REVIVAL TALK

  Psalms 23:5 – “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”             In verse 4 David writes, “I will fear no evil.” Verse 5 reveals why we do not have to fear. I John 4:18 says, “Fear has torment.” As believers we have power over the spirit of fear. We have the promise of 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” In the Middle East the shepherd carries only a rod and staff. Phillip Keller writes, “Each shepherd boy, from the time he first starts to tend his father’s flock, takes special pride in the selection of a rod and staff exactly suited to his own size and strength. He goes into the bush and selects a young sapling that is dug from the ground. This is carved and whittled down with great care and patience. The enlarged base of the sapling where its trunk joins the roots is shaped into a smooth, rounded head of hard wood. The sapling itself is shaped to exactly fit the owner’s hand. After he completes it, the she

  Psalms 23:4 – “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Tony Cooke writes in his book, Because the Lord is My Shepherd , “The 23rd Psalm is loved for so many reasons, but it is perhaps the fourth verse that causes it to be such a source of comfort during the most traumatic and difficult times of life. While this psalm vividly portrays God’s comfort and support, it does not ignore the hard realities of human existence. Rather, David’s words show us the power and care of a Shepherd whose influence penetrates and transcends even the worst that life can throw at us.” [i]   A believer is not exempt from the challenges of life. The Psalmist David writes in Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” The good news in Psalms 23:4 is “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Our great shepherd promises to lead us th