Alright, Psalm 55. Let's turn
to Psalm 55. Now, this is David's prayer as
he went up Mount Olivet near that brook, Kidron. We just read
about it in 2 Samuel. He is being pushed out of Jerusalem. That's why Shimei was saying,
come out, come out. He was leaving Jerusalem. Absalom
is his own son and he led a rebellion against David to take the throne. Ahithophel was David's counselor,
a very dear man to David. He betrayed David also and sided
with Absalom in this. We read there that all the country
wept with a loud voice and all the people passed over. The king
also himself passed over the brook Kidron. Now that brook
is where they dumped all of the filth and the sewer from the
temple and from Jerusalem. It was not like a pretty little
clear flowing crystal spring. This was basically a sewer brook. Now spiritually, symbolically,
not literally, but spiritually, Scripture tells us Christ drank
from that brook. We read in Psalm 110.7 and it
says, He shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore shall he
lift up the head. Spiritually, symbolically, what
it's called said that he drank of that brook because when Christ
bore the sin of his people and he bore the curse, it was to
him what it would be like if you had to drink from that brook.
That's what it was like to Christ. You know, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he was right there. He was right where David was
when he started this prayer. He crossed the brook Kidron.
He was right there at the Garden of Gethsemane. And our Lord prayed
that night and He said, Oh my Father, if this cup may pass
away from me, if it may not except I drink it, thy will be done. What was He drinking? He was
bearing the sin of his people and he was drinking the dregs
of the cup of the wrath of God on our behalf. That's what the
brook Hedron represents. But it's interesting that that's
where David was. He was going up Mount Olivet
with his host of people right there near the Garden of Gethsemane
when he prayed this. And so as David crossed that
brook praying, we hear Christ's prayer in Gethsemane when we
look at this psalm. We hear what our Lord prayed. That's why at the heading it
says this is a mascal psalm. That means full of instruction
for God's saints. You know, one reason that God
causes His child to suffer is so that His suffering child can
teach His brethren what God taught him through that suffering. That's
true of David here. He wrote this psalm to teach
us what he learned through that suffering. But it's especially
true of Christ Jesus the Lord. He teaches us through what he
suffered. And it's his word that we are looking at here. David wrote this psalm, but the
Spirit of God gave it to David prophetically. He's writing the
words of Christ and what Christ would say as he prayed to God
in the Garden of Gethsemane. What's the lesson from Christ's
suffering? That's what I've titled this,
the lesson from Christ's suffering. What is it? Look at verse 22.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He
shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. If we can cast our
burden upon the Lord, it's because Christ has already began to bear
our burden. Because we can only cast our
burden on Him if the Spirit of God gives us the ability to do
it. So if you can cast your burden
on Him, God's already begun to bear your burden. Now who are
the righteous? It says, He shall not suffer
the righteous to be moved. Who are the righteous? They're
those God trusted to Christ before the world was made. They're those
Christ entered covenant to be their surety and then came into
this world and justified by His own blood. Made righteous by
His own blood. They're those the Spirit of God
has regenerated who are brought to believe on Christ as all our
righteousness apart from our works. We walk and are led of
the Spirit and walk not after the flesh. We follow Christ. We believe on Christ. We look
to Christ. God will not suffer the righteous
to be moved because Christ justified us before the law of God. But
what's involved in casting our care upon the Lord? What's involved? How do you go about casting your
care upon the Lord? That's what I want us to see
here. We see here Christ casting His burden upon the Lord as He
was in the garden of Gethsemane and prepared to suffer on the
cross. And as we see Him suffer these things, He teaches us what
it is to cast our care on the Lord. First of all, Christ cast
his burden on the Lord by earnest prayer to God. He prayed in earnest
to God. Look here in verse 1. Give ear
to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Now Christ's prayer was always
earnest prayer. It was always earnest prayer.
But ours is only earnest. Only importunate. Whenever God
has hedged us up so that we see our total weakness. So that we have to cry unto the
Lord. That's when we really pray. When
we have to cry unto the Lord. We have no other recourse. We
see our inability. There's no way else we can get
out of it. We have to cast our care on the
Lord. And then we beg God. That's what he's doing here.
