The Good, Good Shepherd – The Presidential Prayer Team

You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. – Psalm 23:4

According to SongSheet, there are at least 586 definitive songs of worship about shepherds. It probably wouldn’t take you long to think of a dozen or more of them. They, like Psalm 23, remind you that the Lord is your Good Shepherd. The love and care of the shepherd for his sheep, the shepherd’s searching out for one lost sheep of his flock, the guidance and leadership of the shepherd: all of these find their place in music, Bible accounts, and even children’s storybooks.

But you seldom sing of the tools the shepherd uses. His rod. His staff. A half dozen years ago, a New York Times reporter spent time following a Navajo shepherd and 800 little hooves under bleating copper-colored dust covered wool. The Navajo woman led the sheep from behind, making sure none of them strayed or straggled. A crew of dogs were useless as herding the animals but kept pace with the flock anyhow. The herder made use of her rod and her staff. With her rod, a relatively straight limb of a mesquite tree, she would deftly beat a thorn bush off a ewe or hold aloft a fence of barbed wire to let the sheep pass under it. Her staff, though, crafted with a crook in its neck, let her draw a weary lamb to herself, so she could pick it up and carry it for a while.

The rod, used authoritatively by the Lord, can symbolically defend a son or daughter in danger, while the staff as the gentler instrument, brings the wanderer back to safety and shelter. Is Jesus your Good Shepherd? Are you comforted by the “tools of the shepherd’s trade” that He uses on your behalf? Is He controlling your path? Submit to His loving care today and pray for the “wanderers” in the halls of government to find the Good, Good Shepherd for themselves.

Today’s Verse: Psalm 23:4

Even 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.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: John 10:7-18

⁷So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”