Let us turn once again to God's
Word in that portion that we were considering this morning,
the end of Psalm 55. I'll read again then those words
from the latter part of verse 19, where we have the Selah,
Psalm 55, verse 19. In the middle of that verse,
we find that significant word Selah, We said this morning that it probably has to do with the way
in which the psalm was to be sung in the services of the temple. It indicates a definite break,
a pause, but also would draw our attention to the words that
are connected with it. And here we have the word because
they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. He hath put forth his hands against
such as be at peace with him. He hath broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother
than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer
than oil, yet were they drawn swords. Cast thy burden upon
the Lord, and ye shall sustain thee. Ye shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. that thou, O God, shalt bring
them down into the pit of destruction bloody and deceitful men shall
not live out half their days but I will trust in the as I
said there's a contrast being drawn in these words between
those who have no changes that's the ungodly man the hypocritical
man on the one hand and then on the other we have those who
do experience changes and we spoke of those spiritual changes
that are the portion of the people of God those great changes that
they are constantly having to do with and the effect of those
changes is that they are on occasions greatly troubled, distressed,
burdened And so we have the exhortation then in verse 22, cast thy burden
upon the Lord and he shall sustain, he shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. And so having this morning said
something with regards to the spiritual changes, I want now
to consider with you the spiritual burdens. The spiritual burdens
which cause these people who are experiencing all these vicissitudes
and changes cause them to call upon God in prayer as David says
in verse 16, as for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall
save me evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud
and he shall hear my voice. But thinking now in particular
of these burdens, these spiritual burdens. And first of all, to
say something with regards to the source of the burden. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
it says, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. And here, in the alternative
reading that we find in the margin, we can see where the source of
the burden comes from. Cast thy gift upon the Lord. It is God who is sovereign in
all the experiences of his people. and all that comes to them in
that sense comes as a gift from God. In every experience we should
seek to discern something of God, the hand of God, the dealings
of God. Remember what the Apostle says
at the end of that opening chapter of his epistle to the Philippians.
where he speaks of that gift of faith but he also makes mention
of that that comes as a gift with the gift of faith. He says
in Philippians 1.29, unto you it is given in the behalf of
Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his
sake. Clearly there he is speaking
of a two-fold gift. Unto you it is given in the behalf
of Christ to believe on Him. All faith is the gift of God.
By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. But Paul says something more
there at the end of Philippians chapter 1. given not only to
believe on Him but also to suffer for His sake. And so we read
those words in 1 Peter chapter 4 Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened unto you. There is nothing at all strange
about the trying of faith because these two belong together, faith
and the trial of faith. Again, Peter mentions it there
in the opening verses of that first general epistle. Verse 6 he says, Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, so now for a season, if need be, are in heaviness
through manifold temptations at the trial of your faith. being
much more precious than the gold that perishes though it be tried
with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ." Or where there is faith, we cannot
separate that faith from its trial. Now as you know the Psalms
are so experimental. David in the Psalms speaks out
of his own soul's experiences. Now he's moved to write of these
things. We mentioned this morning of course that there is an historical
context to what David is saying in this particular psalm. We
need to see this psalm in terms of that historic account that
we find in 2 Samuel chapters 15 to 18 where we read of how
his beloved son Absalom rose up against his father and led
a terrible rebellion and David had to flee from the city of
Jerusalem. He had to flee for his very life.
We read this morning there in 2 Samuel chapter 15. There was no safety for the king
there in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was about to fall to
Absalom and those associated with it. And so what does David
say here at verse 9? Destroy, O Lord, and divide their
tongues, for I have seen violence. and strife in the city. Day and
night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Mischief also
and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst
thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets." There was Absalom, the beloved son. There was Ahithophel,
David's friend, David's counselor. And we said this morning, are
we not to see these characters here? In what David says at verse
12, it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have
borne it. Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself
against me. Then I would have hid myself
from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked unto the house of God in company. or these were
his own flesh and blood these were his dear friends and yet
how unfaithful why their supposed love was nothing but hypocrisy verse 21 he says the words of
his mouth were smoother than butter but war was in his heart
his words were softer than oil yet were they drawn so Now as David is fleeing from
Jerusalem, we read in chapter 16 of how Shimeon, the Benjamite,
begins to curse him. You turn to that 16th chapter
there in the second book of Samuel. It's very instructive
to see David's reaction to this man Shimei who will curse him. When King David came to Barhurim,
we read at verse 5, Behold, thence came out a man of the family
of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gila. He came forth and cursed still
as he came, and he cast stones at David, and all the servants
of King David, and all the people, and all the mighty men were on
his right hand and on his left. And thus said Shimei, when he
cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial. Here he is, you see, he's of
the family of Saul, of Benjamite, he's cursing David. The Lord
hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, he
says, in whose stead thou hast roamed. and the Lord hath delivered
the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son and behold thou
art taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man. Then said Habishai the son of
Zoriah unto the king why should this dead dog curse my lord the
king let me go over I pray thee and take off his head and the
king said what have I to do with you ye sons of Zoriah So let
him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who
shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? And David said
to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my son which came forth
of my bowels seeketh my life. How much more now may this Benjamin
do it? Let him alone, and let him curse,
for the Lord hath bidden him. the Lord hath bidden him." Here
is David, you see. In all the extremity of his situation,
and yet recognizing in all of this cursing God, and acknowledging
in it the sovereignty of God. God is in these things. Oh, this
is the man after God's own heart. He understands something of the
ways of God, the dealings of God. He is submissive to God. He doesn't kick against God.
