Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
– Psalm 55:22
Wow, what an awesome verse, especially when you think about 1 Peter 5, and the command there to cast all your anxieties on God, all your worries upon him, all your burdens upon him.
Psalm 55:22 Is a Declaration of God’s Care for Us
Psalm 55:22, because he cares for you and he will sustain you. I just want you to think, pause right now and consider what burdens are you carrying? What things are heavy on your heart and mind right now? Just think, what are the burdens or to use that language from 1 Peter 5, anxieties or worries. What are you worried about? What are you anxious about? Just pause and consider burdens, worries, anxieties, and hear God saying to you right now, “Cast them on me. Lay them before me because I care for you.”
What a picture. This God speaking to us, the omnipotent sovereign. We’ve seen this in the Psalms over all creation. He is saying, “I care about you and I will sustain you. With these burdens on your heart and mind, I will sustain you. I’ll give you peace.”
Philippians 4, that will replace anxiety and faith that will overcome worry and I, God says, Psalm 55:22, will not permit. I will never allow the righteous to be moved. To use the language from Psalm 54:4, that we prayed according to, I will uphold your life and I will make you immovable amidst the storms of this life, amidst the challenges coming your way. I will not permit you to be moved.
Psalm 55:22 Is a Calling to Cast Our Burdens Upon the Lord
When you cast your burdens, your cares, your anxieties, your worries on me. Oh God, we do that right now as each of us think about the things that are heavy on our hearts and minds and we’re carrying in our lives, in the areas of our lives where we are worried or anxious.
We’re hearing your word to us. Don’t worry, don’t be anxious. Cast your burdens on me. I care for you. So we say yes, we lay them before you, God, and we pray that you would replace worry and anxiety with faith and peace and joy and strength. God, we pray that you would take our burdens and sustain us. Help us, uphold us. Do what you promise in your word. Do not allow us to be moved, to be tossed here and there by the burdens and worries and anxieties of this life. God, help us to live with no fear, with no worry, no anxiousness over what is to come because you are upholding us, because you are sustaining us and because you care for us and you promise to provide for us.
Lord, I just pray this over every single person listening to this right now and my own life. God, help us to obey Psalm 55:22, to cast our burdens on you and to experience your sustenance. God, we pray for people who don’t know you in this way, who’ve never even heard the good news that you are the one who cares for us, that you sent your son to die on a cross to pay the price for our sin. To conquer not just sin, but death, a grave.
Praying for the Chaungtha People
Oh God, we pray for the Chaungtha people of Myanmar, 183,000 of them, hardly any known followers of Jesus. God, we pray for the Chaungtha people. Please bring them this good news, cause this good news to spread through your church in Myanmar and from outside Myanmar so that the Chaungtha people might cast their burdens, their sin, their sorrows on you, and you will save and sustain them. God bring it about among the Chaungtha people of Myanmar. We pray in Jesus’ name. We pray all of this according to Psalm 55:22. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
