Hook & Prod

Psalm 23 cont’d:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Have you walked through a dark valley?  We all have, at some point in our lives.  But when I’m in a dark place and in a place of fear, I can’t say that I’ve ever thought of the Shepherd’s rod and staff as being a picture of comfort.

A shepherd uses a rod and staff to prod the sheep along in the right direction, and to hook them by the neck to bring them back to safety, should they totter on the edge of a deep canyon where they might fall to their death.  But I feel sure that neither the prodding nor the neck yanking feels good at all.

When I’m in a dark valley, I want a rescue. I want a light to come on so that I can see where to walk.  I want the valley to suddenly disappear and for myself to be transported instantaneously to a mountaintop where the air is pure and the soul feels like singing.  Don’t you?

But here this verse says we have nothing to fear, and that his rod and staff will be our comfort – not his rescue and revelation.

There are things to be learned in the dark valleys.  There are times when the darkness needs to be felt so that we can trust in the rod that pushes us forward blindly, knowing that we will not fall to our death, because his staff is also present to keep us near to him.

And there’s something that we cannot learn in the light, that we completely master in the dark.  That "something" is trust in the shepherd’s leading.  

And that eliminates fear.