in his strange and his mysterious dealings in his providences he is so different to those hypocritical
men, those unbelievers, they have no changes because they
have no changes therefore they fear not God what fear of God
is here to be seen in David's heart he is so different to these
other men Again, look at the language that we find later in
Psalm 73, and there in verse 5 following. Concerning these ungodly men,
they are not in trouble as other men are, neither are they plagued
like other men. Therefore pride compasses them
about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment, their eyes
stand out with fatness, they have more than hearts could wish,
they are corrupt and speak wickedly, concerning oppression they speak
loftily, or they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. But David in the Psalm is writing,
as I say, out of his own experiences and it's not just those things
that are taking place outside of himself. He's writing really
out of the fullness of his own soul at this time. What does
he say? Here in verse 22, cast thy burden
upon the Lord and he shall sustain. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Who is this righteous man? Well,
it's David, but not righteous in and of himself. David knew
he was a sinner. A sinner saved by the grace of
God, this righteous man that he is speaking of who shall never
be moved in the midst of all these things that are coming
upon him. This righteous man is the justified
man. Isn't it David who speaks of
that great truth of justification by faith in the language of the
Psalm? There in Psalm 32, a Psalm of
David, he says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputed not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. David understands the doctrine,
the truth. of justification, justification
by faith, why it's to the language of David that the Apostle appeals. When in the epistle to the Romans
he has so much to say concerning the doctrine of justification
by faith. There in Romans chapter 4 we
find Paul making reference to David in Psalm 32. He asks the
question in verse 3 of Romans 4, what saith the scripture? Abraham
believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now
to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace but of
debt. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness,
even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." David
is this man, this righteous man, spoken of here in verse 22. He
shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Oh how the Lord
God is the one who preserves His children, and deals with
them, and teaches them, and instructs them all their days. They experience changes that
other men know nothing of, those who are the justified, Those
who are the justified must first of all experience that great
change. Of course in the sovereign purpose
of God they are justified from before the foundation of the
world. But in the appointed time that justification must come
into their soul's experience. They must know the truth of it.
This is what Martin Luther discovered, was it not, at the time of the
Protestant Reformation. How his eyes were open to that
precious doctrine, that great truth of justification by faith
as he was reading there in the epistle to the Romans that the
just shall live by faith. The just, that is a justified
man, the man accounted righteous. And how is this brought into
the soul's experience? Well we said this morning there
must first of all be the great change There must be that great change
which we call conversion, because by nature we're all in that state
of alienation. We're all born dead in trespasses
and sins. There must be that communication
of new life, of spiritual life. It must come into the soul of
the sinner. The sinner must be born again.
