THE GREAT HERDSMAN

Psalms 3:5

I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for Adonai sustained me.


Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his concept of peace. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among far-off mountains. The second painted on his canvas a thundering waterfall during a raging storm with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam. At the fork of a branch, wet with the cataract's spray, a small bird sat on its nest, cheerfully singing. That is real peace.

How sad must The Father be when after all He does for us, we still sit there and worry. On the opposite, how elated must He be when, in full trust and confidence, we cease from our own fretting and trust Him to do the work of caring for us. When faced with the fiercest of hurricanes, we can still trust Him, because we know that no matter what the situation looks like, He keeps us In the hollow of His hands.

It is in the midst of trouble that faith is tested. When we allow something to worry or fret us, we have put limitations to God's omnipotence in our hearts. How offensive would that be if anyone did that to us. The Hebrew word for ‘herdsman’ is ‘Do’eg’, meaning: ‘worry-er’. He is our great ’Herdsman’; may we let Him do the worry of caring for us.

On another level of etymology, the Hebraic biblical concept of ‘sleep’ can also refer to death. As we can trust Him with the worries of our lives, we can also trust Him that as we lay ourselves to ‘sleep’, He will also sustain and revive us. Though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil' the psalmist affirmed.

Resurrection is His promise to us.