God’s promise in Psalm 55:22 is in
two parts. He makes a promise for right now, while we’re struggling with
our burdens, and He also makes a promise for forever, for any and all burdens
we might experience in the course of our lives.
A Promise for Right Now
Our dear Lord says that, as we cast
our burdens on Him, He will sustain us. The word sustain in Hebrew could be
translated “nourish” or “feed.” The Lord used the same word to promise Elijah
that He would take care of him during the drought: You shall drink from the
brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there (1 Kings 17:4). And
in Nehemiah’s day, the Levites remembered how God had taken care of His people
in the wilderness: Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they
lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell
(Nehemiah 9:21).
For Elijah the burden of a nation-wide drought and famine didn't disappear. But God nourished him through it. For the people of Israel, their sojourn in the wilderness still lasted 40 years. But God sustained them through it.
When
you cast your burden on the Lord, it might not disappear. But you can count on Him to
provide what you need, to nourish and sustain you, so you will be able to get
through it.
A Promise for Forever
God’s promise in Psalm 55:22 also
has an eternal dimension: he will never allow the righteous to be moved.
“To move” means to waver, to slip,
to fall. In the end the God upon whom we cast our burdens takes care of more
than the burden. He steadies our whole lives, so that we will not fall from
His grace or fail to arrive at His intended destination. David used the same word
in Psalm 16:8 - I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right
hand, I shall not be shaken.
Like a ship buffeted by heavy winds,
we feel the force and weight of our burdens. But our great God anchors us so
that no storm can sink us and nothing in heaven or earth can separate us from
the One who loves us.
Cast your burden on the Lord and he
will sustain you; he will never allow the righteous to be moved.
