Your rod and your staff - they comfort me

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

Tonight as I was pottering about the house in the wee hours of the morning, I felt a pang of fear threaten to unseat my peace ... to which I uttered, "I will fear no evil ... for your rod and your staff - they comfort me." -- a verse I am very familiar with from Psalms 23.

And... in that moment, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to something I had never seen before, and I was so excited! ... which is that the shepherd carries two implements, a rod and a staff. I always knew Psalm 23 to be a pastoral, peaceful psalm - and the shepherd carries a staff, to guide and care for us, His sheep. But suddenly, the Holy Spirit asked me, what is the shepherd doing with a rod?

So I did a quick search online, to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Yes, the rod and staff are separate implements.

This is what my googling threw up - among them, a short excerpt from the book "The Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23" by W Phillip Keller. He writes: "The staff is essentially a symbol of concern, the compassion that a shepherd has for his charges. No other single word can better describe its function on behalf of the flock better than that it is for their comfort. The rod conveys the concept of authority, of power, of discipline, of defense against danger."

The Holy Spirit reminded me at that moment of Psalms 2, where God speaks of Jesus as King, Bridegroom and Judge. In that Psalm, it is said of Jesus, in reference to the rebelling heathen nations, that "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." A picture of a powerful, majestic, fearsome Lord.

Sometimes, like tonight, the Evil One tried to cause me to doubt if the Lord can keep me. It is almost as if he was tempting me to doubt if the Lord is powerful. So tonight, I was really really excited by what the Holy Spirit showed me from Psalms 23:4. Which is that even in a Psalm whose main focus is about God's love for us, His love for us is a fierce love that says to the Enemy, Don't mess with my sheep.

If you mess with my sheep, you will contend with my rod.

Prayer today: Oh Lord, thank you. This pierces my heart. You are a good, awesome God, and I am safe in your arms indeed. Hallelujah. Amen!

Angels, and the goodness of the Lord

This morning, before I left for work, my sis told me the news that a church member had passed on ... I didn't know this lady personally, but my sis did. She was a fiesty lady, dedicated to ministry, and a faithful servant of the Lord. She had passed on, after succumbing to cancer. It was a relatively short battle ... months only ... and when she was diagnosed, this lady had still retained her optimism. But the chemotherapy got to her - her organs started failing - and this morning, she went home to be with the Lord.

I asked my sis if her death was sudden. I asked because from recent accounts, it had been an up and down journey - some days up, some days down. My sis said no, the family was prepared. Because - and this is what brought a lump to my throat - before she passed on, this lady had asked her husband to release her to the Lord. This was after she saw a vision of two angels standing by her bedside. And ... despite the pain she was in ... she was so happy, she lifted her hands to worship the Lord.

Just thinking about it has made my eyes tear a few times today. It made me tear because it just reminded me how good God is. How real our faith is. How real eternity is. How we are spirit beings, looked after by God, and ministered to by his angels. And at our journey's end, He sends His angels to bring us - His dear children - home. WOW!

I teared because I was just floored by how even at her life's end, even when it was painful physically to do so, this lady praised the Lord, not just in her heart but with the lifting of her hands. WOW!

God is good. And real. Suddenly, the reality of eternity hit home. And the reality of the Lord's goodness in redeeming us - so we are forgiven and adopted into his family - hit home. We are truly privileged as children of God. Truly privileged.

Solomon and largeness of heart

There is a story that comes to us out of the long ago of a king who organized a great race within his kingdom. All the young men of the kingdom participated. A bag of gold was to be given to the winner, and the finish line was within the courtyard of the king's palace. The race was run, and the runners were surprised to find in the middle of the road leading to the king's palace a great pile of rocks and stones. But they managed to scramble over it or to run around it and eventually to come to the courtyard. Finally all the runners had crossed the finish line except one. But still the king did not call the race off. After a while one lone runner came through the gate. He lifted a bleeding hand and said, "O King, I am sorry that I am so late. But you see, I found in the road a pile of rocks and stones, and it took me a while, and I wounded myself in removing them." Then he lifted the other hand, and in it was a bag. He said, "But, Great King, I found beneath the pile of rocks this bag of gold." The king said, "My son, you have won the race, for that one runs best who makes the way safer for those who follow." -- Bruce Thielemann, "Christus Imperator," Preaching Today, Tape 55.

Today, at Cornerstone Community Church, we were taught about living as Royalty (sons and daughters of the Most High God). What struck me most was this verse on Solomon:

"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." (1 Kings 4:29 KJV)

I always knew Solomon had wisdom. I never knew he also had largeness of heart. Ps Yang preached that how large our heart is determines the extent to which God can use us to reach others ... how much we can carry ... and then distribute. In the F1 pitstop, refuelling a racing car takes all of 7 seconds, because the fuel hose is huge (and takes 2 men to carry). On the contrary, if our hearts are constricted, how little love and grace will flow from God, through us, to others ...

I found another analogy in Sheena Ryan's book "Pathways to Destiny", which I am currently reading. She writes, "Our lives can be a narrow pathway or a superhighway for the purposes of God. It is up to us to choose what we will allow God to do in our life and how much of His presence and power can dwell in us ... The state of our personal pathways determines the degree of the glory of God that can be revealed in and through us, and also how much of His kingdom we can access. When the pathways are fully restored, they become that highway for the glory of God. Within that glory-God's manifest presence - is contained all that we need both for our own life and the lives of those we touch."

The start of 2010 has been busy, harried and fast-paced already ... and I can so feel my heart constricting as a result. I think in Singapore, our pace of life and the striving is the biggest enemy of this thing called largeness of heart. But what a gift it is! My prayer is that He would grant me largeness of heart!

The ultimate rags to riches story

As I asked the Lord what He would have me do in 2010, I sensed Him say that it is to be a year of extravagant worship. I read in a devotional today that as believers, ours is the ultimate rags to riches story. How true. These are a few things I picked up from my readings today on how blessed we are:

1. We are children of God! What a royal calling!

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:12,13)

2. God is a shield to those who walk uprightly

"He holds victory in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
For he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones." (Proverbs 2:7-8)

Herbert Lockyer says it eloquently. He describes the shield as "the most ancient and universal weapon of defense". "Shields were most necessary for use against besiegers who employed darts and stones and blazing torches to overcome the besieged. It was the means of defense between the soldier and his foe."

"Is it not blessed to know that as our Shield, God is between the enemy and ourselves, and that therefore no trial can overtake us apart from His permissive will? Behind Him as our Shield, the antagonisms of Satan, and accusations of men cannot injure us."

Prayer today: O Lord, thank you for our royal calling as children of God. And thank you that you are our Shield, to protect us from the enemy. If you are for us, who can be against us? I stand secure in your protection, your love. Help me to adore you, to worship you, to praise you, for in you, mine is the ultimate rags to riches story. In Jesus' name, Amen.