Another good scriptural intercessory prayer is found in Psalm 28:9, where David concludes the Psalm with these words: “Oh save Your people and bless Your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”  It is a prayer which specifically targets the people of God corporately, asking that the Lord would save them (“deliver from external dangers” BDB) and bless them.  Then he employs a familiar picture: 

David next asks God to “be their shepherd”. This is the same Hebrew word used in Psalm 23:1, where he said that YHWH was his shepherd, or literally, “the One shepherding me.”  He asks the Lord to do the same thing for God’s people corporately, which He had done for him personally.  “Carry them” continues the picture of the shepherd, who carries the immature or injured sheep which cannot keep up with the flock.

Psalm 28:9 is a good prayer to pray for any corporate groups of God’s people who are on your heart today:

— Pray this verse for your church (and other churches).  Ask God to bless them, save them from the enemy who is trying to compromise them and destroy their witness, and to carry them like a shepherd through these trying days.

— You can also pray these things for your Sunday School class, small group, or ministry team — any group of God’s people who need His help and protection.

— And we would not be amiss to pray this for individuals on our hearts as well.  That our Shepherd would pick up and carry individual sheep who cannot keep up, demonstrates His love for the individual, as well as the corporate group (See also Isaiah 40:11).  Surely you know someone today for whom you need to pray God’s protection and blessing; someone who needs Him to “be their shepherd and carry them”! Use Psalm 28:9 to lift them up to the Lord right now.