THY ROD AND THY STAFF

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

-PSALM 23:4-

As a youth I had a horrible habit of skimming over assigned reading in school. I would skim the entire book but absorb just the main points so that I could say that I finished the task at hand.

In like fashion, many of us approach the Bible in this same manner. We have a tendency to pick out the catchy parts and set the rest aside. Psalm 23:4 is no exception to this habit. If you took away my emphasis above what would stand out to all readers would be "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou are with me". This is an amazing statement and it stands the test of time as one of the most famous verses in all of the 31,102 verses in the Bible.

BUT- In case the title of this blog and the highlighted portion of the Scripture above have eluded you I'd like to focus for a moment on a specific portion of Psalm 23:4.

"Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

By reading the above verse a simple lesson in deductive logic would lead us to an interesting conclusion:

The psalmist feared no evil because God comforted him with His rod and staff.

The questions we are then led to is "What does that mean? How does God comfort us with His rod and His staff?"

THE ROD:

When a shepherd would care for his sheep he would carry two instruments with him at all times. The first instrument was a rod.

The rod was meant for a two-fold purpose.

1- If any enemy would come to attack the sheep the shepherd would beat that predatory animal over the head with his rod and thus drive away the threat to his sheep.

2- When a sheep was really pushing his luck and was being rebellious against the shepherd it would receive a blow. The shepherd would give the sheep a nice knock on the head to remind it who was boss and to break it's rebellious spirit.

Simply put, Psalm 23:4 is telling us that God's rod of correction will keep us from attacks from our enemy (Satan) and it will keep us from attacks from our biggest enemy (our own flesh) which constantly leads us to rebel against Him.

THE STAFF:
The shepherd had another instrument that was always on hand, and that second instrument was his staff.

The shepherd's staff was a long stick, much like a walking stick and at the end of it was a crook. There was a large lip on the end of the staff that was designed much like the hooks used in the Vaudeville shows of old. We've all seen the clips on television- where someone had a bad act and they were forcefully pulled off the stage with a shepherd's crook.

In like manner a shepherd would watch his sheep diligently and when a sheep would begin to stray off of the path of safety the shepherd would wrap his crook around it's neck and guide it back onto the path of certainty.
The shepherd's number one concern for his sheep was their safety and their arrival at the proper destination.

Likewise God has a shepherd's staff that He uses to keep us off of paths that lead us away from Him and into danger. He will gladly direct us back to the path of safety with his staff.

THE GOOD NEWS:

In order to fully appreciate the Good News of Jesus Christ and the nature of God's comforting power we need to first come to grips with the bad news.

We read the good news in Psalm 23:4 and sometimes ignore the bad news, but you see; The Good News doesn't really shine through in it's fullness until it is contrasted with the bad news.

The bad news simply put is this: WE ARE DEPRAVED BEINGS.

Mankind is sin-sick and cannot cure himself, the answer is not within himself- the answer is the external, eternal Almighty God.

We are under the curse of sin and death and because of our sin we deserve nothing more from God than an eternity in Hell- that is the HORRIBLE NEWS.

Yet, while we were still sinners Jesus Christ came and died for us so that we could be free- nothing that we could have done would free us, but Jesus came to offer Himself as an atonement to reconcile us to God the Father.

That is what makes the Good News so GOOD! When we were at our worst Jesus gave us His best!!

What better news could there possibly be?

God Himself stepped out of eternity and into the temporal

solely to receive the just punishment meant for us.

There is no better news!

The beauty of Psalm 23:4 isn't that we have comfort in times of distress. The beauty is that we can know that God is there in the times of hardship and the times of abundance. He is there to correct our rebellion and to pull us back on the path of safety when we have wandered astray!

God has a rod to protect us from external attacks and to correct us when we rebel within ourselves.

God has a staff to direct us towards His path which leads unto salvation.

Next time we are struggling or going through difficulty; next time we receive a heavy blow to the head- instead of immediately saying "The devil is attacking me".

Let us ask the questions:

"Is the Lord trying to show me something?

Is this heavy blow from the rod of God's holy correction?

Is this yank in another direction because God is pulling me back onto His perfect path?"

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me!

ARE YOU BEARING FRUIT?

One of my favorite stories in the New Testament comes from Acts chapter 4.

Let me set the stage for you..
John and Peter were taken before the rulers, the elders, the teachers of the law and even the high priest, Annas, was there to question them. Peter and John were basically on a preliminary trial because they were uneducated shlubs who didn’t have the right to teach on religion but they were out preaching Jesus around town. Therefore the religious leaders were asking them how they could dare to teach about Jesus without proper theological doctrine and proper credentials to support them (sound like any churches you’ve seen today?).
John and Peter even went so far as to heal a man- how dare they! They healed a the lame beggar and various people were aware of the miracle. Because of their actions Peter and John were brought before the religious authorities to be questioned as to how and why they would do such a horrible thing like healing a man without having a THD or PHD attached to their name first.

They replied in an amazing manner which you can look up on your own in Acts 4.
What struck me wasn’t necessarily their reply in the matter, what stood out to me was the reaction of the crowd. “When they (the religious leaders and the crowd of likely onlookers) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished.” In other words they were ignorant men, or as one Bible commentary states of the original Greek term used to describe them- Peter and John were idiots. Obviously the people couldn't understand how foolish men could do such amazing works and preach with such authority, but the Bible goes on to tell us how the rulers and the crowd came to understand the source of their authority...

“They took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

How did they know that these men had been with Jesus?
Was it because they saw it with their own eyes? Perhaps but not likely. Was it that someone whispered into their ear telling them that they were the ones who walked with Jesus? Not likely. The reason I don’t believe that is because even at the death of Christ on the cross only one person recognized Peter; but once Peter cussed that twelve year old girl out and swore he wasn't with Jesus she backed off of him. These men were basically unknown.

How then did the people know that they had been with Jesus?
BY THEIR ACTIONS.
Their lifestyle was a testimony to the fact that they had been with Jesus Christ.

Is your lifestyle a testimony that you have been with Jesus or like so many others are you living the same life you once lived but now doing it with the banner of Christ above it?

Matthew Henry said in his commentary:
“And the followers of Christ should act so that all who converse with them, may take knowledge that they have been with Jesus. That makes them holy, heavenly, spiritual, and cheerful, and raises them above this world."

Various other commentaries on the Bible take the same stance. These men were known to be of the fold of Christ by their actions and lifestyle. Their power and authority came from above and it was evident to all present. People knew that they had been with Jesus because their lifestyle looked like an old park bench wrought with the carvings of youthful dereliction.. The words "JESUS WAS HERE" were carved into their lives for all to see.

Are you recognizable as a part of God’s fold? Are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance? Do you bear the scars of a bond-servant, have you been sealed with the seal of the one who owns you? Is it apparent to all that you are of the fold of Jesus Christ or are you indistinguishable from the world?

Does your life preach for you or do your words have to justify before others what your actions never could- that you are of the true vine of Christ? We have churches that tell us that if we say the magical prayer we're set for life regardless of how we live after saying that prayer. If Jesus is truly all-sufficient for us then our lifestyle will reflect it and we won’t have to seek out preachers who will justify our sin. We will stand firm in the work Christ did on the cross and stand certain of our faithfulness to Him because of the evidence visible in our daily life.

Are you bearing fruit in keeping with repentance or does your lifestyle negate your verbal declaration of faith?