This will help you create your reality.
The Deeper Meaning To Psalms 23:4 - This Changes It!
Lets look at this famous verse of protection and see how this seemingly small change, completely shifts the meaning and makes it less useful than it could be.
Translating Complex Divine Principles Into Psychologically Sound, Easy To Apply Steps & Practices Is My Passion and Mission on Earth:
Deep wisdom has been recorded through the ages. It has also been seized by dark forces to water it down so they can keep control.
Fortunately even the most demonic beings have their place in human evolution - as all suffering leads people to the Light. With enough suffering people eventually wake up to change something within themselves, and can lead to reaching out to God/The Divine/Infinite Spirit to intervene and help you.
Hold on because this will be a journey of empowerment that will show you how to think about your entire life in a whole new way.
Lets show the 2 newest, most watered down versions that stray people further from the deep truth:
Christian Standard Bible: (CSB)
“Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.”
King James Version (KJV)
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
What do you think it means?
It seems to be saying that sometimes in life bad things happen (even when I go through the darkest valley)… that God will be with me so I don’t need to fear the danger that happens to be there at the time - and God’s rod and staff (the staff is a passive and misleading mistranslation) will comfort me (meaning I will be soothed - another mistranslation)
Let’s look at what it really means through the older, more accurate bibles plus the origin/etymology of words:
Geneva Bible (1599 edition)
“Yea, though I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staffe, they comfort me.”
The Coverdale Psalter, Here on referred to as the “Cloverdale” Bible
“Though I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no euell, for thou art with me: thy staffe & thy shepehoke coforte me.”
What stands out here is the first part:
Though I SHOULD walk NOW in the valley of the shadow of death…
Doesn’t this show that this means the pathway forward IS through the valley of the shadow of death?
But what IS the valley of the shadow of death?
The valley of the shadow of death is the FEAR we feel that stagnates us - we must walk through that fear because that is the doorway to our success.
This is the ego death - the parts of us that clings to comfort. (Later we will discuss how comfort is mistranslated here too)
This is about YOUR journey into YOUR subconscious mind.
This is about the fears you feel going forward that you often listen to because you feel so bad that you think it must be so true - when in fact your fear is more like static on a radio station.
Your Feelings Are Determined By Your Attitude:
Your attitude includes the thoughts you think, your assumptions, memories - usually repressed from childhood that you made decisions from as a child and set it out into the world like a spinning top that keeps spinning on and on, replicating from the mindset where you made those original decisions.
It’s an entire way of seeing the world and yourself, which includes how you treat others, how they treat you, and the meaning you give everything.
Your Fear Is Static, Like On A Radio Station:
When you have an attitude, with beliefs and assumptions that is NOT in alignment with how reality actually is meant to work - you will experience static on the signal. (Your brain is a receiver, broadcaster and processor and not the source of consciousness)
The Universe is like a big traffic map.
If you ignore the stop lights and drive right through, what happens? You’ll cause havoc, you’ll crash, you could hurt people etc.
So God/The Universe/Mother Nature tells you very clearly when you are thinking from an attitude that will create havoc in your life in others by the fear frequency you begin to feel.
The more you think with the attitude/mindset that creates the fear static, the more these thoughts happen. We are constantly influenced and surrounded by Spirits in the Spirit World, which when put simply - are people not in human form. Although from my understanding not all types of Spirits are made to incarnate into human form, but I could be wrong there…
For instance, you have the Spirit of fear, of anger, or alcohol… The Spirit of joy, Spirit of brotherhood, Spirit of water etc. Everything we see on Earth is more like a copy or an extension of whats real in The Spirit World.
How Thoughts Gain or Lose Power In Your Life
These Spirits put thoughts in your head - and it’s up to you whether you agree with them or not.
A thought only has power when you agree with it. Agreeing with negative thoughts due to your attitude and how habit sets in like cement over time is what keeps them active.
When you disagree with them from a committed place, over time they will die down and go away.
You Are Not Your Thoughts:
You are NOT the one who thinks the thoughts, you are the observer who chooses.
We have many layers of consciousness and can actually zoom out and in to different parts of our personality and can think thoughts from multiple areas of our being.
This is so important because when you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death, you are feeling fear - which shows you have an attitude within that creates the fear feeling AND attracts fear based scenarios for you to face in the mirror of reality. This is the gift of karma, so we can heal, grow, and return to heavenly states of mind.
What Is The Verse Really Saying?:
When you feel the fear from your wrong attitudes about how life really works, YOU SHOULD NOW walk forward but KNOW that God is within you and with you - so call upon God to Strengthen you (not comfort you - more on this in a moment)
So it means that you shouldn’t shy away from fear.
It’s NOT about calling on help when bad happens, so much… Although yes that follows, so do that…
It’s about knowing that the fears you experience are the doorway showing you what’s important and to walk through that door knowing God is with you and so you are defended.
Let’s Do A Psychological Breakdown:
Valley: This is the low point of fear, the emotional descent into darkness
Shadow: This is your unconscious mind as taught by Jung, who was demonized by many Christians due to a misunderstanding of how psychology and spirituality are on and the same things. The shadow are the parts of yourself that you repress to cast out of your conscious identity - generally in the hope that this makes it disappear, but repressing this shadow only makes it stronger.
