Welcome to the daily chizuk (encouragement). Hashem is constantly doing chesed (kindness) for us every moment of our lives. Tehillim is filled with Pesukim (verses) describing Hashem’s chesed. It says that the more we recognize how kind Hashem is, the happier we will be. Everything that happens to us is chesed Hashem, but we aren’t always capable of understanding why it’s a chesed. The more we realize how little we are, how great Hashem is, and how far beyond us Hashem’s plan is, the more we will trust in Hashem.
David HaMelech said, “Hashem is my shepherd, and therefore I never feel lacking.” Rabbi Falk explained, “A shepherd is a human being with sechel (intellect), and sheep are animals with very little sechel. If you compare sheep to a human being, it’s a mashal of the comparison between us and Hashem. The shepherd has sechel; he has a plan, but the sheep don’t know.” So too, David HaMelech said, “Hashem ro’i lo echsar. I appreciate Hashem that you are my shepherd and I’m just a sheep, and therefore I don’t feel lacking.” Hashem always has the whole picture revealed before Him, while we can only see what’s in front of us at the moment.
Even when Hashem has to punish us, it’s with such a chesed. It says in Tehillim, and the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah explains this pasuk (verse) as saying, “Hashem is so kind; He punishes man according to his deeds.” The Gemara asks, “It doesn’t make sense. How does punishing a man according to his deeds show Hashem’s kindness?” The Gemara answers, “You have to read the pasuk backwards: Hashem punishes, and then you see the chesed.” And the answer is explained this way: If the punishment that’s coming upon you appears to be bad, you have to look deeper, and you will see that in reality, it’s really just another one of Hashem’s chasadim.
I once heard a mashal that could be used to explain this. Imagine Hashem decides on Rosh Hashanah this year that a person is going to make $500,000. If the person were informed of this, he might be very excited to know he has a great income. But Hashem could give him the parnassah (income) in two different ways. He could either allow the guy to make a steady profit of about $40,000 every month. If you see the man at the end of the year and ask him, “How was your year?” he will say, “Baruch Hashem (Blessed is Hashem), Hashem is so kind; He takes care of me.”
Or Hashem could have the person make the money another way. On the first day of the year, the guy could make $1,000,000. Then, over the next 12 months, he could lose about $40,000 a month. If you ask that guy at the end of the year, “How was your year?” he might say, “Terrible. Hashem is giving me a very difficult time. I don’t know what’s happening.” But in reality, in both scenarios, the guy made the same half a million dollars that year. In the second scenario, Hashem, in His kindness, was giving the guy a good year of income, but at the same time, He was wiping away thousands of averot (sins) and cleansing the person because he had to go through that suffering, which appeared to be a loss.
We don’t understand Hashem’s ways. But if we know we don’t understand, and more importantly, realize that chesed Hashem male’ah ha’aretz, the world is constantly being filled with Hashem’s kindness, it will be so much easier for us to trust in Hashem. Have a great day.