Psalm 55. Psalm 55. I titled this psalm,
or this message, Cast Thy Burden Upon the Lord. Look in verse
22. This is what David ends this
psalm with. He ends it with this statement,
"'Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.'"
He will keep you. That's what he's saying. He will
keep you. You will have all the temporal blessings that you need,
and you know you already have all the spiritual blessings that
you need. They were given to you in Christ
before the world began. But throughout this Psalm, this
is what David is doing. He tells us to do what we will
see that he had done. Cast your burden, whatever it
is, upon the Lord. Now I know that David wrote most
of the Psalms as he was moved by the Spirit of God to write
them, and in writing them, He spoke of Christ, or it might
be better to say it like this, the Spirit of Christ was speaking
through Him, and speaking through Him to us. Here in 2021, He's
still speaking through His Word that David wrote down. Now here
in this Psalm, David is under great stress. This is probably
the most stressful time in his life, other than when he had
committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then had Uriah killed, and
then God broke him. Then he wrote Psalm 51. That
was a very low point in his life as far as that goes. But here,
David, and you'll see this, in the first part of this psalm,
he's pretty much stressed out of his mind. I mean, he is stressed. But the Lord put him through
that. I was looking at this song we just sang, that first line. Wean my heart. He's talking about my heart.
Spirit of God, descend upon my heart, wean it from earth, through
all its pulses move. Do you know what you're asking?
Seriously, when I read that, I sang that, what I wanted to
do was put Selah. Pause and think about what you
just said. Pause and think about what you just sang. Wean my heart. Now God can do that. And this
is what's going on with David. God is making the sweet psalmist
of Israel. God is really making a leader
and a king out of him. He's king, but he's going to
make him that sweet psalmist of Israel who is the king of
Israel. But it's going to be through
real hardship. And I don't know of anything
more difficult than what I just read to you. His son, his son
plotting to take over the kingdom and he's going to kill David.
Absalom is planning on killing David. He's not going to just
say, Dad, you need to set aside, you know, your old, you know,
your judgment. No, he planned on taking him
out. And he did all of this treachery and all this deceit, and David
didn't even know what was going on, as far as we know. I mean,
all the men would come into town. He said, you all need to come
to me. He stopped them from getting to David. You need to come to
me. And then after some time went by, I read to you what happened. And that to me, that to me would
be the most stressful thing to have to deal with is when you're
a family, a son, a family member wants to take you out in order
to take your place. I mean, that's just hard to deal
with. But we'll see this here in just a little bit in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Judas, who sat with him, followed
him, The Lord called him friend. You know that when he came and
he betrayed him? The Lord looked at him and said,
friend? He called him friend. And this is reference, and we'll
see here as we go along as we get on down in here, this is
referencing that situation between the Lord Jesus Christ and Judas. Now also, this psalm here, it's
another psalm with the mask on. That means it's another instructive
psalm. Now, if the Lord's going to instruct
us, we need to listen. We need to really, you've got
to grab your mind, your attention, and listen. Now the first two verses here,
David makes a fourfold petition to God in prayer due to the great
stress that he's under. He says here, give ear to my
prayer. That's his first petition. The
whole purpose of prayer is to be heard. It's to be heard of
God. It's to lay out everything that
I have, my burden, whatever's troubling me, is to lay it out
before Him. It's to be heard. You know, our
Lord said this, I know that you always hear me. And no one prayed
more and more fervently than the man, Jesus Christ. He continually,
continually called upon God, His Father, to protect Him and
to keep Him. He trusted God to keep Him, even
though He's God. Yet as a man, he trusted God
to keep Him, to watch after Him, watch over Him. Then the second
thing he says here, he said, "...hide not thyself from me."
