Let us turn together in God's
holy word to Psalm 55. Psalm 55. Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me
and hear me, I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. Because of
the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked,
for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My
heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are
fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, oh,
that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and
be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off
and remain in the wilderness, Tsela. I would hasten my escape
from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, oh Lord, and divide
their tongues, for I have 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
thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets. For 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, mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel
together and walked in the house of God in company. Let death seize upon them and
let them go down quickly into hell, for wickedness is in their
dwellings and among them. As for me, I will call upon God,
and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon
I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. He hath
delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
for there were many with me. God shall hear and afflict them,
even he that abideth of old. Selah. because they have no changes,
therefore they fear not God. He hath put forth his hands against
such as to 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 he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. But thou, O God, shalt bring
them down into the pit of destruction, bloody and deceitful men. They shall not live out half
their days, but I will trust in thee. May the Lord add to
us a blessing as we've read from his word and may be helped to
consider this evening, verse 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord
and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer or permit
or allow the righteous to be moved. Psalm of David. It's not really
known as to when it was written. Some have thought maybe when
he was fleeing from Absalom, his son, after he had taken over
Jerusalem. And as he writes there from verse
12 about it not being an enemy, If it was not an enemy that reproached
me, then I could not 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, mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company. David was obviously
suffering some persecution from someone that was very close to
him and it caused him great upset. It's one thing, isn't it, to
suffer persecution and insult from those who are just mere
colleagues or neighbors. But when it comes from those
who are very close to you, it makes things even harder to bear. And it's like David has a prophetic
experience of the Lord Jesus Christ as he also was betrayed
by a man who was close to him, by Judas Iscariot. They walked together. They went
to the house of the Lord together, the temple. They were in the
synagogues together. And it was him who lifted up
his heel against him and betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ for money. And so David walked in the pathway,
the prophetic pathway of the Lord Jesus Christ, experiencing
persecution and hurt from those who were near to him. Yet in
his experience, he knows what to do with all that he is passing
through. As for me, he says, I will call
upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at
noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. He
hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against
me. for there were many with me. And so he knew what to do
with the experiences that he was passing through. He was to
take them to the Lord. And we can tell that it was a
difficult and a hard experience. He had that desire to fly away
like a dove, to be away from everybody that was round about
him and to be alone in the wilderness. No doubt his mind was cast back
to when he was a shepherd boy and at that time in the wilderness
surrounded by his sheep. and surrounded by nature, no
human beings near him and he was able to meditate on God and
no doubt he looked back to that experience in his life and he
thought, oh if only I could go back to that, if only I could
be in the wilderness with my sheep and I could fly away like
a dove as he looked at nature, as he saw the birds seemingly
so free. soaring above all the problems
and difficulties of life. Maybe he even considered that
they didn't even have a soul, they didn't have to give accountability
to God and he looked at those creatures and he envied them,
such freedom that they have. But then he remembered that he
had a throne of grace, the throne of grace that he could come to.
Running away wasn't an option but coming face to face with
God was the best option. Man had failed him but he knew
that God would not fail him. And so he comes to the throne
of grace and he calls upon God. We know it was a hard thing for
him to pass through because he cries morning and noon and at
evening. And if we look at our experiences
in life, the very, very hard ones cause us to be often at
the throne of grace, cause us to be very close to the Lord. They cause us to continually
petition God for our concerns and our hardships and those things
that we are passing through. Often it is, isn't it, when our
lives are easy, everything is going smoothly, that prayer is
that one that drifts off. that begins to lack a communion
with God. And then when the Lord brings
something into our life, especially a hard thing, we are drawn again
to the throne of grace and we don't want to leave. We say,
I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And David knew
exactly what to do. Come to the throne of grace and
