Word of Encouragement (6/11/2026)

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

The second pair of petitions appeals to God as the Shepherd of His people and asks Him to carry His people forever. In the previous pair, David asked the Lord to bless Israel, His heritage. We can see that one way God blesses His people is to take care of them as their Shepherd.

What kind of Shepherd is God to His people? We see a negative example of it in God’s severe reprobation of Israel’s leaders in Ezek. 34: “You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them” (vv. 3-4).

From this, we can see what the Lord expected of the leaders when He set them over the Israelites as their shepherds. As under shepherds of the great Shepherd of the sheep, they were supposed to take care of God’s people as God’s obedient servants. But they miserably failed. When David appealed to God as the Shepherd of His people, he was asking God to do what the leaders of Israel failed to do—to feed the flock, strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the stray, seek the lost, and rule them well.

But David went one step further: he asked the Lord to carry them forever. Isaiah presents a touching picture of this: “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (Isa. 40:11). What is highlighted here? God’s tender love for His lambs, for sure: not only is God carrying His lambs, but He is also carrying them in His bosom! But also highlighted is the utter helplessness of the lambs, which requires such care from God; they cannot even amble by themselves.

Have you ever experienced being carried by the Shepherd of your soul? It is often the case that you don’t even know that such a thing was happening. All you remember is feeling utterly desperate and lost and alone. So, you cried out to God, but to no avail, it seemed. You remember the aching agony you suffered all through the sleepless nights. You remember feeling exhausted but not able to fall asleep. You remember the jittery and restless feeling of your mind racing, which would not stop. Then, things go dark in your memory. And the next thing you remember is the mysterious resolution of your trouble and the return of peace to your soul. Only then did you realize that the Lord had carried you all along, and you didn’t even know it!

Of course, the Lord cared for you even more sacrificially. To rescue you, the good Shepherd laid down His life on the cross and endured the wrath of God. Oh, how you are safe and secure in His bosom!  Oh, how He deserves your thanks and praise!