[This devotion is the final part of a 3 Devotion series on The Venite.]

Psalm 95:7

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As we continue meditating on The Venite. That song from the office of Matins, which is Psalm 95. I want to read one more verse to you. Verse seven of Psalm 95

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 95:7)

As we consider this song as the perfect morning hymn, as we’re preparing to use our hands to go out and accomplish the work God has for us, we look at our God’s hands. And here the third time in this Psalm, we see God’s hands described for us, now as a shepherd’s hands. Holding his sheep. We are the sheep of his hand. We often think of the shepherd holding the staff aloft, the shepherd’s crook by which he guides the sheep. But of course, that staff is in the shepherd’s hand, and the shepherd’s hand is of so much more importance than just the staff by itself. The staff is there to point to the hand of the shepherd, so that the shepherd can bestow his love on the sheep as he pets them, lovingly moves them along, uses those hands in working to shear the sheep, to feed the sheep, to water the sheep, to birth the lambs. Those hands are intimately at work among the sheep.

Now, as we, these sheep, go about accomplishing the work that God has for us. Ultimately, we’re receiving all the work that he is giving to us. We’re receiving the blessings. This good Shepherd is guiding us in good pastures everywhere we go. It might not always be apparent, but everywhere we go he has blessings in store for us. He is guiding us along every step, whether it’s along the greenest pastures or in the deepest, darkest valleys. We belong to that shepherd. He not only guides us by those hands, he holds us in those hands, those very hands that once again were pierced for our transgressions. Those hands that formed us out of the dust. Those hands that open to feed us every day. And those hands that embrace us with his love, his undeserved love and holy grace that he gives us especially and most significantly in His Son, Jesus Christ.

His hands open now also to you in His Word. He reads this word to you through the mouths of pastors and fellow Christians, or through your own eyes, perusing this word. This is the green pasture on which you can feed throughout your daily work, and you can know as you go about that work that your father is pleased with you. Your God loves you, sanctifies all that work. He is working through you. Rest in him and enjoy the blessings that he has for you.

Psalm 95:5

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We’re continuing to talk about the Venite, that Psalm 95 song that’s often sung in the mornings, that perfect morning hymn as we get ready to go about our work day. I want to read the next verse in Psalm 95. This is verse five.

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:5)

This is again emphasizing the work of the Father’s hands. As we prepare for our work going about our day, we look at our God’s hands that formed the earth. When we think of how God created Adam, we think of the sculptor who’s so intimately and delicately forming the clay to build a human being in his own image, in order to accomplish the work that he has for him, and to receive the blessings that he wants to bestow upon him. But God is not just a sculptor, he’s a landscape painter. He built the whole earth. All the dry ground was formed by him. You can picture him lifting it up out of the sea. Of course he accomplished all of this by his word. So the hands are a metaphor here, but his hands hold the earth. Form it, shape it. When you see a beautiful landscape that was designed by the painter, God, and not just the dry land, but the sea also is his.

There’s an old school of thought about the sea and the land. The land is stable. The land is where you can rest secure. You know you’re safe when you’re on dry land. The sea, however, is chaotic, especially if you’ve ever been caught in a wave in the ocean and totally subsumed by it. There’s a moment while you’re tumbling through the water where you don’t know which way is up. Direction makes no sense. Space makes no sense. Time makes no sense. The sea is chaos. That’s a picture that we have in Genesis two that when God created the world, it was formless and void, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters and then created a perfect, beautiful order out of it. So we can start to think of the sea as something evil. But it’s not. It also belongs to God. It is the good thing out of which he has brought his creation.

Think of a painter using the pools of paint and splattering them around, mixing them around. It looks like a mess, but what a good thing that is to create beauty out of and the sea that our God owns. He commands as well. And we can see when Jesus was on the boat with his disciples numerous times how he calmed the stormy seas, it obeyed him. The disciples asked, who is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? This is none other than God. God owns the sea. He owns the sea of troubles that come against you, also. He owns your entire environment so that when you feel lost and alone, so that you don’t know which direction is up or where you’re headed, God has this in control. He formed the dry land, and the sea also is his, and you are his. And he has redeemed you through the waters of baptism and adopted you as his child to give you peace and life everlasting.

Psalm 95:1-4

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There’s a song that we often sing in our church services, especially in the Office of Matins, and you find it there under its Latin name, The Venite. And that’s the first word in the Latin version of Psalm 95. And I want you to consider Psalm 95, or the Venite, as the perfect morning hymn. The perfect way to start your day. I want to read the first few verses here, but then I want to focus, especially on this picture of the hands of our God. And we’ll talk about that over a couple more devotions here. But the first few verses of Psalm 95,

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.

Psalm 95, verses one through four. Now picture the hands and the picture the start of your day. You’re getting ready to use those hands. The day has been prepared for you to go and take your hands and do the work that God has prepared for you. Whether you’re working outside the home, inside the home, at your studies, work is objectified in the hands.

Think of the work that Adam had to do in the Garden of Eden, digging those hands in the dirt in order to plant and cause things to grow. All that work went out into a more difficult sphere after the fall into sin, and now that work is filled with pain and trouble and sorrow. But we’re to be reminded as we go to our work, which is going to be a day filled with our own sins and sins committed against us too, that we shouldn’t look just at our hands, but at the hands that are holding us and all things. Look at these hands. The hands of God hold the deep places of the earth and the heights of the hills. Not only does this emphasize the power of our great creator, but he’s the one who formed us out of the dust of the earth and who holds us still. And in a prophet, it also says that he has engraved us on the palms of his hands.

Where you see the hands of God most vividly are in those hands that are pierced by the nails on the cross. In Jesus hands your name was engraved. He holds the deep place of your sin, your death, your suffering. He holds that in his hands to bring you up onto the mighty hills of salvation, the hill on which he was crucified, the hill from which he ascended into heaven. The hill on which God comes to meet you with His Word and Sacraments, and ultimately will bring you again to be caught up with your Lord in the air. To be embraced by those hands once again. The hands of God hold you.