Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you, which lives alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.  As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, show us marvelous things.

It is humility to long to be shepherded.  To acknowledge that we are not our own masters but rather belong to the Good Shepherd.

Humility is truth, so it is also an acknowledgement of the reality Christ wishes us to accept by faith.  “Fear not, little flock,” he tells us. (Luke 12.32)  And “unless you become like this child…” (Luke 18.17)  A child lives each day in freedom and joy, for they completely trust their parent to provide for their necessities.  They are free to look with joy upon the new day; indeed, it never seems to end.

This is much  more profound an idea to reduce it to a mere lack of worry over paying the bills.  It is to live joyfully – blissfully even – in the knowledge that we have a shepherd.  We are a member of his flock.  And this shepherd par excellence is far more interested in our welfare than any earthly parent or shepherd could hope to be.  And so life asks of us: “of what are you afraid?  You already come and go and find good pasture.” (John 10.9)

Praise God in his holy Word.