The Good Shepherd’s Care

Living by faith, day by day...

Many people are anxious about dying, though it would profit them more to be anxious about living well instead.  Indeed the best reason to think about death (memento mori) is to think about the value of life (memento vivere). Likewise many people are anxious over the prophesied "End of Days" (אחרית הימים) though it would profit them more to be anxious about walking their present day before the Presence of the Lord....

In the Gospel of Matthew we read these words of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34).  Soren Kierkegaard comments: "If there is no next day for you, then all earthly care is annihilated. When the next day comes, it loses its enchantment and its disquieting insecurity. If there is no next day for you, then either you are dying or you are one who by dying to temporality has grasped the Eternal, either one who is actually dying or one who is really living... The one who rows a boat turns his back to the goal toward which he is working. So it is with the next day. When, with the help of the Eternal, a person lives absorbed in today, he turns his back to the next day. The more he is eternally absorbed in today, the more decisively he turns his back to the next day.”  Amen. Therefore may it please God to help us live for Him today, as it is written: “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in Him!” (Psalm 118:24). Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, this is the day made for you...

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Psalm 118:24

זה־הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה יְהוָה
נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ

“This is the day that the LORD has made,
let us rejoice and be glad in Him.”

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The walk of faith is one of “holy suspense,” trusting that God is on the other side of the next moment, “preparing a place for you” (John 14:3). In the present, then, we live in unknowing dependence, walking by faith, not by sight. For “hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees?” (Rom. 8:24). This is the existential posture of faith - walking in “darkness” while completely trusting in God’s daily care. Our task at any given moment is always the same - to focus our hearts to the unseen God and to accept His will. This is where time and eternity meet within us, where God’s kingdom is revealed in our hearts. It makes no sense to worry about the future if the Good Shepherd tenderly watches over your way.

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Psalm 23:1-3a

יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר
בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא יַרְבִּיצֵ֑נִי
עַל־מֵי מְנֻחוֹת יְנַהֲלֵנִי
נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.”

Psalm 23:1-3a Hebrew page (pdf)