A Strange Comfort

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

[ PSALM 23:4 ]

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Arod and a staff—they feel like a strange comfort. Consider sheep in a dark valley surrounded by predators, and their only encouragement being the push of a rod or the wrench of a staff. It’s a comfort ultimately, but at the time it may not feel like it.” As a friend and I discussed Psalm 23, we addressed an often overlooked part of it. How, I wondered, can we find comfort in these images of correction?

King David, having grown up a shepherd boy, knew the tools of the trade. In the ancient near East, shepherds would carry a rod to keep the sheep safe from predators and to discipline them when they went astray. The staff is a more gentle tool with its distinctive hook. It can be used to place a new-born lamb into its mother’s lap or it can guide a sheep in a new direction.

How might God might use these instruments with us? When we feel anxious, we may experience a sort of rescue, like the Shepherd’s crook that pulls the sheep up to high ground. If we act out in irritation or selfishness, we might sense the loving discipline of the Shepherd. We will not find ourselves ostracised, but nestled among His flock. We can trust our Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for His sheep and who knows them by name.

AMY BOUCHER PYE

REFLECT: When have you sensed God using His rod and staff in your life? How do you react to loving correction?

PRAY: Saving Jesus, keep me from going astray, and help me to share the message of Your saving grace with others.