David's close friend Ahithophel, which was his counselor, and
Absalom, his son, turned their back on him. Turned their back
on him. And David is saying this, Oh
God, don't turn your back on me. Don't turn your back on me. You know, one of the things that
I can say this from a little experience, that when you're
really in a stressful situation and you lay your burden before
the Lord, one of the things that seems to happen to the believer,
it seems like, from my experience, your sins rise back up. And you
know when you lay it down before the Lord that He can just turn
away from you. You know He can just turn away from you. And
David's saying, Lord, don't turn your back on me. Ahithophel's
done it. Absalom has done it. And I can
hear my Lord saying this in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas has
turned his back. His disciples are going to what?
Everyone's going to scatter. Every last one of them scatter.
Peter denies him. But he says, don't you do it.
I don't care if everyone else does it. I don't want them to,
but everyone else can do it. But Lord, don't you do it. Because
that's the end of it. That would be the end of me if
he does that. And then he says here thirdly, attend to my prayer,
attend to my request, my supplication. In other words, give special
attention to it. This is fervent prayer right
here. The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. He's asking
God to give special attention to it and to give immediate attention
to it. He's asking him to give immediate
attention to it. And fourthly, he's asking God to answer. After
all that he has prayed, he says, answer my prayer. Lord, answer
my prayer. Prayer is to be answered. What
else are you praying for? In prayer we do this. We praise
God and we pray for things that we need. We pray for one another. And we expect prayer to be answered,
but we expect it to be answered according to His will, not my
will, but Thine be done. And David was so restless over
this. Look, he says there in verse 2, "...attend unto me,"
that is, attend to my prayer and hear me, "...I mourn in my
complaint, and make a noise." He was having a hard time finding
words. He was so distraught. He was so distraught over Absalom
turning on him and Ahithophel turning on him. He was so distraught,
he could do nothing but mourn. And the meaning of this, I mourn
in my complaint, he was so distressed in mind, it was like he couldn't
get his thoughts together. He was wondering. He just couldn't
get it together. I don't know if anybody here
has ever been that stressed out or not, but I'm telling you what,
that's stressed out when you can't even get your thoughts
together. And you can't even put it into
words, it's so stressed out. You can't put it into words. How fitting, I thought, how fitting
this prayer is to our Lord in the garden. I want you to turn
over to Mark chapter 14. I have to read this prayer to
you so we can make the connection. in Mark chapter 14. Mark 14, let me look in verse
32. And they came to a place which
was called Gethsemane. And he saith to his disciples,
Sit ye here while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed," I mean sore
amazed and to be very heavy. And he saith unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful unto death. I believe our Lord is saying
here, I'm going to die right here if I don't get help. As
a man, he felt the full weight of sin. He felt the full weight
of betrayal. He felt everything he took away. He felt it. And he says here,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tear ye here and
watch. And he went forward a little,
and look here, he fell on the ground. He didn't just get down
on his knees. He fell. He totally lost physical
strength and fell over on his face. That's how burdened he
was, that's how distressed he was, that's how crushed he was
as a man, as our substitute. He fell on the ground and he
prayed that if it were possible The hour. The hour. Remember He said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son
may glorify Thee. The hour has come. And He's saying
here, if it's possible, the hour might pass away from Him. If
it's possible for us to be saved any other way, let this hour
pass. Well, it didn't pass because
it's not possible for us to be saved any other way. And he said, if it's possible, let this hour
pass. And he said, Abba Father, he's
crying now. David, go back over that psalm,
he says, I cried loud. It's hard to say how far away
you could have heard him crying loud. And he said, Abba Father, all
things are possible unto thee. All things. Take away this cup
from me. Take this cup from me. This cup
of wrath. This cup of the fury of God. Take it away from me. If it's
possible. He said, all things are possible
to you. You know what he's saying? You can. You can take this away. But notice what he says here,
nevertheless. not what I will, but what thou wilt." Isn't that