He's begging God. Give ear to my prayer, O God. Can you imagine David going up
that mount with that band of people on the run, crying and
praying as he went? He's not making demands. He's
begging God. He's begging God, hide not thyself
from my supplication. It means, oh God, please do not
pass me by. Do not pass me by. Christ's spirit
in the garden is the spirit we see here in David. Or maybe I
should say that vice versa. The spirit we see in David is
the spirit Christ had in the garden. Our Lord prayed, if it
be thy will, O God, give ear to my prayer and hide not thyself
from my supplication. This is what, remember when he
prayed, not my will, but thy will be done. That's the spirit
of this prayer. Now casting our burden upon the
Lord in prayer, it doesn't mean that we're going to pray pretty
words. He says there in verse 2, attend
unto me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and I
make a noise. David went in went in the way
crying and praying as he went. And we know the earnestness with
which Christ prayed in Gethsemane. He was in soul agony. He sweat
as it were great drops of blood. And in this psalm we hear Christ
praying without being able to utter words or words that could
be understood. Brethren, at times We mourn so
much that you just cannot pray words. And your prayer is all
over the place. That's what this phrase means
too. I'm wandering about. My thoughts are here and there. Just praying and making a noise. But brethren, the Spirit maketh
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. The Spirit
makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.
He brings us, that means David's praying here by the Spirit. Christ
our Lord, who is God and man in human flesh, who had made
himself a servant to God, he was praying in the Spirit. and the Spirit was bringing him
forth to groan with words that can't be uttered. And the Scripture
says, and he that searcheth the hearts, there's where God's looking,
on the heart. He knows what is the mind of
the Spirit. When the Spirit is moving you
to pray, God who looks on the heart knows what your mind is
to pray. He knows what it is you're praying
because the Spirit's making intercession for us. And it's according to the will
of God. Now when Christ bore the sin of His people, it was
God's will to justly hide His face from our Redeemer. He prays
here, hide not thy face from me. But it was justly God's will
to hide His face from our Redeemer. So that Christ cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Christ was bearing the heaviest
burden anyone has ever borne. The sin and curse of all His
people. Surely He hath borne, as a mighty
burden, He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And how do we regard Him? We
esteem Him smitten and stricken of God. This wine-bibber This
man who's spake by Belial, he's just getting what he deserved
for saying he's the son of God. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes we're healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We looked every one to his own way. and the Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of all His people. The Lord made to meet on Him
all the iniquity of all His people. And that's how Christ satisfied
the justice of God on our behalf. That's how Christ purchased His
people with His own blood so that we belong to Christ. We're
His purchased possession. with His stripes we're healed.
That means we're complete in Christ. That means He's cast
our sins away as far as the East is from the West and God remembers
our sins no more. So brethren, it may appear to
you sometimes, God may make you think He's hidden His face from
you. But for the sake of His Son who
justified His people, God will never He will never forsake His
people. He'll never hide His face from
us. When you pray to God, He will hear. He will hear. So first of all, casting your
burden on Him is to do so in earnest prayer. Earnest prayer. Praying with a need and just
keep praying and keep praying and keep praying and keep begging
God. Now secondly, Christ cast his
burden on the Lord by laying before the Lord the cause for
his condition. He laid before him the cause
of it all. He said there in verse 2, I mourn
in my complaint and make a noise because of the voice of the enemy
and because of the oppression of the wicked for they cast iniquity
upon me And in wrath they hate me. Now notice three things here. With the voice they cast iniquity
upon me. They falsely accused Christ. And then with the hands they
performed wicked deeds. He speaks of the oppression of
the wicked. Their wicked works in oppressing
Him. Pressing Him down with their
wicked works. And it all came, number three,
from the sin nature, that's hatred against God. In wrath, they hate
me. The serpent hates the seed of
woman. The devil hates Christ, the seed
of woman. And every carnal heart hates
God. Every single one. The surest
proof of the total depravity of sinners is Christ on the cross. Look at what we did. But now
understand this, brethren. The enemy that did this to Christ
is not just the Jews and the Gentiles who dwelt in His day.
It's you and me, His people. We did this to Christ. We did
this to Him. Our sinful nature is enmity against
God and therefore the only thing we can speak and the only thing
we can do is wickedness against God. That's me and you. And yet while we considered Him
our enemy, while this is what we were doing to Christ, He laid down His life for His
people. and reconciled us to God. He brought us into friendship
with God. So brethren, you can come to
Christ now, casting your burden on Him, because if He did that
when we were enemies, He'll certainly save us now that we're friends.
