What is the Valley of Baca in the Bible?

Ba’ca - The weeper

This signifies 'weeping.' The blessedness of going up to the courts of Jehovah turns 'the valley of tears' into 'the fountain of joy' Ps. 84:6. The article being before the name seems to imply that some natural valley was before the eye of the Psalmist though unknown now.

Israel is not yet at home with God; but they are on the way there, and already experiencing a happiness which is the result of this. The psalmist proceeds to speak of this with assurance. The way with God is the way to God and the strength that is found in Him is found in and for the way with Him. "Happy is the man," he says, "whose strength is in Thee: in whose heart are the ways," — what ways the verses following make evident: "who, going through the valley of Baca, make it a place of springs; yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings. They go from strength to strength: every one appeareth before God in Zion."

The ways of pilgrims leading up to the city of God are certainly, therefore, what is meant. The valley of Baca is no literal place, but figurative, just as is that which is spoken of it. And so, if the name be taken from the baca-shrub, from which, if wounded, a tear-like liquid exudes, there is none the less clear an intentional connection with bacah, "weeping." The "place of springs" and the "rain" are naturally also an antithesis to this; and altogether they furnish such a picture as will appeal to any one of God's pilgrims in any dispensation. For all, His miracles of grace are wrought; just as for all who seek strength in Him alone, that strength must prove its sufficiency for all demands upon it. Trial is found, and sorrow, and humiliation; but amid all this are found the sources of plenteous refreshment. How but in a world of sorrow could we have fellowship with the Man of sorrows! How else could we realize the perfection of His path who has "left us an example, that we should walk in His steps"? And then, what spiritual transformations are effected by the direct out-pouring of the rain of heaven!

The Valley of Baca (Psalm 84:5-6)

"Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools"

This valley has occasioned me personally a great deal of exercise. If you look up the best Biblical map you can find you will find that against the valley of Baca you come to this entry - "situation unknown". Now if you move amongst the saints of God, if you get a little bit nearer to the burdens that saints carry, you discover that, like the valley of Baca, there are many places of weeping, situation unknown. If you lose your husband to a coronary or a car accident or your wife or your child to leukaemia, then you can locate the area, but there are many areas of sadness amongst the saints of God that are unidentified. In a company like this tonight there will be a good many bearing trials and burdens that nobody else knows about. That is why we want to talk a little bit about the valley of Baca.

There are a lot of tears in this world - that is what Baca means, literally 'lamentation' and 'weeping' - national disasters, weeping amongst men of the world, but there is also a good deal of weeping amongst saints if they are sensitive at all in these closing days of the testimony. Jeremiah, for example, closed his dispensation as "the weeping prophet of the nations".

"Who passing through the Valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also fills the pools." (Ps. 84:6).

The Valley of Baca means the vale of tears. To some Christians it may only be a shallow depression in an even plain of easy circumstances. To others it may prove to be a deep dark ravine in a continuous succession of untoward circumstances. Even as different characters of wind must blow on different gardens to cause the spices to flow out (Song of Songs 4:16), so differences in depth and character of the valley arenecessary that God's work may be rendered effectual in our souls. To one, the valley of Baca may be the removal by death of him or her who has become the idol of the heart; to another, it may be the rupture of bosom friendship; to a third, it may mean the loss of health; to a fourth, it may involve the loss of the means of subsistence; to a fifth, it may be merely the thwarting of the will. The last mentioned may seem to some a very shallow valley in the plain of human experience. But these little realise the thraldom of the human will, and what a very painful process is involved in the breaking of the will. It is, however, in the painful rather than in the pleasing paths of life that we get refreshment from God. When a man or a woman has come to the end of self, God has found His opportunity to bless that person.

Hagar got no sustenance from God until weary and footsore with an empty water-bottle she had cast her child under a shrub in the desert and retired that she might not witness his death, and that she, too, might die. She had not only come to the end of her efforts, but to the end of herself as well. God, then, opened her eyes and she saw a well of water in her "valley of Baca." (Gen. 21:14-19). The well had been there but she had not been able to see it. How often have we in time of trial allowed nature to obscure our spiritual vision and we have failed to find a well in the valley! Again Samson in the moment of victory over the Philistines, exulting in the glory and strength of his own will, just as he had made an end of boasting, suddenly found himself precipitated into the valley of Baca. (Judges 15:14-19). He became sore athirst nigh to the point of death, but he turned to God in his extremity and God opened his eyes to see a "well" of water in the dried jawbone which he had cast away in the moment of his triumph. As a consequence, Samson's spirit revived in contact with God's resources.

