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By: Charles W. Boatright
P-234 one of the Most Famous Verse in History– P-234 is Psalms 23:4 that contains just 30- Words describe trials that forge our faith. The 23rd Psalms Promises us that we have Nothing to fear because we are never alone, You are with us.
THE 23rd PSALMS:
(1) The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. (2) He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. (3) He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
(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. (5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
I want to focus on eight words in the fourth verse of The 23rd Psalms- Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. When we think of our Faith Factor as being a power demonstrated in terms of a spiritual component alone we overlook the importance of physical factor of our Faith.
Even James, a brother of Jesus, wrote in James 2:18 and 2:20 that faith is just as much a physical component as a spiritual component- (18) But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (20) Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
In sports, a team can have all the faith in their game plan; but it isn’t until they execute their game plan on gameday that is the only thing that matters. There are multiple examples of people in the Bible that had to demonstrate their faith with a Physical act first. I’m going to refer to three acts of Physical faith-
First Act of Faith– Joshua 2:1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. Just a side NOTE- Rahab is mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:31. So it isn’t a matter where you start; but where you finish that matters.
Second Act of Faith– Following the two spies entering Jericho and before Israel crossed over the Jordan River; the Priest had to take a step into the Jordan River before the waters were cut off as noted in Joshua 3:13.
Third Act of Faith– Kings 5:10 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria had leprosy that came to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy. When Elisha instructed him to go to the Jordan River and submerge himself seven (7) times Naaman scoffed at the idea of washing seven times in a muddy river of Jordan. But he had to act with his physical faith to be cured of Leprosy that was a death sentence then, something like cancer is to us now, that I know all too well about.
The Rod and Staff in verse 4 of The 23rd Psalms represents our faith based on Perseverance of Strength and Guidance of God in our daily lives for our confidence. Both the Lord’s Rod and Staff provide us both perseverance and confidence of guidance. Describing Faith to others is difficult enough to do; but a better description of our faith would be Perseverance and confidence, or Boldness. We are to have perseverance and boldness walking through our life and through challenges we face.
We just had a perfect demonstration of Perseverance and Boldness on Saturday, July 13th, 2024 at Butler, PA. If anyone had any doubts of God’s Divine Nature and Protection this incident should have demonstrated the protection that God provides us mentioned in The 23rd Psalms.
Also. from Psalms 34:7 is this reference- The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. There’s no doubt that an angel saved President Trump’s life on Saturday when an assassin’s 5.56 round from an AR-15 came within just millimeters of President Trump’s right side of his head and nicking his right ear.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death in Butler PA
What we all witnessed in a pasture in Butler, PA can only be described as a miracle of God where an AR-15 round just missed President Trump’s head by just millimeters. The AR-15 round was so close to President Trump’s head that it nicked his right ear. There was a miraculous photograph taken by Doug Mills of the New York Times that captured the contrail of the 5.56 mm round passing just left of President Trump’s head. This was an iconic photograph as what Joe Rosenthals’ picture capturing when six Marines raise the Stars & Stripes on Mount Suribachi on the Island of Iwo Jima.
If former President Trump didn’t pivot his head to his right, we wouldn’t be writing about a miracle that occurred, but instead we would be writing and reading the obituaries of a former President. This was President Trump’s walking through his Valley of the Shadow of Death that we all witnessed.
The 23rd Psalms can help people deal with their anxiety, or what is referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Condition (PTSC). First you are not alone when you have a dramatic situation occur; we have a shepherd and friends that can relate with us, please remember that. The 23rd Psalms provides us methods to confront and to restore our health and fitness from a PTDC.
Believe me God will make you lie down and be still in order to restore your soul, health, and fitness. I just got through fitting my battle with Stage 2 Prostate Cancer. When you hear that you have Cancer like I did on December 22nd, 2023, your entire world stops. You put your life on hold and you put your life in the hands of God and His Doctors at that time.
On March 21st and June 21st of 2024, I got news that I was clear of Cancer and will have a follow up on September 21st, 2024.
