Meditations for Difficult Days - No. 21 - The Comforting Rod and Staff
Pastor’s Blog - By Pastor Roy Summers
Closer to Home
Last week I heard of a church pastor, the Scottish John J Murray, aged 85, fall ill with Covid-19. The first pastor I have heard falling to this new disease. Sadly he passed away, but his son was able to write these hope-filled words on social media:
"Mum and I were able to spend a few minutes with him before he died and I was able to read the last few verses of Romans 8 which he will now be experiencing in all its fullness with the Saviour he preached about through over 40 years of ministry.”
And just today, we had the first confirmed case of Coronavirus in our own church family. The circle is tightening, and as we near the national Covid-19 peak, we all need the comforting words of Scripture.
The words of the Psalmist today are all comforting, but perhaps not as we might at first expect......
A Puzzle: One or Two?
Psalm 23:4 has always puzzled me: "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me" because I have never personally seen a shepherd walking around with two sticks, a "rod" and also "staff," but of course eastern shepherds may be different.
But then I read shepherd MacMillan's talks on Psalm 23. He believes the psalmist is talking about the one and same object, used for two different purposes. The "Shepherd's Crook," a long rod with a classic crook at one end, was used sometimes as a rod, and sometimes as a staff. One and the same thing. Not two sticks, but one. One stick, two uses.
But, and here's the point, both uses are comforting, says the psalmist, "your rod and your staff comfort me."
The Comfort of the Rod of Correction
We start with the use least likely to be called comforting. That shepherd's crook can be used to protect the sheep from dangerous animals, yes, but it can also be used to give them a not-so-gentle butt of correction.
The gentle Shepherd of the sheep must, on occasion, discipline his sheep.
MacMillan says that there were occasions when he put his sheep through circumstances they did not like at all. Three times a year they were dipped in a strong-smelling disinfectant: even the head was pushed under the surface - for their own good.
In the process of getting them into the tank, a shepherd may appear - to the layman - to be handling the sheep too roughly. Tourists watching the process would sometimes rebuke the shepherds for their rough handling, but to a skilled shepherd's eyes, it was not rough handling at all: it was exactly what the sheep needed.
Scripture talks about God's discipline like this: "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons." (Hebrews 12)
The idea is this: just as good earthly fathers discipline their children for their good, so our Father in heaven, disciplines us for our good. As long as we remember that discipline is for our good, we can surely rejoice. Later, Hebrews 12 goes on to say that discipline "produces a harvest of righteousness" encouraging God's people to strengthen arms and knees weakened by discipline. The image is of a saint weakened by temporary discipline, but now being encouraged to stand up and strengthen up again.
The end purpose of discipline is to root out sin in a believer and bring about the comfort of soul that always comes with holiness. There is no happiness or blessedness without holiness. If God does not help you put away that stubborn besetting sin, how will know the unfettered joy of the ungrieved Spirit surging through your soul?
The greatest joys belong to the godliest saints!
Any school teacher or wise parent, will tell you that the most miserable children are those whose parents fail to lovingly discipline; spare the rod and you will indeed spoil the child. Contra wise, the happiest children are those who have learned from loving correction.
So the (loving) rod of correction turns out to be a comfort!
Is a reader "smarting under the rod" because they are failing to grasp this longer term noble purpose? The Good Shepherd uses the rod lovingly, always lovingly.
In one of the most remarkable Christian hymns ever written, William Cowper explains that one day he began praying like this:
I asked the Lord that I might grow
in faith and love and ev'ry grace;
might more of his salvation know,
and seek more earnestly his face.
'Twas he who taught me thus to pray...
But then look at how God answered his prayer:
…and he, I trust, has answered pray'r.
but it has been in such a way
as almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favoured hour
at once he’d answer my request,
and by his love’s constraining pow’r
subdue my sins and give me rest.
Instead of this he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart,
and let the angry pow’rs of hell
assault my soul in ev'ry part.
Why this rod of correction?
"Lord, why is this?" I, trembling, cried;
"Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?"
"Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
"I answer prayer for grace and faith.
"These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free,
and break thy schemes of earthly joy
that thou may’st find thy all in me."
The purpose of the rod was to rid Cowper of false gods, which are no gods at all, false idols which are illusions and lies, so that the true and living God would become his one and only rest, his only joy and his only hope.
The Comfort of the Staff of Help
The second use for the one shepherd's crook is to help the sheep in a more direct way. A sheep gets stuck in boggy ground and the shepherd draws it out with his staff. A little lamb ambles away from the flock and the shepherd gently pulls it back. A sheep seems irritable and uncomfortable and the shepherd uses his staff to lift the woolly fleece and look for wounds or ailments.
In this way the shepherd's crook is used for comforting ends of a very direct nature.
So it is with the Great Shepherd. Perhaps, because we can feel the rod more than we can discern the staff, we tend not to notice or even remember the Shepherd's staffly care for us.
But every day, the Lord tends us with his staff. I take the staff to be all those innumerable providential circumstances in life which God both orchestrates and uses to bless us and build us up. He provides us with brothers and sisters in Christ, along with kindly acts from them, whether a text, an email, a card, a phone call. He provides us with employment. He places us in situations or connects us one day with someone who turns out to be pivotal in our lives. He protects us from harm both seen and unseen. The staff of comfort.
And don't forget that we are daily being served by angels! The staff of comfort.
I remember as a teenager how God brought into our home one weekend a man who was due to speak at a missionary meeting. That godly Christian man - I do not remember his name or even his face - took a real interest in this scraggy teenager. Somehow he sensed that God's calling was upon me. He asked many questions and encouraged me along. Decades later I was able to look back on that one visit as the start of my calling into full-time Christian ministry.
Our loving Shepherd's unseen staff is working gently behind the scenes urging us on day by day.
Whatever purpose the Chief Shepherd uses his shepherd's crook, as a rod of chastisement or as a staff of help, remember, it is always for our good and always for our comfort.
A SONG FOR THE DAY
I have chosen as our song for the day, that most remarkable hymn mentioned above. It is rarely sung these days, perhaps because the truths are uncomfortable, but some good folks have found a tune which helps us to sing along with it.
I asked the Lord that I might grow
in faith and love and ev'ry grace;
might more of his salvation know,
and seek more earnestly his face.
’Twas he who taught me thus to pray,
and he, I trust, has answered pray'r,
but it has been in such a way
as almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favoured hour
at once he’d answer my request,
and by his love’s constraining pow’r
subdue my sins and give me rest.
Instead of this he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart,
and let the angry pow’rs of hell
assault my soul in ev'ry part.
Yea more, with his own hand he seemed
intent to aggravate my woe,
crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
humbled my heart, and laid me low.
"Lord, why is this?" I, trembling, cried;
"Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?"
"Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
"I answer prayer for grace and faith.
"These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free,
and break thy schemes of earthly joy
that thou may’st find thy all in me."
William Cowper
You can hear it to a singable tune here:
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our loving and gracious Father in heaven,
We thank you for the many ways your staff of comfort leads, guides, protects and provides for us.
We thank you that we are protected from harm both seen and unseen.
We pray today for our troubled world, and especially for our own country. We lift up all those who are working and serving at the sharp end, caring for those caught up in this new disease.
We pray that you will help us to remember that your rod and your staff are both designed to bring comfort to our souls.
Teach us to humble ourselves under your mighty hand so that you may lift us up in due time,
We ask these things in our Risen Saviour's Name,
Amen
Pastor's Blog
This post is taken from our Pastor Roy Summers’ blog, where he discusses and comments on a wide range of current subjects and issues both in the world and in the church.