cast the burden upon the Lord. and he knew that he would be
sustained. It's like he's speaking generally
to those who are reading, to encourage them. This is what
I am going through. And now what about you? You cast
your burden also upon the Lord. As the Lord has helped me, as
he has heard my prayer, so he will also help yours. Also he'll
hear yours and help you. As he has not enabled me to be
moved, as he has not, if I have not been shifted, so you will
also not be moved. He is a covenant keeping God
and if we are in a relationship with God through Christ resting
on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ then we are found
amongst those righteous and the Lord hears our cries as we cast
our burdens upon him and he sustains us and he will never allow us
to be moved. The word cast means to throw
out. or to hurl. And the burden is that what has
been given to you. Your lot. The providential pathway
that you are walking in. You think of a labourer. He is
given a heavy load and needs to carry it. But with this text
it's like the Lord is giving someone a heavy load, a providential
pathway that is very difficult, very trying. They're suffering
persecution, they're suffering hardship, they're suffering sickness,
they're suffering anxiety, they're suffering a lack of assurance
and it is a burden and they're in this pathway. but they're to cast that burden
upon the Lord that what he has given to them they are to cast
it back to him. Whatever the Lord has brought
into our life as we look at our lives there is nothing that the
Lord doesn't know about. There is nothing that he has
not either permitted to take place or brought about or allowed
to take place in our life. And so providentially the Lord
is in control. Providentially what is taking
place, whether it be a hard thing or an easy thing, a hard pathway
or an easy pathway, the Lord has allowed us to walk down that
way. And so David is saying, give
back to the Lord what he has given to you. That heavy load
that you are struggling to bear, that heavy load that is too heavy
for you at this specific moment, the Lord is not asking you to
carry it. He's not saying carry this all by yourself. He's given
you the means by which to offload that burden. David said the thing
was too hard for him. was a difficult pathway, a personally
painful pathway. And so he gave it to God and
the Lord saved him. He delivered him. He helped him
in that pathway. And so he would do for each of
his dear people. He knows the weight that he has
laid upon your shoulders and he doesn't expect you to carry
it. He expects you to pass it on. to him. And how do we do that? Just like
David, by prayer. Prayer passes back the burden
to God. Lord, help me. It's too heavy. It's too big. I don't understand
it. It's crushing me. It's overwhelming
me. cast it back to the Lord. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ
when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane he wasn't hit a great
weight. that he was carrying. Wasn't it a big burden that he
was carrying the experience that he was passing through and about
to pass through. It was a sufficient weight so
much so that he sweat as it were great drops of blood. But what
did he do? He did not try and carry that
burden alone. He came to the throne of grace
to speak to his father. If it be thy will. Father, if thou be willing, remove
this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. his providential pathway where
the Lord led him. The Garden of Gethsemane where
he was going to go was extremely difficult and was going to be
more than any human could ever bear. Christ's pathway is going to be of a greater difficulty than anything that
you and I could ever experience. And yet as our forerunner where
does he take that burden? He takes it to his father that
is in heaven and asks for some relief. And that relief appears. He is strengthened. There appears
an angel from heaven strengthening him. cast thy burden upon the
Lord and he will sustain thee. This is exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. Cast his burden upon the Lord,
unburdened his soul to the Father and the Father dispatched the
angels from heaven to strengthen him. Then the thing, it got worse. It says, and being in an agony,
he prayed more earnestly. Just like David, morning, noon
and evening at the throne of grace, petitioning God for his
help and for his strengthening to deal with the pathway that
he was going through. Christ, there being in agony,
prays more earnestly. He prayed more. He didn't give
up. How often it is we pray for one day and we say, well, the
Lord hasn't answered us now. He's forgotten about me. Satan
will tell you, oh, the Lord's ear is shut. You're not one of
his. He's not going to answer you.
And so you give up. That's not what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. Being in an agony, he prayed
more earnestly. David, morning, evening and at
noon, he continued at the throne of grace because he knew that
God was a prayer hearing and answering God. And he knew that
he was going to move and work on his behalf for the good of
his righteous one, for the good of his people. We see the difference. between Jesus and his apostles.
You see, Jesus is there praying and he receives
strength. But we find his apostles, they're
not praying and they don't receive any strength. They're asleep. Jesus says to them, why sleep
ye? Rise and pray lest you enter
into temptation. Just the opposite of what they
were doing. They needed to rise and pray
to receive the strength of God to enable them to go on. They
couldn't just relax and do nothing. They had to cast their burden
upon the Lord. Then they would see the sustaining
hand of God. Jesus says in Matthew. Come unto me, Matthew 11, 28.