King David Circumstances for Writing The 23rd Psalms
I can’t think of a more anxious situation than someone constantly trying to kill you through no fault of your own, what President Trump is going through. This was what David was facing not with just one person, King Saul, trying to take David’s life, but an entire army. We see this with President Trump facing the mainstream media and the Democratic Party and their constant attacks that ended up almost taking President Trump’s Life.
King David and his rebels were under constant threat by King Saul and his army that wanted David dead because David posed a threat to King Saul and his reign. This threat by King Saul took place after Samuel anointed David King of Israel after he was brought in from the fields shepherding his father’s herd.
This shows how God uses the most humble of people to accomplish his divine well. During the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament of 2024, an announcer stated that what one team didn’t have in height they had in heart. Even God told Samuel that Man looks at the outer man; but God looks at the Heart, 1 Samuel 16:7.
The entire 23rd Psalms describes the Promises that we all can have in our journey through this life that consist of challenges and trials. Before David was the greatest King of Israel, the Apple of God’s Eye, he was just the youngest son of Jesse and a humble shepherd that used his experience as a shepherd to write the most inspirational passage of the Bible, The 23rd Psalms, one of the greatest chapters of the Bible.
The Contrast of The 23rd Psalms
If you want to understand the Bible, God’s Holy Word, then use sports to help understand the vast resource of power, strength, perseverance, and confidence that the Bible has for us. Because sports help us understand the contrast between the Spiritual and the Physical that is revealed in The 23rd Psalms.
There’s a contrast that David writes about in The 23rd Psalms. The contrast is how David describes that He, God, LEADS me in verse two (2) then David states in verse four that He is WITH me. That is a dramatic contrast for us to grasp. You would think that God leads us all the time. Also David in verse four reference something that David was very familiar with, Your ROD & STAFF they comfort me this is our Perseverance of strength and Confidence of guidance.
We all have had teachers, coaches, and mentors that have helped us with advice and instructing us in our life that form who we are. But probably the closest example to the contrast between LEAD ME and WITH ME that David is explaining in the second and fourth verses is that of a coach.
During Football summer camps and weekly practices with training and conditioning sessions where coaches lead us or walk us through plays, training and conditioning. But on gameday our coaches can only be with us from the sidelines or from the dugout calling plays. Our coaches can only call plays where we have to carry them out on the field under actual gameday conditions.
Now the Reference to the Rod and Staff
The shepherd carrying their Rod and Staff was used by shepherds to protect and defend themselves and their herds against wild animals. There was no doubt that David was courageous as a young boy and teenager where he fought off both a bear and lion protecting his herd. A lion would have been bad enough, but a bear would be even more of a formidable challenge. I believe David was referring to this when he encountered a lion and bear when he faced Goliath. Goliath couldn’t be any worse than a 1,000 pound bear.
The rod and staff signify our perseverance and our stamina and our true grit of confidence we must develop and have. The rod and staff is our perseverance, stamina, or true grit, representing our faith of confidence. There is nothing more powerful than our faith of perseverance and of confidence that are just as much a physical component as a spiritual component.
Without faith we couldn’t develop our confidence and our abilities to walk the road of life. When I used to be a project engineer on bridges, we would be required to walk beams over 100 feet in the air, where I would take a Sharpie felt tip pen up with me in my right hand while walking beams. It provided me with a scene of holding on to a horizontal lifeline that wasn’t there. This Sharpie Pen was my Rod and Staff. It was actually God and me on that 10- inch wide flange.
Just knowing that I held that Sharpie Pen provided me the confidence needed to focus on walking beams to profile them in order for the steel workers to set the correct grade with shimming-up the beams. Even during my last month that I worked as a Grid Engineer in Mississippi with Entergy in June of 2015, I was still using my Sharpie Pen to work at elevated heights. I want to spend time with each of my crews before retiring.
So we can use God’s rod and staff for our perseverance and confidence that is actually demonstrated through a physical action as noted by what James alluded to in his second chapter. That is to develop our Faith that is a physical demonstration more than a mental or spiritual component. I used a Sharpie Pen to gain my comfort and confidence to walk beams over a 100- feet in the air where it was just God and Me!