Sitting with the Sacred

As I announced at the end of last week’s post, I’m continuing to sit with Psalm 23 this week. The first line of this week’s excerpt paints a different picture in my mind than the “green pastures” or “still waters” of last week (Psalm 23: 2). I picture Jesus walking with me in a canyon. He’s behind me, actually. He has one hand on each shoulder, and I know that, using power I trust though I don’t understand it, he will guide me along the often steep, rocky path between the river at the bottom of this canyon and its rim. There will be times when I roll backwards (I use a wheelchair, remember?), many times, but he won’t let me fall the several stories into the raging river that carved the canyon. I won’t get lost in this place and be trapped forever. This is what being guided “in” or “along right paths” looks like to me (New American Bible, 2001 Edition; New American Bible Revised Edition). Maybe the canyon is this life.

So what’s with this line about “for his name’s sake”? (New American Bible, 2001 Edition).

To me, this phrase is a reminder of who God is. God is all that’s good: God is presence rather than absence, truth rather than lies, self-giving love rather than apathy. God cannot be what and who God isn’t, so the Shepherd of Psalm 23 can only lead sheep along the path that not only protects them but also allows them to thrive.

The path that allows them to thrive is often not well lit. The sheep’s view of the Light Source is blocked by the high canyon walls that surround the valleys through which the Shepherd leads them. Yet being surrounded by darkness is no reason to fear it because the Shepherd is with them in it. He isn’t guiding the herd through the darkness from a distance. He became a sheep himself and allowed himself to be slaughtered so he could walk alongside others facing slaughter and show them how to avoid this fate.

He shows them not just by becoming a sheep but with the tools of his role as a shepherd — a rod and a staff. In “How are the Shepherd’s Rod and Staff Different?,” Shari Abbott writes that:

The rod was used to fight off wild animals and to count the sheep and direct them. The rod prodded them during the day in the fields and at night into the sheepfold.  A willing sheep would respond to the prodding, but a stubborn, strong-willed sheep would not.  

While sheep might not be as dumb as often suggested, they do have characteristics that give some merit to that claim. They’ll indiscriminately eat just about anything, regardless whether it is something that could harm or kill them. They endlessly wander, seemingly without direction. And many sheep stubbornly resist the shepherd’s prodding.  That’s why the staff, with a crook at the end, is needed.  The shepherd uses the staff to more strongly exert his authority and to gently, but firmly, pull the sheep back to the fold and keep the sheep moving in the right direction.  He can also use the crook of the staff to pull the sheep from harm.

You can view a picture of these tools here. I think of a staff as a support for something else, but it’s apparently not just a supportive device, such as a cane is. It can be used to grasp and pull wandering sheep back to the shepherd if they won’t come back on their own, Abbot writes.

Being prodded back to the right path or pulled to it may not feel very comforting or courage-infusing when it happens. But sometimes it’s necessary to endure temporary pain to prevent longer-term pain. The cross is the ultimate example of this truth. The Shepherd submitted to it to deliver us from eternal pain, and because he didn’t want the pain of being eternally separated from us. In accepting the cross, he promised that any pain we face won’t last forever if we also accept his cross. In surrendering to the cross, he offers us courage and comfort through it, despite the pain it inflicts.

Other ways life follows the pattern of this truth come to my mind:

• A medical treatment has difficult side effects but slows or halts the process of a life-threatening disease.
• A Good Samaritan performs CPR, and this action causes bruising or popped ribs, (This can happen. Click here to see my source for this example.) but a person’s life is saved, and he or she eventually makes a full recovery.
• Parents set boundaries for their children’s technology and media usage, or we set boundaries for our own indulgence in the things we enjoy, and the boundaries aren’t enjoyable in the short term, but living within them makes for healthier lives and means having time to learn important lessons and to build, repair, and strengthen relationships.
• Someone misses an occasion he or she is look forward to, choosing instead to get started on a school project or to look after his or her health or someone else’s. Missing out is unpleasant but serves a greater good and pays off in the long term.

So the rods and the staffs of life keep us, the sheep, from wandering off, getting lost and likely getting attacked and killed in the process. We may not experience the rod or the staff as pleasant, but the Shepherd is aware of dangers that sheep aren’t. The shepherd knows the rod and the staff protect his sheep from the greater suffering — or worse — that they’d face if he didn’t use them.

And sometimes, even at the times they’re used, the rod and the staff don’t feel like punishments to the sheep, according to Jack Albright, retired clinical chaplain and freelance writer:

 It is used in drawing sheep together into an intimate relationship. He will use his staff to gently lift a newborn lamb and bring it to its mother if they become separated. He does not use his bare hands for fear that the ewe will reject her offspring if it bears the odor of his hands upon it.

“[The staff] is also used for guiding sheep through a new gate or along a dangerous, difficult route. He will use the slender stick to press gently against the animal’s side, and this pressure guides the sheep in the way the owner wants it to go. Thus the sheep is reassured of its proper path . . .”The staff is also used for guiding sheep through a new gate or along a dangerous, difficult route. He will use the slender stick to press gently against the animal’s side, and this pressure guides the sheep in the way the owner wants it to go. Thus the sheep is reassured of its proper path . . . Keller says that he has seen a shepherd walk beside a pet or favorite sheep with his staff gently resting on its back. It appears that they are in touch or walking hand-in-hand. Sheep are not easily trained but this may be a method of training her as a leader.

The Shepherd’s staff – a source of comfort

This excerpt reminds me that, yes, a shepherd reassures his or her sheep. The Good Shepherd does this better than any other. It also reminds me that the Good Shepherd came not just to walk alongside us, amid his flock, but to teach us to be a leader like him. Thank You, Lord, for being the Foremost and Ultimate Shepherd.

And Lord, even when Your protection and your training aren’t experiences I’d like to repeat, help me to recognize You loving me through these difficult times. Help me to respond eagerly to Your efforts to shape me into a leader with Your eyes, Your heart, Your mind, and Your will. Amen.

Works cited

Abbott Shari, “How Are the Shepherd’s Rod and Staff Different” Reasons for Hope Jesus, 2023, https://reasonsforhopejesus.com/shepherds-rod-and-staff-different/.

Albright, Jack. “The Shepherd’s staff — the source of comfort.” Atchison Globe, 3 March 2023, https://www.atchisonglobenow.com/community_and_lifestyles/religion/the-shepherd-s-staff-a-source-of-comfort/article_e2f7c088-6c6a-5ecb-bde7-7eea2cbb545d.html#:~:text=A%20staff%20is%20a%20unique,and%20defense%20of%20the%20sheep.

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday, 7 May 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

Craig. “Why is it necessary to break the ribs when performing CPR? Is that suppose [sic] to happen?” Quora, 2022, https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-necessary-to-break-the-ribs-when-performing-CPR-Is-that-suppose-to-happen/answers/106136575?no_redirect=1