Comforting Correction
Psalm 23:4 (b)
For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Experiencing Jesus in the Psalms
“Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” A rod was for defense, and a staff was for direction. He gives us gentle reproof and severe rebuke. He has a rod for our defense, but He also has a staff for our direction. He has a staff for the little old sheep that are bound to stray. That comforts me. Now that I am getting to be an old man, I look back on my life and I realize that indeed that rod is a comfort. He used it on me several times, and I thank Him for it because it got me back into the fold. We all need that. 1
Living the Transformed Life
Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:20
- Thank You for loving me enough to stay with me, even when I failed to stay with You.
- Thank You for loving me enough to apply the painful correction I needed to change my selfish ways and break my prideful attitude. (Read: Hebrews 12:6-16)
- Thank You for loving me enough to defend me from my enemies who I thought were my friends.
If your life is free from Godly correction, your life may not be under His Lordship.
Praise and Prayer
Thank-You, Father, for all Your correction that encourages me as Your child.
Dear Jesus, please teach me to resist prideful thinking, and to embrace grace-filled living.
1. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: Poetry (Psalms 1-41) (electronic ed., Vol. 17, pp. 137–138). Nashville.