Psalm 55: 22
Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.
Tuesday we looked at 1 Peter 5: 7 which reads, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” Seeing this same idea in the Old Testament brings three thoughts. The first thing which occurs to me is that God has not changed (Malachi 3: 6). The Old Testament God wants to care for us just like the New Testament God does. Secondly, it seems to me that Peter was increasing the understanding of Psalm 55 in his statement. Peter’s ministry was predominantly to Jews. Therefore, his audience would already know Psalm 55 and to cast their burdens onto the Lord. They would also have known that this is the methodology for receiving God’s sustenance. Peter’s teaching explains why God gave them Psalm 55 in the first place. Peter explains that all of this is because God cares for us.
Lastly, we can enter this verse through the back door and really wrap Psalm 55 and 1 Peter 5: 7 up in a pretty bow. The backdoor is that God wishes to sustain us. Therefore, He teaches us to cast our care upon Him. In other words, if you want God to sustain you then He has shown us that the way to receive that sustenance is to give Him all of our cares and burdens. Begin with the result and work your way backward to find out what you must do in order to receive that result. Do not stop there, though. The conclusion is that God provides our sustenance and the methodology for receiving it because He cares for us. We get to see His motivation for ever speaking Psalm 55.
For thousands of years now God has been calling us to go to Him to receive our daily bread and every other need met as well. He calls to us because He loves us and wants to take care of us. That is why it is almost sinful for us to “take care”. That is the role God has appointed for Himself. He is the ultimate caregiver, so roll all of your cares over on Him and receive the sustaining grace of His love.