what David said over in Samuel? He said, if it's the Lord's will
for me to come back, fine. If not, that's fine too. He said,
whatever the Lord's will is in it. And he cometh and he findeth
them sleeping. That's us most of the time. And
he saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? "'cause not thou watch
one hour. "'Watch ye and pray, lest ye
enter into temptation. "'The spirit truly is ready,
but the flesh is weak.' "'And again he went away and prayed
"'and spake the same words. "'And when he returned, he found
them asleep again, "'for their eyes were heavy. "'Neither wished
they what to answer him. "'And he cometh the third time. "'He went back there three times
"'and prayed the same thing.'" Same thing. And he cometh a third
time and saith unto them, Sleep on now, take your rest, it's
enough, the hour is come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed
into the hands of sinners." And then you can go on and read the
rest of the story. Well, this prayer is so fitting
to our Lord that David prays here. And David here in It's
fitting to our Lord, and it's fitting to David, this is something
he really experienced, and it's fitting to us, because we'll
come into times, there'll be times when we'll go to the Scriptures
and we'll say, I can identify with him there. But David here,
he is so distracted by this stress that he can't even mentally think
and keep it together. Satan is a master of distraction. He is an absolute master of distraction. He'll have you looking over here
when he's actually working over there. He's a master at it. The greatest weapon of Satan
also is not only distraction, but it's the tongue. You see
here in verse 3, because of the voice, that is the noise of the
enemy, Many voices, many voices, because of the oppression of
the wicked, for they cast iniquity upon me." What did they say about
Christ? They said He's a blasphemer.
He's a blasphemer. You can only imagine what Absalom
was saying about his father David. They said He's a blasphemer.
They said He's a wine-bibber. And he felt their hatred. He
said, they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. You know, someone can hate me,
and I can feel a little bit of it, or I may experience some
of the outward fury of it, but the Lord Jesus Christ felt the
hatred. He felt the depth of what hatred
is. I've never felt that. I've never
felt the depth of being hated. He felt that. He said, in wrath,
they hated me. And then here in verses 4 and
5, we see David is in soul agony as our Lord was. I just read
it to you. Soul trouble is the hardest trouble to deal with.
It's harder to deal with than any physical trouble you've got.
I tell you what, if God keeps your spirit up, you can handle
anything physically. You can put up with it. But boy,
when the soul is cast down. How many times did David say,
My soul, why art thou cast down? Why are you cast down, O my soul?
That's the hard thing to deal with. Soul trouble is hard to
deal with. And he says here, My heart, My heart, it's sore
pain within me. You can only imagine the pain
of heart that he had from the rebellion of his son Absalom. I tell you what, we're all a
bunch of Absaloms. I thought of that today. I sang about Judas,
but I thought, well, wait a minute. If he hadn't saved me, I'd still
be in rebellion. I'd still be... in hatred of God. My heart is sore pain within
me, and the terrors... Now listen, the terrors of death
are falling upon me. Our Lord, we saw this, our Lord
felt this in the garden. I don't know if you've ever had
a real terror, if you've ever felt that. I was telling to Tommy,
we were talking about here the other night, But I think I told
you, but when I was in my early 40s, I woke up about three o'clock
in the morning. I thought I was having a hard
time. I mean, it was hurting. I thought my chest was gonna
split. And I just kept holding it, and
I kept thinking it was gonna give up, and I laid there for
about four hours. And then I finally got up about,
I don't know, six, seven o'clock, and I told Vic, I said, I gotta
go to the hospital. But during that time, when it hit me and
I woke up, I can remember vividly the terror that just hit me,
that I was about to die. I was going to die and leave
her with the boys in high school, and then I was going to die,
I was going to meet God, and I got to thinking, am I ready
to meet God? I mean, it really hit me hard.
So, he says here, the terror of death, terrors of death, Not just one, not just the fact
of dying, but there's you... I'll tell you why. Job said,
when I consider Him, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I brought a message.
I don't know if I brought it here or not. I brought it to Todd. Have
you ever been afraid of God? He holds your life, my life,
in His hands. And I'm telling you this, if
you meet Him and you're not in Christ, you don't love Christ,
you don't believe on Christ, there's no words for that terror.
