Waking in the shadow of death is having the idea that you will die and that your time is getting closer. A terrible feeling that comes with the idea that we are going to die; your going to leave your family and they will stay alone, comes while one is walking under the shadow(ps18:4-5). This feeling progresses advancing with hopelessness to further deteriorating the soul. David said why are you so down casted oh my soul(ps42:5). Waking in the shadow signifies that something is trailing you wherever you go; especially in times when you are supposed to happy like in the morning. The bible tells us that dark times come when one walks in the night but that our joy comes in the morning (ps30:5). And, the other meaning of the shadow is being mentored it following someone else’s footsteps.
Job 24:17-18
For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
18 He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
The Shadow of death influences anyone who adheres to it; those who either willfully are committed to it, or are targeted by the enemy with illnesses or infirmities. Job spoke of this place or state of mind and said that the light of it is as dark as darkness itself (jb 10:22); a place without order. This state of mind of the shadow of death is one that entails depression and fear. Job’s ordeal landed him in this valley of the shadow of death which he felt to his face (Jb16:16). David said in Psalms 23:4 that he was not going to fear even though he was going to go through this valley of death. At one point or another in our lives we will encounter this valley, and fear will be a key component that will induce terror in us, but we must not forget which God we have believed in. David understood that he was going to go through the valley of death, but was going to come out of it, because his faith in God gave him that assurance. God is in the business of leading his people out of the valley of the shadow of death (ps107:14). God with his marvelous light of his Son leads his people out of this valley (Is9:2).