That's Romans 5. Look there with me. Romans 5
and verse 6. When we were yet without strength,
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's who He died
for. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet perventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.
Much more than being now justified by His blood. We shall be saved
from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. So brethren,
cast your burden on the Lord by coming to Christ in earnest
prayer and by laying out the cause of your suffering before
Him. He knows it. He knows what it
is. But He's going to have us come
to Him and make it known to Him from our own heart and speak
it to Him. He's already saved us from the
enemy of our flesh. He's already saved us from that
flesh that did only wickedness toward Him. He will save us from
every other burden, every one. Now thirdly, Christ cast his
burden upon the Lord by laying bare his heart concerning the
state he was in. He spoke the truth concerning
the state he was in. Look here in verse 4. My heart
is sore pained within me. It means twisted and writhing. He said, and the terrors of death
are fallen upon me. fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. That means covered
me. And I said, O that I had wings
like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then
would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten
my escape from the windy storm and the tempest. Now let's think
of David here for a minute. David was deeply wounded in his
innermost heart. He was wounded in his heart,
in his very soul. Why? What was it that wounded
him so? His own son betrayed him. His own son Absalom betrayed
him and hated him. It'd be the deepest hurt, I mean
the deepest hurt, to spend your whole life raising up, bringing
up your children, putting them first before your own self, and
then have your child treat you like an enemy. That would be
a deep, deep wound. That's exactly what we did to
our everlasting Father. That's exactly what we did. Isaiah
1 and verse 2 says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the
Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. That's not just God's
word against the children of Israel. That's God's word concerning
you and me. What we did. And this is so,
brethren, even when we sin now against Christ, when we know
and willingly sin against Christ, we're treating our Heavenly Father
like an enemy, rebelling against Him. Well, that's the burden
that Christ bore for His people. He bore our rebellion against
God so that God and His holy law looked at Him as the rebel. He bore that for His people.
That's why the terrors of death fell upon Christ. That's why
horror covered Him. That's why He sweat great drops
of blood in Gethsemane. Can you imagine being in such
torment that you sweat blood? And then we see David here confess
to God his true desire. He doesn't hide anything from
God. He tells God the truth about himself. He says here in verse
6, Oh that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and
be at rest, lo then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness.
I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
Most commentaries They don't speak too kindly of David for
saying this. They lay a whole lot of blame
on him for saying this. And sure, there was sin in David's
prayer. There's sin in everything David
said here. He's a sinner like you and me are. But there was
no sin when Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and
said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will but thine be done. There was no sin in that prayer.
That shows us Christ was a real man. That shows us the suffering
was real suffering. That shows us God just wasn't
treating him like he was being made sin. God was laying the
sin of His people on him. And Christ owned it to be His
own. But David's being honest with
God. He's being honest with God. That's what we do when we cast
our burden on the Lord. You lay out your state before
the Lord. And you're honest with God about
everything. About the wounding. About your
sin. About what you feel and what
you want. Everything. You lay it out before
God. But I can assure you of this. We can lay blame to David
for praying this. But I can assure you of this.
If you were with David that night, barefoot, Wading up that sewer
brook with all this host of people depending on you? Being cast
out of Jerusalem by your own son? And being betrayed by your
own counselor who you loved? I guarantee you we'd pray the
same thing. Lord, if I had wings as a dove. He's not praying for
wings as an eagle. He don't want to turn around
and fight them and kill them. He wants wings of a dove. Every
true child of God would rather be at rest and have peace than
they would strife and fighting and warring. That's all of it. You don't want to go into a trial.
Our Lord taught us to pray. Lord, don't cause us to be crossed
with temptation. You don't want that. I don't
want that either. That's just natural not to want
that. He wanted to escape the storm
and the tempest. If you ever prayed and really
your heart was, Lord, I'd love to just leave this place. I'd love to just leave this world
and be with you where there is no sin. That's how God's people
feel about it. But brethren, Christ didn't fly
away. He didn't fly away. He bore the
cross. He bore the suffering. And we
can't fly away either. Not before the time. We have
to bear the cross. We have to bear the suffering,
the storm and the tempest. But our peace is in our inner
Man, anyway, it's not in our outward circumstances. If David
had fled from this situation and made it into the wilderness,
he would have still had trouble in his heart because that's where
the trouble was. It wasn't in his outward circumstances. God sends us suffering to teach
us there's only one way of escape. That's what the suffering is
for. Don't we see as we go through these Psalms especially, every
single lesson we've learned has been the same exact lesson. There's
just one way of escape. That way is Christ. Listen, there
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.