There are just no words for it. And David here, God allowed him
to experience something of the terrors of death. He sent him
because he says, they have fallen like it came down from heaven.
They've fallen upon me. And I tell you this, what pains
the child of God excites the enemies. Spurgeon said this,
Spurgeon said, Think of our Lord in the garden, with his soul
exceeding sorrowful even unto death, and you have a parallel
to the griefs of the psalmist. He said, if you think of Christ
in the garden, then you can have a parallel to David's grief.
Here, David is wallowing on the ground like a worm that's been
stepped on. What did our Lord do when I read
to you Mark 14? He fell on the ground. He fell
on the ground. That's what David is wallowing
like a worm stepped on. You know, sometimes God lets
us feel the fear of death and the horror of the wicked to remind
us this is what He has saved us from. This is what He saved
us from. Now, when you're going to die,
I believe God gave you dying grace. But sometimes in between
that, He lets you experience a little bit of the fear of death,
and the terrors of it, and meeting God. Then it just makes Christ
that much more precious to you. Oh, how I need Him in that hour. It causes us to run to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Fearfulness and trembling are
come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." Well, I read
it to you there in Gethsemane. He felt the full measure of horror.
He felt the full measure of what it is to deal with an angry God.
He felt it. He said, the fearfulness and
trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
I know people who have anxiety attacks. I've had a couple of
men whom I know, and they told me that this fear and dread just
takes them over. I've never had that. I've never
experienced that. But they were telling me that
this one man that I worked with, he told me, he said he was in
his 60s. He had already retired. He was
working a second job there. And he told me, he said, he said,
one day I went running out of my house, out in the front yard. I was screaming, waving my hands. My wife thought I lost my mind.
And he said I was wallowing on the ground. And he said, I went
to the doctor and he said he had a panic attack. He said,
I was so much fear. He said, I never had such fear.
He said, just drain over me. He said, it just took me over.
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me. David just, I mean,
he can't even sit still. He can't sit still. Because in
the first part of this chapter, he's talking about, I'm wondering.
I'm just, I can't get it together. Our Lord, our Lord was under
such fear and trembling that He sweat great drops of blood.
He sweat great drops of blood." Now, David expresses his desire
to escape his present trouble, and he expresses it by taking
the wings of a dove and fly far, far away. In verse 6, David said,
and I said, when he had all this fear and trembling and fear of
death, and all this stuff had just come up on him, He said,
oh, that I had the wings like a dove, for then would I fly
away and be at rest. And our Lord is saying, Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Let me have rest. Job, Job said, I wish the day
I was born was blotted out. I've never gone to that point.
I don't know. I personally don't know anybody.
Henry would be the closest that I know of that would come to
that. But Job said, I wish that the day I was born
was blotted out. It wasn't even on the calendar.
It wasn't even on the calendar. The darkness just covered it.
He said, why was I allowed to live? He was so stressed out.
Well, I know this. We would fly away from all trouble
if we could because God's people love peace. They love peace. You love peace. I love peace.
Oh, I love it when it's peaceful. I hate friction. I hate being
at each other. I hate it. I love peace, but
listen. That wouldn't be good for us,
would it? Aren't you glad that the father
didn't relieve him of that and let him fly far away? Because
you and I'd be in trouble. We'd be in trouble. We need trials, and we need heavy
trials at times. Peter calls them if-need-be trials,
if-need-be. Our Lord said, he that bear it
does not take up his cross. He's not talking about going
out here like some of these morons and getting a cross and putting
it on their back and dragging it down the road so they can
look like they're bearing a cross. No, we're talking about suffering. We're talking about suffering.
Every believer has a cross to bear. And I thought about this, if
you had the wings of a dove and you could fly far, far away,
where would you go? You say anywhere but here. Well,
I'll tell you this, wherever you go on this earth, you take
trouble with you. It's going to be with you no
matter where you go. You can't get away from trouble. You can't get away from troubles.
