Psalms 78:70,71 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

He chose David also his servant Out of all the thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre into his hand, out of whose loins Christ was to come, and who was to be a type of him. And took him from the sheepfold As Moses also was taken. For he delights to put honour on the humble and diligent, and to raise the poor out of the dust, and to set them among princes. And he often finds those most fit for public action that have spent the beginning of their time in solitude and contemplation. From following the ewes great with young By which employment he was inured to that care, and diligence, and self-denial which are necessary qualifications in a king or governor; and instructed to rule his people with all gentleness and tenderness; to feed Jacob his people, &c. To be king over God's peculiar people, who were near and dear to him, which was both a great honour put upon David, and a great trust reposed in him, as he was thus charged with the care and conduct of those that were God's own inheritance. God, we must observe, advanced him to the throne, that he might feed them, not that he might feed himself; that he might do good, not that he might make his family great. It is the charge given to all under- shepherds, both magistrates and ministers, that they feed the flock of God.