You know what Peter warned us about? He said the devil is going
to make you feel like he's going to lift you up in pride that
nobody's ever suffered like you've suffered. Isn't that right? Sometimes we feel that way, don't
we? Oh, nobody knows, nobody has suffered like I'm suffering.
There's no temptation that takes you but such as is common to
man. But God is faithful who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. That way is Christ. He's the
only way of escape. He's the only rest for His people. He's the only peace of heart
for His people. When we confess our state to
Christ, He's saying to us here, cast your burden on Me. He's
saying, come to Me. I will in no wise cast thee out. I will give thee rest. You'll
have peace to your soul. You'll have rest in your soul.
Christ promised it. Turn to Luke 15 in just a minute.
Luke chapter 15. But we've been these rebellious
children. We've been rebellious children.
We just saw this. How am I going to come to Christ
if I've been such a rebellious child? Our everlasting Father
put away the sin of our rebellion along with all our other sin.
So He says, come to Me, cast your burden on Me. What did the
Father do when the prodigal son started returning to Him? Look
here in verse 21. But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and
fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and
I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But listen, But the
father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and
put it on him. Get him out of these rags, put
the best robe on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes
on his feet. Bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was
dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. That's
how it is when we come to Christ, casting our burden on Christ.
Yes, we've rebelled against the Father by our sin. We've rebelled
against Him in the trial, while we were still looking for some
other way to get out of it. But when He's raised you up and
brought you to come to Him, and to confess your state to Him,
confess the cause of it, the state of it, in earnest prayer,
when He's brought you to do that, He comes to His child with compassion
and love and embraces His child. He doesn't cast us out. He comforts
us reminding of this. When you, the horrors of death
come upon you and believers experience this. It's not just the horrors
of physical death at the end. We have the horrors of having
died spiritually before God. Do you have that? Do you have
the horror of praying, Father, I pray I'm not a castaway. I
pray, Lord, I'm not somebody that you've passed by. That's the worst horror of death. And that's not such a bad place
to be for a child of God, to keep us from being haughty and
presumptuous. It's good for us to examine ourselves
sometimes and see if we be in the faith. But our Lord Jesus
comes and He makes you to know that because He was covered with
the horrors of death for His people and put away all our sin,
now He's covered us in His righteousness. And that's how the law seizes,
that's how God seizes, and that's how He receives us when we come
to Him. Do you understand that? He receives us when we come to
Him because He put away our sin. The very one we rebelled against,
the very one that we're sinning against says, come to me and
I'll receive you and I'll comfort you and I'll restore that peace
that you've lost. You were dead. The father said,
here's my son, he was dead. That boy wasn't physically dead,
he was out living, kicking up his heels, spending all his inheritance.
He was dead to the father. Because he was rebelling against
his father. But his father rejoiced saying,
now he lives. And that's Christ when he brings
you to, that prodigal came to his senses. And realized, he
realized the lowest servant in my father's house has it better
than I have it. And when he came to the Father,
his Father received him. Christ is the only way to escape. We can't flee away. Flee to Christ. He's the way of escape. And you
notice there, that scripture I read to you. He doesn't take
away the trial. He doesn't have to take away
the trial. He gives you the way to escape so that you can bear
the trial. Christ gives you peace in your
heart while the storm in the tip is still raging around you.
Because He's our peace, not our circumstances. Not our circumstances. I've told you this before, in
2003, we suffered some, just some horrendous suffering. Probably not as bad as a lot
of people have suffered. But to us it was bad. It was
some of the worst we'd ever suffered. But before the suffering was
even over, God gave me such a peace in my heart knowing this is all
of His hand. This is to teach me Christ is
the only way and it's all been worth it. He can do that and
never even take away the storm or the tempest to show you He's
your peace, not circumstances. Christ cast his burden on the
Lord by leaving his enemies in his Father's hand. He left his
enemies in his Father's hand. Look here, verse 9. Destroy,
O Lord, and divide their tongues. What did David praise? He's going
up that mountain. He said, Lord, bring the counsel
of Ahithophel to nothing. Make it foolishness. And that's
what he's praying right here. But he left it in God's hand
to do it. He didn't turn around and take
matters into his own hand and try to do it. He left it in God's
hand to do it. For I've seen violence and strife
in the city. Day and night they go about upon
the walls thereof. Mischief also and sorrow are
in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst of
it. Watch this now. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets because it was not an enemy that reproached me.
