Your Rod and Your Staff They Comfort Me

Psalm 23:5 has always confused me. Why would a sheep be comforted by two items designed to correct him? When God corrects me it hurts, so why would I want my Shepherd to carry tools of discipline?

Maybe because that isn’t their purpose…

A shepherd carries a minimum of equipment-- a rod and a staff and sometimes a slingshot and stones. Each boy takes special pride in the selection of his personal tools. Both the rod and staff must exactly suit his size and strength.

Each shepherd went into the bush annually, selected a young sapling, and whittled it with great care. The enlarged base where the tree’s trunk joined the roots was shaped into a smooth, rounded head of hardwood that exactly fit the owner’s hand. Then he spent hours learning to throw it with amazing speed and absolute accuracy. It’s most important function is protecting the sheep from animals that would harm them.

In this psalm David asserts that his Shepherd’s rod (his weapon of power, authority and defense) is a comfort because effective control is maintained in every situation.

Another interesting use of a rod is to examine and count the sheep. In Old Testament terminology, this was referred to as passing “under the rod” (see Ezekiel 20:37).  This meant not only coming under the owner’s control and authority, but also to be subject to his most careful, intimate and firsthand examination. A sheep that passed “under the rod” was one that had been counted and looked over with great care to assure all was well with it.

Now let’s look at the staff. More than any other item it is the staff that identifies the Shepherd as a shepherd. No other profession carries a staff.

The shepherd’s staff is normally a long, slender stick with a crook or hook on one end.  Like the rod, it is cut, shaped, and smoothed to best suit its owner’s size and strength and is uniquely designed for the care and management of sheep. It will not do for cattle, horses, dogs or hogs—only sheep.   

A staff symbolizes the concern and compassion that a shepherd has for his flock. Its sole function is for their comfort.  Whereas the rod conveys the concept of authority, power, and defense, the staff speaks to all that is long-suffering and kind.

There are three areas of sheep management in which the staff plays a significant role. 

The first is to draw the sheep into an intimate relationship. The shepherd uses his staff to gently lift a newborn lamb and bring it to its mother if they become separated.  He does this so the ewe won’t reject her offspring, which she might do if it bore the scent of human hands. A skilled shepherd is able to move swiftly through a flock where thousands of ewes are lambing simultaneously. With deft but gentle strokes the newborns are lifted with the staff and placed beside their dams to suckle.

Second, the staff is used to reach out and catch individual sheep, young or old, and draw them close to the shepherd for intimate examination. Every animal must be assessed daily for injuries, disease, and preventative health needs.

The third use for the staff is to gently guide the shepherd’s sheep onto the right path or through some gate or along a dangerous, difficult route. He never uses it to beat the animals. Instead, the tip of the long slender stick is laid gently against a sheep’s side; gentle pressure communicates the way they are to go.  

Therefore, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me…”