Death: Death as transformation of your ego fear based, selfish identity. When we do emotional healing, and praise God for healing us (prayer) - we transform this fear causing attitudes into Love based. This is the ego death, which means on a practical level - your fear has turned to Love, which is the mind of God, so you are merged with your Higher Self aka The Holy Spirit.
This is how God uses you as a vessel. You are created to have your own free will and create reality based off your decisions. But God can only merge with and think through you and as you when you have purified emotions.
This is why the path through this fear is with God at your side, and the actions you take is the transformative path of redemption that shows you the attitude that created fear was never real! Then you open up your attitude and can be filled with the Holy Spirit / your Higher Self more and more!
I walk through: You must take action in the physical and not just sit there passively. You are in co-creation with God, with Dominion over Earth (your mind), made in the image of God (The Creator) so you are here to Create as God’s vessel (your body and mind)
So many people argue about manifestation being wrong and to just ask for God’s will. While it is true that most people are manifesting from ego based selfish desires (which is not a good thing, except it is part of the path of discovery)..
We are meant to be decreeing and creating in alignment with what we believe God wants, which gives you freedom to choose! God is always for expansion, FOR LIFE, for connection, for the Spirit of Brotherhood.
If you get it wrong, God will self correct and let you know - you’ll learn from the negative static you experience in reality and your feelings.
But you must be willing to act in reality. Walk forward and the steps appear, jump and the parachute will open - and as I say: Build in 3D/5D reality around you with the ideas you currently have (the exciting good feeling ideas are the ones to go with) and then the simulation will render the next area of the map - just like in a video game!
I will fear no evil: Simply, do not fear your fear! Acknowledge there is real evil in the world, but when you add on extra fear to it and to your feelings you feel, then you amplify evil because reality is an infinite fractal loop (until transformed and a new infinite fractal is branched off in your new reality)
I know this first hand because I have a decade and a half experience healing complex PTSD, social anxiety, chronic illnesses, phobias, attachment disorders etc etc etc etc…
And every time the answer is always my alchemical process of feeling the fear or pain as it hurts, allowing it to expand - then send it LOVE as it hurts without trying to change it.
When combined with advanced talk therapy to speak with and especially listen to these feelings as you send it Love, understand, compassion from other parts of you - it dissolves, transforms and turns into brilliance, motivation, happiness, joy and magnetizes positive opportunities into a person’s life.
The more a person fears their evil, the more they cringe from it. The more they repress it the stronger it is because it acts on its own, from its own traffic accident causing attitude.
But when you excavate these deeper parts of your personality, which can take quite a while over time to do - and you begin to converse with them, understand them and forgive them - then these parts of you will become your helper instead of your sabotager (because they only sabotage from an erroneous strategy you came up with long ago to protect yourself - you just had no idea the results would be THIS)
Thy rod and staff comfort me: The rod and staff are meant to be tools of defense. As Jesus/Yeshua was said to say, he came to Earth not to bring peace, but to bring the sword. Yeshua is a real Spirit in the spirit world and he is a defender. Because when you truly love something you will protect it fiercely, even with violence and destruction of the perpetrator.
The sword is of course the power of the word (sidenote: I believe the cross is actually a symbol of the sword meaning the power of the word - it was never meant to have a withered Jesus hanging from it in a decrepit fashion)
The BIG OMMISSION and mistranslation of the words staff and rod:
In The Coverdale Bible it reads, “thy staffe & thy shepehoke comforte me.”
So then what is a shepehoke?!!
This is SO IMPORTANT!
The word shepehoke (modernized as sheephook) meant a shepherd’s crook - specifically, the hooked tool used to catch sheep by neck or leg.
Why does this add a world of nuance that you must understand and innersee?
It comes down to:
What Is The True Meaning of Sheep and The shepherd in The Bible:
Sheep are your thoughts and the shepard is your ability to ‘part the waters’ and wrangle negative thoughts, so fear doesn’t overgrow you from negative attitudes.
These aren’t barnyard metaphors. They’re neuro-symbolic keys to your inner temple, designed to bring your mind from a hell state of mind/reality into the heavenly state of mind and reality.
In Biblical, mystical, and esoteric traditions, every external image is a reflection of inner consciousness. Through my work of healing myself and many others from mental health issues, physical issues and releasing manifesting blocks (which include aligning with God’s desires for you instead of your ego desires)…
I’ve seen how when I radically transform a person’s feelings of fear (that come from a solidified block of energy you feel in your body) - every single time - reality changes too!
When you think differently, different yet matching things, show up in the mirror of reality. It’s impossible not to.
The flock is not literal. It is your multitude of thoughts, scattered across the hills of your mind.
The crook of this hooked shepherd’s staff can pull your attitude and thought back from the edge of destruction.
It is there to gently guide without punishment. It is gentle precision and not brute force.
Where the staff is a passive walking tool, the shepehoke is a tool of protection, selection and precision.
Whereas a rod might punish or defend, the shepehoke rescues.
