Psalms 77:19-20—Thy way is in the sea.... Thou leddest thy people like a flock.
This is almost the climax of sublimity, because of the contrast of the majesty and gentleness of God. In the first of these verses you have the former. God is described as wading through mighty oceans as a man might ford some tiny stream. The Atlantic with fathomless depths is no more to Him than a brook to us—not so much. But as the brook hides the footmarks which are imprinted on its soft ooze, so are God’s footprints hidden. We cannot detect his great and wonderful secrets. We are unable to gauge his reasons. He marches through the ages with steps we cannot track. For his orbit there is no standard of computation.
But dread Him not. This mighty God has the tender heart of a shepherd. He leads his people like a flock; not overdriving, but carrying the lambs in his bosom, and gently leading those that are with young. Mightier than the mightiest, but meeker than the meekest! The Lion of Judah, but the Lamb of Bethlehem! Prince and Savior; Fellow of Jehovah; and yet the smitten Shepherd of the scattered flock!
Nor is this all. It is a human hand that leads the flock. God does his work through the hands of human and fallible agents. You have not recognized Him; but had your eyes been opened, you would have seen his leading in the gentle hand of that mother, in the strong grasp of that friend, in the trembling fingers of that young girl, in the tiny hand of your little babe. Ah, how many good and tender hands have molded and fashioned our lives!—but beneath them all there have been the leadings of the great God, convoying us through deep and dark waters to our fold.