Alex MacDougall had spent decades in music. He had toured and recorded with some of the greatest names in gospel — Andraé Crouch, Phil Keaggy, Bob Bennett. He had been at a Billy Graham crusade in 1969 where someone sang "Surely Goodness and Mercy," based on Psalm 23. That moment changed his life. That psalm would change it again.
The Diagnosis
At seventy-one, Alex was teaching and enjoying life when he began to have difficulty swallowing. By the time he reached a doctor, several months had passed. The diagnosis was cancer. And with cancer came the thing nobody prepares you for: the fear.
Not the polite kind. The kind that sits on your chest at three in the morning and whispers that this is how it ends. The kind that makes you forget every song you ever sang about God being good.
The Fear
Alex had spent his whole adult life telling people about God's faithfulness. He had stood on stages and in churches and declared that God was a healer, a provider, a shepherd. Now he was the one in the valley. And the valley was darker than any lyric had ever described.
The treatment was painful. The uncertainty was worse. Every scan was a verdict. Every waiting room was a courtroom. The fear did not announce itself politely — it moved in and took over.
The Encounter
But somewhere in the depth of that darkness, something happened. Psalm 23 — the psalm Alex had known since 1969, the psalm he had heard a thousand times — stopped being a passage he had memorised and became a presence he could feel.
"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me."
Those words were not a hymn anymore. They were the voice of a shepherd who was actually there — in the hospital ward, in the treatment chair, in the silence between scan results. Alex did not just read Psalm 23. He lived it. And the fear that had colonised every corner of his mind began to lose its grip.
Not because the cancer was gone. Not because the treatment stopped. But because Someone was walking through the valley with him, and that Someone was bigger than the darkness.
The Healing
Alex began monthly immunotherapy infusions and quarterly scans. And then the results came back. His doctor confirmed what Alex already sensed in his spirit: he showed no cancer. Simply put — a walking miracle. His faith in God, already tested by decades of life, was now greater than it had ever been.
What This Means for You
If you are reading this with a cancer diagnosis and the fear has taken your breath away — Alex MacDougall wants you to know something. The psalm you think you know is not just ancient poetry. It is a living word from a God who does not watch the valley from a distance. He walks through it with you.
You do not need to be brave. You do not need to pretend the fear is not real. You just need to know that there is a Shepherd in the darkness, and He has done this walk before. He knows the way through. And He is not going to lose you in the middle of it.
The fear is loud. But the Shepherd is closer.
