Word of Encouragement (6/10/2026)

Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever. (Ps. 28:9)‍

There is one more point to observe in the first pair of petitions: God’s people are presented as His heritage.

This is a remarkable idea when we think about it. We are used to the idea of the promised land as Israel’s inheritance from the Lord. We are also aware of the Lord being the inheritance of the house of Aaron and the tribe of Israel: “And the Lord said to Aaron, ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel’” (Num. 20:18).

We find nothing strange in these ideas. What is common in these two? The desirable value of the inheritance—the promised land for the Israelites and the Lord Himself for the Levites. And the Lord withholding from the Levites the inheritance of the land was not to be viewed as an unfair deprivation of divine blessing; rather, it was to highlight the surpassing greatness of God’s special favor on the Levites in giving Himself to them as their inheritance. How can the small plot of land in Palestine be compared to the Lord Himself? Even so, the Israelites ought to rejoice in their inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey. The Levites should rejoice even more that the Lord Himself was their inheritance due to His surpassing greatness.

If so, it strikes us as strange that God should consider the people of Israel as His inheritance. What good did they offer to God that He should treasure them as His heritage? Far from bringing delight to the Lord, they offended Him through their covenant faithlessness and rebellion against Him. If they were God’s heritage in any way, they were more like a heavy debt than a great deal of wealth. Yet, David asked the Lord to bless them as His heritage.

But this was not a shameless request on David’s part; it was in accordance with God’s own intention when He entered into a covenant relationship with Israel. God was very much aware of the depths of Israel’s sinfulness. Nothing that Israel had ever done caught Him off guard. If God expressed His shock at Israel’s wickedness, it was an anthropopathic expression, designed to show how wicked they were. Yet, He still adopted them as His people because He intended to make something beautiful out of them by His grace. This was ultimately fulfilled through Jesus’ work of redemption for His elect people.

On account of Christ’s work, we can boldly pray for God’s blessings. For He has earned for us all the blessings of the covenant by His perfect righteousness. What blessings do you desire?