Like that guy said, he had three wrecks at his house, and some
guy said, well, if I were you, I'd move. You'll get it by the time you
get home. Anyway, no matter where you go,
trouble's going to be there. But here's the best thing to
do. Take the wings of prayer and faith and fly up to the throne
of grace and be at rest there. There's where you find rest. Moving to the next county ain't
going to do it. Moving to the next state or moving
to another country is not going to do it. The world hasn't changed
since the fall, has it? Hasn't changed since the fall. fly up to the throne of grace
and rest. There's no rest anywhere else
but there." But there. He said, "...Lo, then would I
wander far off and remain in the wilderness." Well, God said,
you're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What
are you doing going to the wilderness? Now, that would be us if we could,
wouldn't it? Wouldn't we just gather and get
away from the world? Wouldn't we? We'll just let the
world go on by." Well, you're the salt of the earth and light
of the world, so that can't happen. It can't happen. God didn't make
us to be solitary creatures. He lit the candle and then put
you out there. You're the only light this world
has. You really are. You're the only
light. You think Washington's in bad
shape? Let the church be taken out. Let the church be taken
out. There wouldn't be no light at
all left in this world. The fact that God has a people
in this world, He still has light in this world, and there's still
going to be some semblance of civility. Some of it. David said, lo then would I wonder,
wonder far off and remain in the wilderness. Then he put seal
of him. And he might've, when he said that, he might've thought,
you know, I need to pause and think about what I just said.
I need to pause and think about that. Just like when I was singing
there, I had to pause and think. You know, instead of just singing,
because we're singing, I was reading what we were singing.
I read every line that we were singing, every word. He said, I would hasten my escape
from the windy storm and tempest. Yeah, I would do, but it doesn't
work that way, David. It doesn't work that way. But
our Lord was praying in the garden. He said, if it be possible, let
this pass from me. Listen, there's nothing wrong
with coming apart for a while, but we must get back in the battle.
We have to get back in the battle. Now, David lashes out. He lashes
out against his enemies. He says in verse 9... Well, first of all, I want you
to point this out. In verses 9 and 11, we see what
happens when authority leaves town. When authority leaves town,
we're going to see what happens. But he says here, "...destroy,
O Lord, and divide their tongues." Confuse their tongues like he
did at Babel. That's what he's saying. "...For I have seen violence
and strife in the city." Remember, they left the city. And when
he left, there was nothing but violence, he said, and strife.
Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Mischief
also and sorrow are in the midst of the city. There's no rest
for the wicked. They can't rest. Mischief is
as sport to the wicked. Wickedness, in verse 11, is in
the midst thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets. And I had to put this in here. That's what you get when you
defund the police. I just had to put that in there, but that's
what you get. The king was ran out of town. He's the authority
figure. He's the law. He got ran out of town and look
what happened. A bunch of thugs took it over. And he said, there's
nothing but violence. Man cannot. He cannot manage
his self. You can't manage that old nature.
That old nature is too strong. It dominates. The scriptures,
as we've looked in Romans, it reigns as a king. It reigns as
a king. And I tell you what, you take
away all restraints, take away authority, and that's what you
get. That's what you get right there.
Day and night, they go out into the streets and the walls, upon
the walls, and mischief and sorrows in the midst of the city, that's
all it is. But the greatest pain for David was his son turned
on him, his close friend Ahithophel turned on him. He says in verse 12, For it was
not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it,
because he dealt with the Philistines and all them. Neither was it
he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, or I could
go somewhere and hide from him. But it was thou, and you notice
here, it's almost like he's speaking to him face to face, like the
man is standing in front of him. It was thou, a man, my equal,
my guide, my acquaintance. When Judas kissed our Lord on
the face to betray him, he said, Friend, we had sweet counsel together.
He says here, we took sweet counsel together. We walked to the house
of God in company together. David did that with his son.
