Rod & Staff
I have recently been camped out in Psalm 23. It is an interesting anomaly: When I seek comfort, I find a passage that discusses comfort. Does comfort come from simply reading the passage? Or does comfort come from the Divine Author? Is comfort immediate, or is it a slow process? Regardless of the details of comfort, I have enjoyed comfort from God. Still, I am not one who simply lets comfort happen and pass me by. I seek to know the process. Impossible? Possibly. Here is what I have discovered…
Psalm 23 – The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This passage specifies the rod and staff as the devices for comfort. There is obvious symbolism here: the Shepherd provides the comfort with the aid of these common shepherding tools.
I see three things we can gather from this passage with regards to our comfort. First, we receive protection from the rod. The rod can either be the straight portion of the shepherd’s staff or another blunt instrument. There is ample evidence in the Scriptures that prevent us from interpreting this protection as absolute security from anything. It behooves us to look at this protection as an internal attitude of dependence on God. He protects us as He sees fit. We are dependent on Him for our needs (green pastures, still waters). Remember that shepherds ultimately eat their sheep. Protection has more to do with our qualitative attitude about who is in charge than it does a quantitative listing of close calls.I also see direction being given to us. The crook is used to direct sheep in the way they should go. When we are in need of comfort, and even when we are not, there is little more precious than knowing the way we should go. Once we accept our situation, we can proceed in the correct direction.
There is also ample provision for us. A primary issue in comfort has to be acknowledgment that we have what we need. It usually is not what we want. But our “cup overflows” anyway. Again, I see this phrase not meaning that we can expect an outpouring of all the worldly desires we have, but rather an internal attitude. An overflowing cup has more to do with our qualitative attitude about our situation than it does a quantitative measurement of stuff.
Be comforted, my friends. Your Shepherd is in charge. Be dependent on Him. Follow His direction. Enjoy and be content with his provisions.
It is true: we [Christ-followers] will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What a comforting thought!
-z
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i love it. i’ve noticed that comfort can be all these things some times it comes immediately (as has been my recent experience) some times it takes days. I’ve had experiences where the time was stressfull but i knew comfort was comming, but wasent relieved till much later, so there are levels of comfort for sure. like if i was a sheep and i say a wolf comming for me but i knew my master was near i would be stressed but would know my master would fight for me. now if i wasent relying on my master to save me or not looking for him to come running, me being a sheep (not an intelligent animal) would run in panic from the wolf and probably knock my self out or run out off a ledge. so now i have two problems because i saught a solution of my own in panic, instead of looking to my shepherd for comfort. waking up on a ledge you cant get off with your last memory being a wolf trying to kill you is a more stressfull situation than just a wolf, but even on the ledge you can remember the masters is there to rescue you. so you can have comfort while on a ledge with a wolf comming after you. the whole point is comfort does not always equal relife. to recognize that for me has made comfort all that much better. i also enjoy Psalm 91.