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.”

The One who mercifully shepherds His people is also the One who humbles the world by His might (v.10), and the hands that tenderly bind the sheep close to their Shepherd’s heart are the hands that uphold the cosmos (v.12). The One who is Mighty wields that might in mercy, and the Sovereign One exercises that sovereignty in tenderness toward His people. How can this be? Because the Almighty Shepherd is Himself the Slain and Risen Lamb (Rev.7:17), whose heart has borne every one of His people’s thorns (Is.53:4-6), and so overflows with saving compassion for them in the midst of their need (Heb. 2:18; 4:16). Those who are casting themselves wholly and only on Christ...those who are bowing their will to His own and placing ‘autonomy’ on the altar of His wise providence, may you know yourself, this day, upheld by the tender might of the One True God, and bound to His heart by the sovereign hands that sustain the cosmos—the wounded hands of our risen Good Shepherd.