And if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Or as the
margin says, he's a new creation. All things are passed away, all
things are become new. He's a new creation. But when
he's a new creation, there's still that old nature, and that's
the conflict. That's the conflict, is it not? and those changes
that the believer is experiencing because he's involved in this
conflict the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit lusting
against the flesh and these two contrary one to the other says
Paul and you cannot do the thing that you want oh isn't this the
real source of the believers burdens he cannot do the thing that he
wants oh he's trouble because they, that is unbelievers, have
no changes. Therefore they fear not God,
but the believer has many changes. And he's ever learning what it
means to have the fear of God in his heart. Job. We spoke of
Job somewhat this morning. Changes and war, he says. Changes and an armour. Changes and a host are against
men. He speaks of Our trouble comes
upon trouble. One trial on the back of another
trial. His troops come together, he
says, and raise up their way against me, and then come round
about my tabernacle, all this poor body. How the man is suffering. Here is the solution, cast thy
burden, cast thy gift upon the Lord, and he shall sustain. We have to learn this lesson
to come to Christ, and to come to Christ, and to come to Christ,
and to come to Christ. He says, Come unto me all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. all those gracious words of invitation. Now they must come to the child
of God time and time and time again. What is Christ's yoke? Take my yoke, he says, upon you
and learn of me. Why, that yoke is the gift of
God. It's his burden. Cast thy burden
upon the Lord's. and He shall sustain them. Doesn't
the believer have to take up his cross? And he has to take
up that cross daily. If we're those who are truly
the followers of the Crucified One, we too must take up our
cross. It's part of the believer's discipleship. The words of the Lord Jesus Matthew 16 and verse 24 then
said Jesus unto his disciples if any man will come after me
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for
whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake shall find it for what is a man profited
if he shall go in the whole world and lose his own soul What shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? Who are we those who would
take up that cross? And take it up daily and be those
who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who would know
what it is to be experiencing in our own souls that crucifixion. I am crucified with Christ says
Paul. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me, to be
crucified with Christ. That means to be those who are
crucifying, mortifying the deeds of the body, that we might live. How the Lord deals with his people,
you see. He brings them into these experiences
of these various changes. Just as Job knew it, the trying,
the testing of faith. we cannot and we must not seek
to avoid these things as we said where there is that true faith
that faith that is saving faith that faith that is justifying
faith it will come hand in hand with the trial of faith for unto
you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe
on him but also to suffer for his God has joined these together,
and what God joins cannot be put asunder. Where there is no
trial, alas, we have to conclude there is no fief. Where there
is no furnace, no fiery furnace, there is no election. The Lord
chooses his people in the fiery furnace. Where there is no bitter
cup, There is no consolation and where there is no cross there
is no crown. How does the Lord Jesus Christ
enter into his kingdom? How does he come to be that one
who rules and reigns as the mediator? It is through crucifixion. No
cross, no crown. How we need that the Lord then
should be instructing us. Oh, this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith, and all the faith of David
as we see it here. The language there in verse 18,
I think we made some allusion to it this morning. He hath delivered
my soul in peace. He speaks in the prophetic perfect. He speaks of something done.
which was not yet done. If this psalm was written at
the time of Absalom's rebellion, David at that time was in great
jeopardy, likely to lose the kingdom. And yet here is his
faith, he hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that
was against me, for there were many with me. For David would
cast his burden upon the Lord. When he gives this word of exhortation
then he's not just a man who's speaking out of theory, he's
not just receiving a word as it were dictated by the Spirit
of God. No, he's speaking out of his
own soul's deep experience. Cast thy burden, thy gift upon
the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. or the source then, the source
of the burden, it is that that comes from God. It's God's gift and there's a
purpose in it. And so I want us secondly to consider something
of the design. The design behind the believer's
burden. Three things. As I've said first
of all we must recognize of course the purpose of God. What is God's
purpose? In His dealings He will move
His people to pray. The Lord Jesus has said men ought
always to pray and not to faint. We often faint in the midst of
the conflict of faith, in the midst of all the changes that
come into our lives, we are prone to faint. But we're not to thank, we're
to pray. And the Lord has to move us to pray, has to teach
us how to pray. There's a sort of reciprocating
action really in what we have here in verse 22. There is the prayer to God, that's
casting the burden upon the Lord. And as there is that, so there
is the sustaining of the Lord. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. We have it again, you see, in
verse 16, As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall
save me. We never call upon God in vain. He says again in another psalm,
commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will
bring it to pass. When we commit our way, when
we, and the margin says we have to roll our way, it's faith,
it's trust. Roll thy way upon the Lord, trust
also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. there's that trafficking
between heaven and earth this is the purpose of God when he
brings us into those troubles that tribulation the Lord Jesus
says in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer
I have overcome the world that's why faith has an overcoming power
and triumphs in the triangular, why? Because faith has to do
with the Lord Jesus, the object of faith. And He is the one who
is the overcomer. Or there is a certain trafficking
between heaven and earth. What is this psalm? It's really
a prayer, is it not? Look at the opening words of
the psalm, Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from
my supplication. Attend unto me and hear me, I
mourn in my complaints and make a noise." How David feels that
his prayer isn't really words, it's just a noise. He can hardly
begin to articulate words. This is the experience of the
godly man in the midst of his troubles, in the midst of all
those changes that come into his life. Those things that distinguish
him from the hypocrite. these different characters that
are said before us then in the psalm but the purpose of God
is to move his child to call upon him to pray to him but then
observe also that what we have here in this 22nd verse is a
precept it's a precept, it's a command
it's the imperative mood that we have in this opening clause
cast thy burden upon the Lord. That's the commandment. Let us
not shy away from the precepts of the Word of God. Let us not
be so partial in God's Word that we only want to refer to the
promises. There are those commandments that God has
given to His children. Cast thy burden, cast thy gift. God gives a gift And He tells
His children what they are to do with it. They are to cast
it upon Him. It's a strange gift, is it not?
