Casting Our Burdens

"Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."

Psalm 55:22

When David wrote Psalm 55, he was clearly burdened by many things, including a host of enemies, the oppression of the wicked, and betrayal by a friend.  Unable to fly away from his troubling situation or dread, he sought the LORD he knew would hear and answer him.  Toward the end of the song he turned his attention to the reader and urged all to cast their burdens on the LORD who would sustain those made righteous through faith in Him.

To sustain means "to hold."  When people are burdened in a literal sense, it means we are carrying something.  I picture someone encumbered with bags after coming home from the shops or a person carrying a load of firewood on outstretched arms.  When doing work, we like to make our effort and time worthwhile.  Rather than making several trips, we might load an extra bag or log to finish the job more efficiently.  In contrast to physical burdens we carry in doing work, we can be weighed down with mental and spiritual burdens that go to work on us--and not in a good way.  These cares, worries, fears and anxiety can paralyse us under a weight we struggle to carry.  We would rather carry what we able to carry rather than permitting others to assist us, and this tendency can be carried over to our relationship with God.  He allows burdens we cannot even carry for a moment, for we can easily be overwhelmed and collapse under the weight of them.

There are burdens that situations may place upon us, and there are burdens we voluntarily choose to pick up and carry as something we feel responsible to do or bring justice to bear on them.  At times we may not even realise we are burdened by thoughts and feelings that are weighing us down.  We can become rather attached to burdens, even finding our identify or sense of purpose in carrying them.  But David exhorts us to cast our burden (whatever it may be or however we obtained it) on the LORD and pour out our complaint to Him alone, knowing he will never permit the righteous to be moved.  Christians are exhorted in 1 Peter 5:5-7:  "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." ⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

In Bunyan's allegory the Pilgrim's Progress, the protagonist Christian was loaded with a burden of sin, and it is something he always carried that grew weightier over time.  It was when he knelt at the foot of the cross it fell from his shoulders, and Jesus is able to carry the weight of our sin and all other burdens we accumulate as we cast them upon the LORD.  What we can hardly carry He gives us supernatural strength to cast on Him.  It may be we have known the LORD a long season and perhaps we have burdens we have always carried to this day--and thus feel a bit attached to them, even justifying their existence.  We can proudly hold onto our burdens rather than casting them on the LORD, shrinking back from trusting He will sustain and hold us because we have yet to experience this.  What do we have to lose by casting our cares on Him who cares for us?  He rejoices to exalt and lift up those who humble themselves to cast their burdens on the LORD.