Yahweh Shalom

Scripture: Psalms 23:1-3a - 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.

Sheep, are dumb.  After the fall [as in Genesis], everything became misfitted, to include sheep.  Now, I'm not saying they were ever that smart then, but for sure now they would most likely eat your tax-forms,  than to sit down and complete them.  Much like sheep, even with all of the advantages we have that they lack, we are often dumb.  Often reactionary to a fault, sheep need [much like folks], a shepherd, a good shepherd, to bring a clarifying love to this fallen wilderness habitat, to let Faithfulness' effect unbundle the issues of our deep-seated unrest.
That Faithfulness is attentive through the night, and strong throughout the day.  That Faithfulness is as a wall before the harmful, and a bridge before the beneficial.  That Faithfulness is knowledgeable and personable, and yes, unselfish.  It is a caring which nourishes and defends, which leads and corrects, a shalom-rendering-care which brings, rightly, both the blessed addition, and the blessed subtraction in due time, a caring which fosters peace.
We are invited to know God as our peace, as well as being the bringer of peace, by which we have peace with God.  Yahweh [or Jehovah] Shalom, as His name, declares this.  Jesus [or Yeshua] embodies this.

Even though David penned Psalm 23, I can imagine Adam living it out, before the fall. "He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters."
Such is the reality for every believer to know, and for every called-out son or daughter of Adam to turn toward.  "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want."
We can be as jumpy, and compulsive, and wayward as sheep, heading toward our own harm, being blind to our own self-destruction, having a herd-mentality running the wrong way, blind to the dynamic of momentary, modest faults we've allowed to be acceptable, which accrue to being tomorrow's self-made mountains: but PEACE is given of the good Shepherd, lending to a peacefulness good for the thriving of others nearby as well as ourselves.  This un-natural peace lets us be "careful for nothing".  We just need to turn our eyes upon Jesus, to look and live.

Prayer:  Dear GOD grant me the serenity to accept the things I ought not change, the courage to change the things I should, and the wisdom to know the difference, living one day at a time, thankful within every moment, accepting hardship on the pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, [not as I would have it], trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will, my calling, that I may know His blessing here and now, and be utterly, gloriously joyful with Him forever, beyond.  Shalom and Amen. [This prayer, borrowed from Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr is for imperfect people only, with hurts, habits, hang-ups, and hiccups]

(by Dr. McNeal Brockington)