In some margins "Baca" is correctly translated as "weeping"; and so understood the meaning is both significant and beautiful. Verse 5 commences the second part of the Psalm; up to the end of verse 4 we have the house of the Lord - the tabernacles - as the object of the heart, because the living God is there, together with the blessed occupation of those who dwell there - "they will be still praising Thee." Then two things follow: The blessedness of the man whose strength is in Jehovah, and in whose heart are the ways - the ways to the house. These two things constitute the needed equipment for the pilgrim journey, and thus lead on to what is found in the next verse. For it is such, such as are described in verse 5, who passing through the valley of Baca ("weeping") make it a well. When the heart (that is, to give it the Christian interpretation) is on the Father's house above, the believer realises that he is but a stranger and a pilgrim here, and that this world, now become a wilderness to him, is truly a vale of tears. But the very exercises and sorrows through which he is passing, when gone through with God, become to him a well-spring of life. With Hezekiah, he finds that by these things men live, and that in all these things is the life of his spirit. Nor is this all; for "The rain also filleth the pools." Not only does the exercised soul receive blessing through his trials and sorrows; but blessing also descends from God, like the gentle rain from heaven, and fills "the pools" to overflowing with gratitude and praise. May we know more of these blessed testing experiences!

The Valley of Baca

Wherever this valley may have been situated in the land of Israel, its meaning is clear, for Baca means weeping, and by the supply of divine grace the Christian in “passing through the valley of Baca make it a well” (Psalm 84:6). For the natural man the time of weeping is one of unmingled distress and sorrow, but the blessed man, whose strength is in the Lord, and in whose heart are His ways (verse 5), weeping brings with it the comfort of God, the sympathy of Christ and great spiritual gain. Taking all his sorrow from the hand of God, that he knows is directed by infinite love and wisdom for his blessing, the believer turns to God in praise and worship. We something of this in Job in the time of his deep, deep sorrow, for he “fell down upon the ground and worshipped, and said…the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job. 1:20-21).

"Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools."

This is God's way out of the world, hence the trial to nature. The great moral system in the world must be faced, and this is no easy matter. The strongest link that binds us to it must be broken, the cord that is nearest to the heart may have to be cut asunder. Thus it is called the valley of tears. The path of many for a long way, if not all the way, is watered with tears. Scarcely has the joy of conversion been tasted, in many cases, when the pain of separation from the world in some of its tenderest associations must be experienced. And how often unfaithfulness in this respect hinders the good work of God in the soul, and mars its sweetest joys! But the idol of the heart must be given up, and the heart unreservedly given to Christ. But now, the joy and the sorrow together break up the very fountains of the poor human heart, and every footstep is watered with tears. Thus all have a valley of Baca to pass through; it is the way to Zion. Even the most spiritual and devoted of the Lord's people must have the exercises of the valley. A. Miller.

Now, we may say, he enters the valley of Baca; it is the place not only of trial, but of tears. He is brought into deep exercise of soul before God. Self is judged. This is the young Christian's valley of Baca. It is the exercise of soul, rather than the trial, that makes it a well — that digs the pools. He has now found out that a desire to live to God's glory may turn the fairest scenes and the brightest prospects of earth into a vale of tears — a place of humiliation and sorrow. But if there be simple faith in God, the dreariest part of the desert may become a fruitful field, and where nothing but disappointment and distress were expected, the richest blessings may be found. But, on the other hand, if he gets under the power of his circumstances, and is tempted to look to the world or the flesh as a resource, his tears will be yet more bitter and more abundant. The trial, no doubt, is enough to test the strongest faith and the bravest heart, especially if we have to wait long for the answer to our prayers. But our God will have us to confide in His love alone and to learn what He is to us, however painful the process.

"Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools." This is God's way out of the world; hence the trial to nature. The great moral system of Satan in the world must be faced, and this is no easy matter. The strongest link that binds it to us must be broken, the cord that is nearest to the heart may have to be cut asunder. Thus it is called the valley of tears. The path of many for a long way, if not all the way, is watered with tears. Scarcely had the joy of conversion been tasted, in many cases, when the pain of separation from the world in some of its tenderest associations must be experienced. And how often unfaithfulness in this respect hinders the good work of God in the soul, and mars its sweetest joys! But the idol of the heart must be given up, and the heart unreservedly given to Christ. But now, the joy and the sorrow together break up the very fountains of the poor human heart, and every footstep is watered with tears. Thus all have a valley of Baca to pass through; it is the way to Zion. Even the most spiritual and devoted of the Lord's people must have the exercises of the valley.

The valley of Baca is then not merely a valley of sorrow. It is also a valley of blessing and very great joy. Well might the Psalmist in the eighty-fourth Psalm ascribe blessedness to the man whose strength was in the Lord, because it makes all the difference in passing through the valley of Baca. The unexercised soul may pass through the salt vale of tears but finds no well there: The one whose heart delights in the Lord and is confident in the precious thought that He does everything right finds not only a well in the valley, hidden from the careless glance, but the blessing of God to his soul is such that there is rain filling the pools or surface depressions too. The well is fed from secret springs, but the rain betokens blessing so much in evidence that even the sceptical mind cannot gainsay.