The Rod and Staff of a Shepherd

There's a part of Psalm 23 that we've heard as kind of embracing discipline. That is the part about the rod and staff. The rod would almost never be used against the sheep themselves to discipline the sheep. And then the staff is actually often used as a assurance of the shepherd's presence. All of these features of a rod and a staff are more about protection from external threats and assurance of continual presence.