He did it with Ahithophel. And they turned on him. Our Lord
was betrayed by one of His disciples, one of the twelve. You say, well, He knew that.
You know, He's God. He knows all that. I'm telling
you, this shows the humanity. This shows the humanity of Jesus
Christ. He felt the pain of that betrayal. I tell you, it's wow. When I look at my Lord, I just
love your enemies. He doesn't tell us to do something
he doesn't. It's just beyond me to explain. He said, we took sweet counsel
together. We walked into the house of God in company. Well, I've seen that over the
years. I've seen that happen. And I've seen some real close
fellowship. People who've walked together
for years won't even speak to each other no more. It's painful. And he says here, "...let death
seize upon them, and let them go down quick in a hurry into
hell." He's saying here, the sooner they do that, the sooner
this wickedness, this wicked overthrows over with. Although
he didn't want Absalom to die, he wanted Absalom to be reigned
in, but God's going to kill him. Because he says later, Absalom,
Absalom, would to God I had died for you. Let death seize... You say, well,
boy, man, he's really... That doesn't sound like something
a believer ought to say. Well, I'm going to say this.
I don't know how to... Really, I've been trying to figure
out how to handle that verse. You know, we pray. I pray that
God saves sinners. I pray for all men. But there's
some men God ain't gonna save. There's some men that the Lord
didn't pray for. He said, I prayed enough for
the world, didn't He? Well, if He's not praying for their salvation,
what's the opposite? I think, here in verse 15, let
death seize upon them, let them go down quick into hell. I can see here the wrath of the
Lamb. Don't think He's just this mealy-mouthed, soft. No, this is the wrath of the
Lamb. If He prays and intercedes for you, for salvation, you're
going to be saved. But I tell you, if it's the opposite,
you're going to hell. That to me, that verse is like, whoa,
I mean, that's a powerful verse. There's no neutral ground. There's
no neutral ground. That's another thing I see here.
He said, let death seize upon them. I know a lot of the people
I read was trying to really, you know, saying, well, David
was a warrior and this was the warrior part of him coming out.
No, our Lord is, He's a mighty captain. He's a captain of host. He's the Lord of hosts. Here's the character and experience,
though, of the righteous. But he said, as for me, I will
call upon God and the Lord will save me. When times of trouble
come, he said, I'm going to call upon God and the Lord will save
me. And listen here how often he
calls. In verse 17, "...evening, and morning, and at noon will
I pray." Our Lord prayed all the time. He was praying all
the time. But David here, David says, I'm going to call upon
Him in the evening, in the morning, and at noon. In other words,
I am going to live in a constant attitude of prayer. You know,
there is such a thing of being in an attitude of prayer. You
can't always just stop what you're doing. If you're working somewhere,
you can't do it, but you can live in an attitude of prayer. And he says here, "...and he
hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle." He's done it
every time. David's looking back. And our Lord, He looked over
His life on this earth. He knew that He was delivered
by His heavenly Father. How many times did he walk through
the midst of them and they was trying to kill him? They wanted to kill him
and they'd walk right through the midst of him. It's like, can't they see? There
he goes. But they couldn't, they just
couldn't, they couldn't do anything. They couldn't do anything. Because
God delivered him. He has delivered me. He has delivered
my soul. He's getting right to the root
of the matter. In peace. He's done it in peace. from the
battle that was against me." Brethren, can we say that? God
has delivered us in peace. Christ, our peace. He's delivered
us in peace from the battle that was against us. The battle's
not yours, it's the Lord's. And He's delivered us. You're
delivered. You're delivered. And listen, for there were many
with me... You know what I think he's talking
about there? Because we read that, there's 600 men with him.
David right now rises up and he's speaking here, and our Lord
can say this, the whole host of heaven, the whole host of
heaven is with me. There's more with me than with
them. You can find that over in 2 Kings 6, 17, when Elijah
asked the Lord to open that young man's eyes, and that whole hill
was full of chariots of fire. Those same ones are with us tonight.