Come unto me, all ye that labour on a heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light.' As Christ received that strength, the angels strengthened
him. So he strengthens and encourages
his people, what he gives to them. What he puts on them is
easy and his burden it is a light burden because he walks with
his people as he's yoked together with them taking that strain,
taking that weight I've told you before, I think, of them
yoking together the older oxen and the young one, so that the
older one takes the strain, takes the weight of the plough or the
load. And so Jesus says that His burden
is easy and his yoke is light. Being with Christ he takes that
burden, he takes that weight, he takes that overwhelming experience
and as you cast it upon him you know something of his sustaining
help and strength. He holds up. He shall sustain thee. How he sustains is down to him. Sometimes it is by an invisible means that
you don't see and that you don't know. Jesus was sustained by
the angels. And we probably wouldn't realise
if any angels sustained us. But there are times in our lives
when we get through a day and we wonder, well how did I get
through that day? We look back at a week, a troubled
week and we think, well how did I do it? And we can only acknowledge
that it's the invisible hand of God that has strengthened
us day by day to enable us to get through whatever it is that
we've had to pass through. Whether it's been dealing with
people or whether it's financial trouble, whether it's sickness. But we look back and we see that
the Lord has sustained us. But sometimes it is even by visible
means. things that we can see in our
pathway. The Lord will bring somebody
into our life to help us or we will be provided for in some
way. But however the Lord chooses
to sustain his people is his sovereign will. But he does always
sustain and he never allows the righteous to be moved. Corinthians, when Paul writes
to the Corinthians, he tells us there, 1 Corinthians chapter
10. There is no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who
will not allow, who will not suffer you or allow you to be
tempted above that which you are able. but will with the temptation
also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So speaking there about temptation
or trial, casting our burden upon the Lord and he will sustain
us. Paul says that with every trial
that the Lord brings his people into, with every temptation that
is placed in their pathway, there is a means of escape. And that
escape, is prayer. God will make a way by which
we will be able to be delivered from that situation. But only if, and this is how
my mind went today, only if the burden is cast. It says cast
the burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee. The Lord
has given the burden. The Lord has given the weight.
The Lord has led into a providential pathway of difficulty and hardship. There is to be an acknowledgement
that the Lord has done it. If you've ever carried say a
bag of cement Maybe when you first pick it up, it's not that
heavy. But when you continue to hold
it, it seems to get heavier and heavier and heavier until your
arms feel like they're stretching and you're going to drop it.
The burden remains the same. But the problem is, is that you've
held onto it for a long, long time. You haven't cast it. that you've held on to it. And
here lies I think a lot of our problems as believers. We hold on to the burdens instead
of casting them. We refuse to pray about them. We refuse to unburden our heart
and to get rid of them. And so the weight gets bigger
and bigger and bigger. If our problems were like hot
potatoes at the game that you play, you throw somebody a hot
potato, the longer that person holds on to that potato, the
hotter it is. And so the job is to throw it
as fast as you can to the next person. And the longer we hold
on to our burdens and our trials, the harder and hotter they become. David says, cast thy burden upon
the Lord. God has given, now give it back
to him. And as you give it back to him,
in prayer, not one prayer, but continued labouring at the throne
of grace, unburdening this burden time and time and time again,
you will see the sustaining hand of God. Acknowledge that this
thing has come from God and cast it back to the Lord. He is stronger
than us, far stronger. Jesus says, my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. Cast thy burden upon the Lord.
and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Those that are righteous are
not righteous in their own strength. They are righteous because of
Christ. They are those who seek to live
a righteous and a godly life, an upright life. They are lights
in a dark world. They are witnesses of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so as we go through these trials and as
we seek to cast them upon the Lord we experience his sustaining
grace, his sustaining help. And we're strengthened to persevere,
not to be moved out of the way or sidetracked. We're given that strength to
continue looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not moved
by those situations like a rock in the midst of a stormy sea,
unmoved, being pounded by the waves that it remains fixed. And so Christians who learn the
art of casting their burden quickly before the Lord will be fixed
like a rock, anchored upon a rock that is unmoved or unswayed by
exterior circumstances. They remain strong and faithful. There is a work that must be
done and that is a work of prayer. prayer and faith, trusting that
God is able and willing to take our burdens, that he is able
to strengthen us in our burdens, that our work is to labour, like
David, morning, evening and at noon, to cry aloud unto God,
that he will hear our voice, like Jesus, and being in an agony,
He cried more earnestly. And so as things get hotter,
as they get tougher, then we're to cry more earnestly to the
Lord and witness his great sustaining hand and strength. And may the
Lord help us then to not to hold on to these things, but to cast
them to our God who knows all about them. gave them to us and
wants them to be cast back to him for his glory as he sustains
us in the troubles of life. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.