When He comes and afflicts His children and so tests the reality
of their faith. But that's the God that they
are doing with. And He gives His commandment
to them. We're not to misuse, we're not to abuse any of the
gifts that God gives to us. We're not to be those who would
be murmuring and complaining against God. We're not to be
those who would moan and groan when He deals with us. All remember
the children of Israel and how quickly they turned against the
man Moses. He had brought them out. God had granted such a glorious
deliverance from all the bondage that they were experiencing there
in Egypt. We're told in Exodus 16 how they
took their journey from Elim and all the congregation of the
children of Israel came onto the wilderness of Sin which is
between Elim and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month
after their departing out of the land of Egypt. They had not
even been two months out of the land. It's the 15th day of the
second month. It's about six weeks after the
Passover when God had granted them such a glorious deliverance.
And they're now in the wilderness of sin somewhere between Elim
and Sinai. And the whole congregation of
the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. When the children of Israel said
unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when
we did eat bread to the full, for you have brought us forth
into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. They are murmuring, they are
complaining. Now that God deals with them, He sends the quails,
He sends the manna. Oh, He is such a gracious God.
But what a murmuring people the children of Israel were. Oh,
we are not to be like that. When God deals with us, what
are we to do? We are to cast our burdens upon
the Lord. We are to pray to Him. Have you
no words? Think again. Words flow apace
when you complain, and fill your fallow creatures' ear with the
sad tale of all your care. But after breath, thus vainly
spent to heaven in supplication sent, your cheerful song would
often abide. Hear what the Lord hath done
for me. How true are the words, friends.
We are so quick to comply and to fill one another's ears with
our complaints and we're so slow to pry. Men ought always to pry
and not to fight. Remember the language of the
Apostle James concerning prayer. He says, you have not because
you ask not. Simple as that. Here is the answer,
cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He
shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Do we do it? James says you have not because
you ask not. You ask and receive not because
you ask amiss that you might consume it upon your lust. God give us grace to heed then
his commandments. and to be those who would delight
in His precepts and embrace His precepts and desire above all
things that we might be obedient to all that the Lord is telling
us to do cast thy burden upon the Lord
we read it there of course in that fifth chapter of 1st Peter
casting all your care upon Him casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you." He has a care for His children. And
we see that in that He doesn't only give the command, but we
also have the promise. We have the promise in association with the commandments.
Here is the promise, He shall sustain thee. He shall never
suffer the righteous to be moved. Why? It's a two-fold promise. There's a negative aspect to
the promise. There's a positive aspect to
the promise. Here is the negative, He shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved. And here is the positive,
He shall sustain them or this is the God you say that we're
favoured to have dealings with this is the God who condescends
to come and deal with us when he gives us his gift when he
puts a burden upon us when he brings those changes into our
lives when he brings us into that school of trial and affliction
and observe again the language that we have in this 22nd verse. What is the name that's given
to our God? Why, it's the LORD. It's the
covenant name. It's that name LORD as we have
it in our authorised version in the familiar capital letters
that indicates to us that it is in fact the name Jehovah.
It's that name that is derived from what God said to Moses at
the burning bush when he declared, I am that I am. Why is the unchanging
one? For I am the Lord. I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Why, in the midst
of all those changes that we experience in God's dealings,
we have to learn that He is that One who never changes. He is
the Rock. He is the Rock of our salvation.
He is the God of the Covenant. And what does that mean? Well,
when we think of God in terms of the Covenant, it's not only
that God has given a promise, But more than that, the promise
is confirmed. When God's made promise to Abraham,
because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself. He swore by Himself. His Word
is as dependable as Himself. He has magnified His Word above
all His name, the psalmist says. we have the word of God what
a fiver what a fiver, what a blessing when we think of those who were
David's supposed friends the words of his mouth were smoother
than butter but war was in his heart his words were softer than
oil yet were they drawn swords how different the word of God
that faithful word of the unchanging God of Israel the Lord himself
he shall sustain them he shall never suffer the righteous to
be moved or that we might be those then who would learn of
this man David and put our trust in this God I will trust in thee
or God grant that we might be those then who having such faith
in God, such trust towards God, would indeed call upon Him. As
for me, I will call upon God, says David, and the Lord shall
save me. Evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice. May the Lord bless his word to
us for his namesake.