They're with us. And he says here, And there's something here that's
interesting. He says in verse 19, God shall hear. God's not
deaf. God shall hear and afflict them.
He hears the counsel of the ungodly. There may be somebody out there
plotting against you. You don't know it. You can't
hear them. You're not telepathic. Isn't that what that is? Telepathic. But God hears every word. Every word spoken against you
out there somewhere, God hears it. He says, God shall hear and
afflict them, even he that abides of old. God will do this. Now think about this. He said,
God will take care of them, and because they have no changes.
Therefore they fear not God. When judgment doesn't happen
immediately, they're emboldened in their sins. Men who know no
change, men and women who know no change are lost. If God saves
you, they're going to be a great change. They're going to be a
great change. But those who know no change,
they're lost. And he says here, and I know
what he's doing. He's reflecting back to his counsel
he had with Ahithophel and his son Absalom. He said, you know,
I made a vow to the Lord, and I'm going to go play my vow.
He wasn't having anything to do with the Lord. He's just going
to go get what he did, this conspiracy. He says, He, that is, and I'm
going to read this out of another translation. He, my companion,
has put out his hands against those who were at peace with
him. He has broken his covenant of friendship and loyalty. He's
not a friend. He played like it. He played
like it. His words, listen, the words
of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. Oh, but dad, he just put his
arm around David and just said, hey dad, how you doing today?
You know, I made a vow to the Lord and I need to go do that. I need to go pay that vow. He
said, David, well, go ahead. War was in his heart. War was in it. Judas, all those
times with the Lord, all those times he sat there, war was in
his heart. Aren't you glad that God Almighty
has ended the war that's in your heart, that was in there, that
enmity that we're born with? God ended that war, or it'd still
be there. The words of his mouth were smoother
than butter, but war in his heart. His words were softer than oil,
yet were they drawn swords. I said, that sounds just like
Washington, D.C. today. It sounds just like it. war in the art. But he says here, to sum it up,
cast thy burden upon the Lord. At the end of all that he said,
at the end of the day, you know, all the frustration you've gone
through today, and the problems you've dealt with today, and
everything that's come your way today, here's what you do tonight
before you go to bed. Every one of you. Every one of
us. Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
whatever it is, however small you may think it is. It's not
small. There's no small burden. Cast
thy burden upon the Lord. He shall sustain thee. He'll
keep you. He'll strengthen you. You feel like you're never going
to make it? There'll be times God will try
you to feel like you're not going to make it. He'll sustain you.
Because here, this is a promise, "...cast thy burden upon the
Lord, he shall sustain thee." That is a promise. That's a promise
of God. "...he shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved." Now I put this in the Bulletin. I'm going
to read it to you. Charles Spurgeon. "...cast thy burden upon the
Lord, he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved." Thy burden, or what thy God lays upon thee,
lay thou it upon the Lord. His wisdom cast it on thee, it
is thy wisdom to cast it on Him. He cast thy lot for thee, cast
thy lot on Him. He gives thee thy portion of
suffering, accept it with cheerful resignation, and then take it
back to Him by thine assured confidence. He shall sustain
thee." That's the assured confidence. Thy bread shall be given thee,
thy water shall be sure, abundant nourishment shall fit thee to
bear all thy labors and trials. As thy days He has promised,
as thy days so shall thy strength be. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved, He may move like the boughs of a tree
in the tempest, but he shall never be moved like a tree torn
up by the roots. He stands firm who stands in
God. Many would destroy the saints,
but God has not suffered it and never will. Like pillars, the
godly stand immovable to the glory of the great architect."
I can't say anything better than that. That's good. He will sustain
thee. 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." Everybody
you look at and all the trouble you see, remember this, everyone
is short-term. Everyone. Every dictator, they're
all short-term. God is long-term. God is eternal.