We're turning in the Word of God to Psalm 55. The 55th Psalm, and we'll begin our reading at the first verse. We'll read the Psalm together. I'll begin reading Psalm 55, the verse number one. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend on to me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, For they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is sore pained within me, and the tears of death are falling upon me. Fearfulness and trembling now come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. Though then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness, Scylla. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest, destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from her streets. For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked into the house of God in company. Let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them, as for me. I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many with me. God shall hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old, Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him. He hath broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved, but thou, O God, shall 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. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we now come to thy word, and we thank thee for the written word of God. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. We thank Thee for the impregnable rock that is the Word of God. And we pray, Lord, that Thou will bless as we gather around the open book. May we not close the Bible, may we not become distracted in some way, but offer our undivided attention as we come around the Word of God. Bless, O God, this Word today and glorify Thy Son and help now the preaching of it by the infilling of the Spirit of God. I pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. For me, the process of deciding upon a motto text begins in the autumn of any given year. It's a matter that obviously I look to the Lord for because there are so many gospel and scriptural texts that if I was choosing, I would choose for the congregation. But this year I found the Lord directing me specifically to this psalm, Psalm 55, and in particular the words that we find in the verse number 22, "'Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.'" No later than yesterday, in my own private time with the Lord and reading my own personal devotional books, I found this particular text drawn to my attention. This is God's Word for this congregation. I'm not here to preach a sermon, but I'm here to preach God's message. And as much as it is my responsibility to preach the message, it is then your responsibility to listen to the message. I trust that you will give, as I've already prayed, therefore your undivided attention, that you'll not be reading somewhere else in the Scripture when the preacher is preaching, because I notice that happening. that you'll not be scrolling through a phone because I notice that happening. I trust that you'll not get diverted by happenings outside this building or in your home if you're watching in, but that you'll give your undivided attention because this is God's word. Now you think of that. God has given a word to this congregation. and it is for us to take it on board. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Now, from the psalm's title, we find that it was David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, who penned this particular psalm. As to the circumstances that caused him to write this psalm, well, they are unknown to us. Opinion among Bible commentators is divided as to what prompted David to pen this sacred psalm. Some people and some commentators believe that the psalm was composed On the occasion of the departure of David from the city of Jerusalem, when he had heard of the rebellion of his son Absalom, they believe that the psalm has special reference to the time when having fled the city and come to the ascent of the Mount of Olives, David learned that Ahithpehal had become one of the conspirators against him. Other commentators believe that the psalm was composed when David was found in the city of Cilia. When surrounded by foes, he was apprehensive that the citizens of that particular city would have delivered him into the hand of his archenemy, King Saul. But regardless of what point in David's life and of David's earthly pilgrimage, the psalm was written. Its contents, they furnish us with a prayer that was offered to God when God's servant was being sorely tested. You see, David speaks within the psalm about his enemies. Oppressing him and hating him, we find that in the verse number three. Emotionally, it appears that David is not in a good place either. Look there at the words of the verse number five. Fearfulness, he says, and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. Such were the difficulties that David faced at this time in his life that he looked to God that God would in some way enable him to escape the present trial. He says there in the verse number six, Oh that I had the wings of a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. What made the trial even harder for David to bear was the fact that his enemy was not some predictable foe, but rather one who was his equal, one who was his guide, one who was his acquaintance. This was an individual who had went with him to the house of God, according to the verses 13 and verses 14. The turning point in the psalm really comes in the verse 16, because up until this moment of time within the psalm, all is quite depressing. The mood of the psalmist is certainly sober. The outlook is dark. The situation appears hopeless. However, all of that changes when God's servant takes himself off to God in prayer. Verse 16, as for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. And so as David confides in his God, in prayer, we then find that his confidence in God, it begins to rise