This was deceitful, this was guile, this was trickery, this
was beguiling, subtle trickery. It wasn't 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, my acquaintance. I don't know if David here is
talking about Absalom or Ahithophel. But I think it was probably Absalom. Because Absalom was his own son. Look at this. We took sweet counsel
together. We walked into the house of God
in company. Look at verse 20. He hath put
forth his hands against such as be at peace with him. Christ
was at peace with him. His apostles were at peace with
Judas. and yet Judas put forth his hand and betrayed him. He hath broken his covenant.
He broke his covenant with God. The words of his mouth were smoother
than butter, but all along war was in his heart. His words were
softer than oil, yet all along were they drawn swords. Brethren,
I can bear reproach from an enemy. I expect it. I can bear reproach
from somebody that hates me, exalting themselves above me.
I can avoid them. But one who professes to love
me, one who professes to love me, one with whom I walked to the
house of God, one I was at peace with, one who made a covenant
promise to me, Christ said Judas' words, Judas' heart was nothing
but deceit and guile. Brethren, are you not Judas Iscariot? Am I not Judas Iscariot? We sure
are. We sure are. Well, how can you
say that? Because we've been one with Christ since He took
us and became surety for us from before the world was made. And
in all our guile, all the guile of our flesh, brethren, we broke
God's covenant in deceit and in guile. We broke God's covenant. We broke His law. And right now, when we sin against
God, it's as bad as Judas sinning against Him. Actually, it's worse.
You know why? He didn't redeem Judah, but He
redeemed us. He didn't shed His blood for
Judah, but He shed His blood for me. So it's worse when I
sin against Him. It's one that's one with Him
doing it. It's one with whom we've had
sweet communion in His house. It's one who's entered into covenant
with Him, trusting His everlasting covenant, and then treading it
under our feet. We're just like Judas. Will I
go on sinning against Christ when He's shed His blood for
me? But what a Savior! Is this not a great Savior? Though
we've done this to Him, Christ teaches us to cast our burden
on Him. We find it hard to do that with
our enemy, don't we? We find it hard to do that with
somebody that betrayed us. Christ does it for us. Christ cast the burden on God
His Father to divide His enemies against themselves. That's what
He's praying for. He wasn't praying destroy my
enemies. He's saying destroy and divide their tongues. Make
them speak against each other. Bring their counsel to foolishness. Scripture says, neither so did
their witnesses agree together. They tried to have this kangaroo
court, have these witnesses all in place, and Christ prayed,
Father, make their counsel not agree with each other. Just divide
their tongues, and the scripture says the witnesses couldn't even
agree when they tried to charge Christ falsely. And the same
thing happened to David. He brought a fifth of fails counsel
to nothing. So let's leave that burden in
Christ's hand. Leave the burden of our enemies
in Christ's hand. Look at verse 16. Christ said,
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. Now when you do this, brethren,
remember what Christ has already done for us, what He's already
accomplished for us on the cross. Look at verse 18. He hath delivered
my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there
were many with me. Verse 23, But 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 thee. We had a bunch of enemies. But
because Christ trusted His Father on our behalf, there was more
with us than was with them. There was more with us than with
our enemies. And so now He tells us, your warfare is accomplished! And He says, the battle's not
yours, it's God's. So when you come to Him and cast
your burden upon the Lord, leave it all in His hand to fight the
battle. So here's the lesson. This is
it. This is the end of the psalm.
And here it is with Christ teaching us through what He suffered.
Verse 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord
in earnest prayer, confessing the cause, confessing our state,
leaving our enemies in His hands. And He shall sustain thee, and
He shall never suffer. the righteous to be moved. Never. Never moved away from Christ.
And that's all that matters. He won't suffer one child to
be moved away from Christ. Christ said no man shall pluck
him out of my hand. Not one. No man will pluck him
out of my father's hand. I pray he give us grace to heed
that instruction.