Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.

To be honest, I had forgotten that this was in the Old Testament. I just had Peter’s expression of this in my mind: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) The Japanese translation here is much closer to what Peter wrote than the NIV is. In any case, the truth is that God cares about His children. From one standpoint that seems absurd. Why would the Creator of the universe care about such insignificant beings as we are? However, we have the very clear evidence that He cares so much that He sent His Son to die in our place, taking the penalty for our sins. The flip side of that is that He cares whether we are obedient to Him or not. Some people don’t want God to care, because they want to do their own thing. We have such trouble really grasping that all of God’s commands are for our good. If He didn’t care about us, collectively and individually, then it wouldn’t much matter what we did, because we’d all go to destruction anyway. We don’t know who wrote Psalm 116, but it contains a very important truth: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15) We might misunderstand that, thinking God is happy when someone dies, but the actual meaning is that human death is something of great importance to God. The Psalmist probably didn’t have a clear understanding of eternal life, but he did grasp that human life is a big deal to God. There are many things that are essentially beyond the grasp of human intellect, and the depth of God’s love and care is one of those. We can’t really explain it but we can receive it by revelation. As in so many things, it comes down to our choice: we can choose to believe, and we are incalculably blessed if we do.

Once again I am reminded of something I wrote just two days ago when the subject was depression. I was thinking about all the junk in the world, and God clearly said to me, “How do you think I feel?” The thing is, He cares. I have every reason to believe that, not only from the Bible but from everything in my life, but I still waver from it at times in practical terms. Part of my difficulty is that my caring burns out. Caring is emotionally expensive! However, not caring leaves me emotionally bankrupt. I can’t begin to carry the burdens of everyone around me, but instead of running from them, I need to let God carry those burdens, and sometimes even use me in the process. When I want to be like my Lord Jesus, I need to let Him express His caring through me, for the blessing of many and for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You also for the example of my wife, who is the most caring person I know. She is greatly loved, because she loves so much! Help me learn from her, and from You how to be a more effective and accurate vessel of Your caring for everyone in my sphere, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!