“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4. The rod and staff were the symbol of a shepherd; while the staff may have been used by the shepherd in walking, or as something to lean on, the obvious message here is their function in caring for the flock, and by their use the flock was guided and corrected! The crook on the top of the staff could be used to reach out to a sheep that began to wander away from the flock, with what we might call a gentle corrective discipline to bring it back “in line”; while the rod, perhaps the other end of the staff, could be used as a weapon to defend the sheep from ravenous beasts and predators. As David thought about the use of the rod and staff with the sheep, comparing it to his own relationship with God, the good shepherd, he found it a source of great comfort; the correction of the Lord pulling us back in line is not something to be shunned, but cherished, the Bible says “whom the Lord loves He corrects…” Proverbs 3:12, and Hebrews 12:5-6 tells us not to despise His chastening, perhaps we could say discipline and correction, which implies we should cherish it for it is an act of His love. Then also the sheep could rest in peace and calm knowing that the shepherd would hold at bay every ravenous beast. So we too rest in the presence of our shepherd knowing that with His rod He will protect us from the destruction intended by our enemy; this should not be interpreted as saying there will not be attacks, Isaiah 59:19 says “…When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him”; so David had learned that just as the sheep could take comfort in the rod and staff of the shepherd, so we can take comfort in the rod and staff of our Shepherd. An interesting note is that the Hebrew word translated comfort here is the same word that the names Nahum, meaning “comfort”, and Nehemiah, meaning “comfort of Yahweh”, have been derived.
Comfort and peace
By Rose Hill
Are you troubled on every side,
And wish that you could run and hide?
Do not wish to go anywhere,
Your shepherd is beside you there.
He has much comfort now to give,
He will help you in peace to live.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright …1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.