![]() ![]() ![]() It was used to defend the flock against wild beasts. Actually, it was an oak club about two feet in length. The shepherd's rod was a symbol of his power. He recalled the tools of his former trade: the rod and staff. ![]() There is no experience, no valley (no matter how severe or uncertain) that we must journey alone. Notice the psalmist says that because "You are with me," he is kept from being afraid. so that you may not grow weary and lose heart" (Hebrews 12:2–3). Perhaps that is what the writer had in mind when he exhorted us to keep ". Along those dark, narrow, pinching, uncomfortable valleys of difficulty we learn volumes! We keep our courage simply because our Shepherd is leading the way. He knows that the only way we can reach the higher places of Christian experience and maturity is not on the playground of prosperity but in the schoolroom of suffering. "Īs God's sheep, we are sometimes led by Him into the valley of darkness, where there is fear, danger, uncertainty, and the unexpected. The ancient shepherd-made-king mentally sifts through those earlier days as a lad in the wilderness with his father's flock and pictures himself as a sheep: "Even though I walk through the valley of deep darkness. Such a scene was as familiar to David as a sheet of music is to an orchestra conductor. But the sheep walking beside its shepherd is secure because the shepherd is near, leading the way, fully aware of the valley's path. The trees periodically blot out the sunlight, and there are serpents coiled to strike as well as hungry wolves lurking in the shadows. This trip inevitably includes some dangerous paths filled with uncertainties and fearful sights. There is a reason for this.Įarly in the year, the flocks graze leisurely in the lowlands, but as summer's sun begins to melt the high mountain snow, the shepherd leads his flock to better grazing land above. The tone changes in the latter half of Psalm 23, but not the Shepherd! From the verdant, fertile slopes and bubbling brooks of verses 2 and 3, we are plunged immediately down into the "valley of the shadow of death"-literally translated the "valley of deep darkness." How does this tie in with verse 3? You'll observe that verse 3 promises that our Shepherd-Savior guides us along "right tracks." Verse 4 is simply saying that one of these tracks or paths winds along the steep, downward valley below. The sheep were wise to follow only their shepherd, who always led them along the "right track." After all, it was the shepherd's reputation that was at stake: "for His name's sake." To the untrained, dull eyes of the sheep, they all looked alike-like real paths. The wind also etched its subtle "track" in the sand. Some were made by wilderness beasts others by robbers lying in wait. Many marks and paths sprawled across the rugged terrain. The Hebrew shepherd was a master at reading tracks. Literally, it means: "He guides me in the right tracks for His name's sake." Hopefully, during this period of restoration, the sheep learns not to wander off and to depend completely upon its shepherd.įinally, verse 3 promises guidance. He will make a splint for the shattered leg and then carry that once-wayward lamb over his shoulders. When such occurs too often, the shepherd will lift the lamb from the thistles and cactus, hold it close, and abruptly break its leg. Again and again the shepherd will have to go and find the wandering lamb. Occasionally, one particular young sheep will get into a habit of wandering. The wanderer is restored to fellowship despite itself. Realizing he has a wanderer missing, the shepherd sets out to "restore" or "return" that wandering member of his flock, calling its name and awaiting an answering bleat out in the wilderness. The term is loosely based on the idea of repentance-a "turning back"-only it's not accomplished by the sheep, but the Shepherd. The song includes this line: "He restores my soul." It's about restoration. Lurking in the darkness are hungry wolves, four-legged savages, looking for a supper of mutton! The shepherd counts his sheep, calling them by name. When one is attracted to a clump of grass away from the flock, off it goes, and sometimes it's followed by several other woolly wanderers. As a former shepherd keeping watch over flocks in the wilderness, the composer of Psalm 23 understood the nature of sheep, including their bad habit of wandering.Īs a former shepherd keeping watch over flocks in the wilderness, the composer of Psalm 23 understood the nature of sheep, including their bad habit of wandering. ![]()
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