet are touching the margin of the river: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.... For I am the +LORD+ thy God."