Think of the thought caught at the edge of despair, paranoia, self-hatred.
The crook of the shepherd reaches for it, and brings it home - just like how someone sitting up high who can see the map can signal you if you’re driving down the wrong lane and will end up in a crash… So does your Higher Self help you to bring these fear producing thoughts out of that avenue of thought and into harmony with Universal Laws.
Without this inner alchemy where you retrieve these lost fragments of the psyche they turn into inner predators that hurt and harm, even with the best intentions, because they’re going the wrong way into traffic.
Sheep are Thoughtforms:
Docile, easily led, prone to scatter when startled. Yet they will follow and be herded when guided in the right way (just like sheep gather, thoughts attract other thoughts on the same frequency of fear or Love)
The Shepherd is the Higher Self:
The part of you that is God’s mind, but in a form that can fill your vessel - not to overtake you, but to think as you and experience life as a separate individual. This is the Divine Traffic Director, if you want to go back to the idea of the map. It sees all so will direct you through intuition, which usually doesn’t make sense to the ego.
The shepehoke (crook) is the instrument of reclaiming…
So the shepehoke is the focused action of herding your stray thoughts and redirecting them back to center - which is the same as saying to bring them back to peace and Love - the foundation of God, in alignment with Universal laws aka the traffic laws on this map of reality.
WHY Is Comfort A Mistranslation?
Notice in the Coverdale Bible it says:
“Though I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no euell, for thou art with me: thy staffe & thy shepehoke coforte me.”
Why is coforte missing an m?
Or better yet - why did the controllers who developed and created the modern English language add it in?
The origin/etymology of this word matters, especially when it comes to innerseeing this verse and applying it in your life correctly:
The modern word comfort comes from the Latin:
con- = with
fortis = strength
So originally, to “comfort” someone meant to give them strength, not just soothe them emotionally.
“Coforte” is an older English rendering closer to Latin’s confortare - “to strengthen greatly.”
Upon researching, I’ve discovered that in 1535, the time of Coverdale, spelling was fluid, and phonetics ruled.
The letter n in con was often left out in certain English dialects, so it is closer in origina to con-fortis (meaning with strength) - they simply stopped saying the n back then in that dialect.
It’s since been changed so comfort appears to mean to soothe you, as one would soothe a baby. To comfort you so you don’t have to feel fear.
Yet when people are comfortable for long periods of time, they lose the will to live. It’s a whole thing. When we do difficult things it actually increases our will to live.
Life is movement. Stagnation is akin to death
This is a shift into passiveness.
Rather than giving one strength to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it makes you think you should feel good and comfortable - when in fact we need to be able to face the fear and see it the UNTRUTH it actually is… And to persevere during trying times
Is English a Spell-Cage?
The English Language is a result of linguistic engineering to further divorce people from their true power and sovereign nature. The scope of this is for another article…
But simply, English was weaponized - especially after the Norman Conquest (1066) and later during the rise of the British Empire.
I’ll discuss the Journey of Language another time
But briefly…
English evolved under the control of the state-church, this is how the King James Bible was created.
Words that used to empower now sedate.
“Comfort”, once about giving strength, became synonymous with placation.
As in: “There, there, everything’s fine.”
Not: “Stand up, rise, be strong.”
The Meaning of “Comfort” Today:
We are vibrational beings.
The “m” softened the word phonetically, made it easier to internalize in lullaby cadence.
The “con” prefix was buried; the Latin root is obscured.
Now “comfort” connotes a soft couch, not a steel resolve.
This is spellcraft, hence why we call spelling - SPELL-ing.
The loss of “coforte” is not trivial - it’s the loss of martial compassion, which is the loving warrior’s will to protect what is right… It’s the part of us that is unflinching in the face of suffering, for we know what is right…
It turns you away from the truth that you WILL be tested, and makes you believe that these negative feelings need to be avoided - that if you’re not feeling comfort then you’re doing something wrong.
Coforte is the sacred duty of strengthening each other in darkness. “Comfort,” today, is emotional Novocaine.
Final Examining:
“Though I shulde walke now in the valley of the shadowe of death, yet I feare no euell, for thou art with me: thy staffe & thy shepehoke coforte me.” (Coverdale Bible)
“Yea, though I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staffe, they comfort me.” (Geneva Bible)
My Translation:
Though I should walk now in the valley of the shadow of death - the fear from my own mind, much of it deep beneath the surface of my conscious mind where I must die to the old and transform my ego to be of service to my Higher Self…
Even though it’s scary and confusing - I fear no evil, instead I call upon you God and I know you are with me and within me, and that I am within you - you assist me in making my action successful as I walk forward (the staff) and you are the shepherd’s hook to help me order my thoughts into alignment with Universal Law…
And as I do so using your power and my conscious knowledge that you are with me always, you will strengthen me so I can endure and succeed for the best and highest good of all. (The Gospel of Kai Clifford) 🙂
What are your thoughts - what did this open up for you?
What do you want to learn from this?
What more can you notice that I haven’t touched upon yet?
Come over to my Medium blog to comment and if you do, please give my article claps to help it get seen more.
In Divine Service
Kai Clifford
