The Rod & Staff
Psalms 23:1-6
The twenty-third psalm is certainly the best loved of all the confidence psalms and probably the best loved of all Scriptures. David wrote it to express his confidence in the Lord’s care for him. As he reflected on that care, he realized that it was very much like the care of a shepherd for his sheep (vv. 1–4) and the care of a host for his guests (vv. 5–6).
David was very familiar with both. Much of his time during his boyhood years was occupied with the care of his father’s sheep, and one of his duties as a king was hosting guests.
The twenty-third psalm is certainly the best loved of all the confidence psalms and probably the best loved of all Scriptures. David wrote it to express his confidence in the Lord’s care for him. As he reflected on that care, he realized that it was very much like the care of a shepherd for his sheep (vv. 1–4) and the care of a host for his guests (vv. 5–6).
David was very familiar with both. Much of his time during his boyhood years was occupied with the care of his father’s sheep, and one of his duties as a king was hosting guests.
The twenty-third psalm is certainly the best loved of all the confidence psalms and probably the best loved of all Scriptures. David wrote it to express his confidence in the Lord’s care for him.
In this psalm, the sandal is on the other foot. Here David is not the shepherd but the sheep and not the host but the guest, and it is none other than the Lord God himself who is doing the shepherding and the hosting
As he reflected on that care, he realized that it was very much like the care of a shepherd for his sheep (vv. 1–4) and the care of a host for his guests (vv. 5–6).
David was very familiar with both. Much of his time during his boyhood years was occupied with the care of his father’s sheep, and one of his duties as a king was hosting guests.
This has to do with finding rest in the Word of God. The ‘green pastures’ represent food to the sheep. The lying down represents leisure or time. By the grace of the Lord, then, his people spend time meditating on the food which he has prepared for them, which is the Word of God.
All God’s people have been given rest from the guilt of sin and the fear of condemnation through the redeeming work of Christ. They are God’s people by virtue of that. But they still need rest from hunger, from annoying parasites and from conflict. We find these as we look to the green pastures in the Word of God. We are either grazing in those pastures or we are straying from our shepherd.
Matthew Henry notes that the saints of God will not get lost in it but will come out safely.6
VALLEY While admitting that the valley is ‘deep indeed, and dark, and dirty’, Matthew Henry calls it a fruitful place and concludes that death offers ‘fruitful comforts to God’s people’.5
SHADOW A dark shadow may appear to be quite frightening but it has no real power to harm us. And death, unpleasant and forbidding as it may be, cannot finally do any real harm to the child of God. Henry T. Mahan writes: ‘… Christ has removed the substance of death and only a shadow remains. A shadow is there but cannot hurt or destroy.’4
The Lord himself was the basis of David’s peace about death. As David contemplates his death, he sees himself entering a dark valley. Suddenly he is aware that someone else is there in the shadows. It is the Lord himself. As he gazes upon his Lord, David sees that he is carrying a rod and staff. The rod was a heavy club the shepherd used to kill predators, and the staff, a long pole with a crook in one end, used to round up the sheep and to guide them along.
