SATURDAY 6th
Psalm 28
NIV (v9) – ‘Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.’
ESV (v) – ‘Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.’
Yet another psalm in which David is in distress! And we have only got to the 28th psalm! But at least he knew where to turn and who to turn to, and he knows the LORD has heard him saying in verses 6-7 ‘Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults . . .’ and as he considers what the LORD has done for him he continues ‘. . . and with my song I give thanks to him.’
In verse 6 he says, ‘The LORD is my strength . . .’ and in verse 8 ‘The LORD is the strength of his people . . .’
We have already seen how God has been David’s strength, and the strength of his people the children of Israel, he has continually come to their aid overpowering the enemy and empowering them in the midst of conflict.
But I want to just turn to the last line in this psalm, ‘Be their shepherd and carry them forever.’ I don’t know what kind of picture this conjures up in your mind, but I suppose being a farmer’s son and I can look back to the 23 years I lived on the farm and recall the many times I have watched my dad picking up the sheep, in particular the lambs and carrying them, and I myself having also done it so many times. Picking them up to take them to a place of safety, security, warmth and if needed to reunite them with their mother if lost or to seek to introduce them to another ewe if they have been orphaned.
It seems in this psalm that David in considering the nation of Israel could see that for some reason they always needed to be carried, and he knew that the LORD God was a good shepherd and that he would pick them up and he would carry them in his arms.
Our Shepherd, the Lord is also a good Shepherd, we read this in John 10:11 and as a good Shepherd he knows when we need picking up and he is willing to pick us up and carry us when we are finding the journey difficult, when circumstances and situations perplex us, when we are feeling lost and hopeless, he picks us up and cradles us in his loving arms. I know I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating, the picture found in Isaiah 40:11 ‘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.’ Times are tough at this moment for us all, in so many different ways during this pandemic, but I just want to encourage you that in the midst of it all the good Shepherd is with us, and he is willing to pick us up and to carry us in his arms. Today if you are struggling, with anxiety, worry or care, turn to the Shepherd call out to him and allow him to embrace you with his arms and to lift you up and carry you through. Just as David realised that the LORD was his strength, just as the children of Israel knew the LORD was also their strength, so he is ours as well. And he is so strong he can scoop us all up into his arms and carry us through.
When our children were growing up sometimes one of them would stand a distance away and then I would stoop down with my arms wide open and they would run toward me, into my arms and I would lift them up, today the Lord our Shepherd is standing, stooping with his arms wide open, take a run into his arms, let him lift you up.