within his soul and until it reaches its climax, its pinnacle, to the point where David will then declare in the verse number 23, But thou, O God, shall 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. It is within this context of a renewed confidence in his God that David then issues a directive to all who would read his song, having proved the benefit of what he is about to ask others to do in his own personal life. David then says, cast thy burden upon the Lord. I, having done this myself, Now cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." I want us to think upon these words, the verse number 22 in a message that I've entitled, David's Directive for Distressed Disciples. David's directive for distressed disciples. There are just two points to the message today. I want you to notice with me in the first place what we are exhorted to do. Because David exhorts all distressed disciples of Jesus Christ to do something. He encourages them, he exhorts them, he directs them to cast thy burden upon the Lord. Now, there are a number of things that we need to think about, a number of words within this particular statement that we want to consider. I want you to consider, first of all, that word burden. Cast thy burden upon the Lord. The Hebrew word is the word yahab. It is a most interesting word. I'm told that there are 419,687 words in the Hebrew Old Testament text. Of those 419,687 words, 8,679 of them are unique. In other words, there is a repetition of words, and you would know that. How many times the word the or a appears, you'll know that that's repeated so many times. And so there are 8,679 unique words in the Old Testament Hebrew text. The word Yahab is one of them. And the interesting fact is this, that this is the only time that this word ever appears in the whole of the canon of Holy Scripture. It is a most interesting word. It translates in this way, what is given by providence. What is given by providence. The word burden. When we think of the word burden, we think of a heavy load that has to be carried. But whenever we think about this word in this light, in the light of what is given by providence, the weight or the load of the burden is in some way lifted by the fact that our burdens have been placed upon us, they have been given to us by the providence of God. In other words, the burdens that we carry in life have been placed upon us not by fate, not by bad luck, not by chance, but by the providence of God, that God in His wisdom has so ordained and so purposed to place upon us a particular burden or particular burdens upon our shoulders. Sometimes those burdens are given to humble us. Sometimes they are given to sanctify us. other times those burdens are given to us in order to strengthen us. When we think about our burdens, we therefore need to remember that all of them have been allotted to us by the providential appointment of a sovereign God. Let me repeat that. All burdens are allotted to us by the providential appointment of a sovereign God, and it is by His appointment that we bear such burdens. And because they are of His appointment, then we can be assured that no burden is ever placed upon us that we are unable to bear. God knows the burdens that we can carry. He knows the load that we can carry and we can bear. Therefore, by his providence, he has placed the burden upon us. Now, I don't need to tell you that we have many burdens to carry. There is the burden of family life, the burden of you being a father, a mother, a father to lead the home and become the priest within the home, to lead your children in the things of God. It's a burden. God has placed that burden upon you, brother, And for you, Mother, for the care of the children, God has placed that burden upon you, husband and wife, the burden of marital relationship. There is the burden of work. There is a burden at times of poor health whenever sickness lays hold of the body. What about the burden of sorrow and of grief? The burden of loneliness as a singleton or as a divorcee, the burden of hurt, the burden of despair, the burden of bereavement. These are some of the physical. These are some of the emotional burdens that we bear. And then there are other burdens and they're more spiritual in nature. Sinner, what about the burden of sin? You carried it through 2022. you've carried it over the threshold of 2023 and you're still carrying it this afternoon, the burden of sin. We sung about it today. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. The burden of your sin Weighed down with its guilt and its shame. Weighed down with its condemnation. Weighed down under the wrath of God because of your transgression and your iniquity and your rebellion against the Almighty. I tell you, sinner, that burden of sin will sink you into lost hell if you repent not of it and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord. Then whenever you become a Christian, all the burden, the spiritual burdens, what about the burden of lost loved ones still in their sin, still in the broad road that leadeth to destruction? It ought to be a burden. I pray, child of God, there'll be a renewed burden among the people of God for the lost in this congregation in 2023? A burden for the lost, in our families, and in our friendship circles, and in our schools, and our places of employment, and in our neighborhoods, all for a burden, the burden of the lost? What about the burden of God's work? Do you know anything about it? Have you shirked your responsibility, brother, sister? The burden of God's work, are you under it? What about the burden of prayer? What about the burden for our nation? The falling away, the great departure, the sin and iniquity that abounds, the burden for prayer, the burden for the nation. What about a burden for revival, for the reviving of God's church? What about the burden for the building of Christ's church and His kingdom? What about a burden for our own spiritual progression, our own spiritual advancement in the things of God? Life has its many burdens that we have to shoulder. One preacher remarked, to be burdened at times is the common lot of humanity. Every man has his own burden. What's your burden today? What is it? Well, God is a word for you in our motto text with regard to what you do with it. And so there is that word burden, what is given by providence. Then look at that word thy, cast thy burden. The word thy, it corresponds to another word within our text, within the second part, because this word really clarifies in the second part of the verse who this promise is for. Cast thy burden. Who's he referring to? Well, look at the next part of the verse. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Who are the righteous? Well, the Bible says that there is none righteous, no, not one. That is us in our sinful states, in our sin, we are unrighteous. However, whenever we come to Christ having cast our sin burden upon Him, He in turn imputes, reckons, credits to our account His righteousness, and an account of His righteousness imputed to us, then we are declared righteous before God. And therefore, this promise is for God's people. Sinner, you have no one with regard to and with respect to God to put your burden upon. You do not know Him. But the believer, knowing Christ, knowing God through Christ, has one upon which they can place their burden. And so, The believer, the Christian, the righteous one is the one who is in view with this word, thy. Oh, cast thy burden. You who are righteous, declared righteous, cast thy burden upon the Lord. And really this verse and the contents of it is a wake-up call for those who believe that the Christian life should be a bed of roses. A life that's free from trouble, a life that is hassle-free. This is simply not the case because the righteous have their burdens to bear. We have our burdens to bear. Christian, whenever or when you think of your burdens today, don't be thinking that this should not be your lot in life. It is through much affliction, much tribulation, much burden bearing that we come to enter into the kingdom of God. If the master had to bear his cross before he entered into glory, why think you and I that it would be any different for us, his servant? The cross always precedes the crown. The burdens of earth always precedes the bliss of heaven. So, child of God, if you're carrying a burden, don't be thinking, don't be thinking today that you're not His child. The righteous have their burdens to bear. Note the third word within that opening statement. It is the word cast, cast thy burden. This word brings us to consider our first point, what we are exhorted to do by the psalmist with those burdens that are specific to us, those that have been placed upon us by the providence of God. We are to cast them upon the Lord. The word cast is the Hebrew word shalak. It appears some 125 times in the Old Testament. Other English words that we could use in its place, and we would be just in doing so, would be the word hurl. Hurl. H-U-R-L, hurl. Or another word, throw. Or another word, fling. Fling. We would use maybe a word, something like chuck, chuck, or fling. These are the words. I'll use these three words for they are the translation that we find within the Hebrew lexicon. Hurl, throw, fling. These are words that indicate that the burden is first of all lifted, it is then hurled, it therefore leaves us, and it then is placed upon another. The burden now becomes the care of another. It no longer burdens us, as it were, but it's placed upon our God. David is not saying, that we shoulder part of the burden and the other one to whom we cast it to shoulders the rest. He's saying that the burden is entirely lifted and cast upon another. Maybe you have come to God's house today carrying some burden. I don't know it, but you know it. Burdened you down, 2023, and it continues to burden you down. Maybe you've come today burdened down, and its weight is driving you deeper and deeper and deeper into despair. What you need to do today is to deliberately place your burden on God's shoulder. And I say this, and I say this reverently, and God is my witness, that God has broad enough shoulders to carry your burden. He's got broad enough shoulders to carry your burden. Isaiah 9 verse 6 tells me that the government shall be upon his shoulder. And since God can carry the burden of universal government, And since he was able to carry and to bear and to shoulder the burden of sin that was placed upon him there at the cross of Calvary, then I want to assure you that God is not going to sink under the weight of whatever burden you place upon him today. He's not going to sink under it, brother, sister, if he's already carried the heaviest burden, the burden of sin at the place called Calvary. then that little light burden, and I am not belittling what your burden is today, but if he's carried the greatest burden, is he not able to shoulder the burden that you would cast upon him today? Don't just cast it aside, but rather commit your burden to God, whatever that burden is. Cast it over to Him and place yourself there with it. You know, brethren and sisters, it's like God this afternoon bows down His shoulder towards us and He says to us, child of sorrow, child of woe, put your troubles here. Put your troubles here. Put them on my shoulder. Cast them upon me. Cast them upon me. Put your troubles here." I can't move on before I say something about the one upon whom we cast our burdens upon. Cast thy burden upon the Lord. The Lord, upon the Lord. You know, admittedly, there are times that we do anything but when it comes to our burdens. Instead of casting our burdens upon the Lord, we cast them on our husband or our wife. Maybe cast it on a friend. We pick up the phone and we tell them what is burdening our hearts. Or maybe we make a phone call to the minister and we cast our burdens upon the minister. And can I say, brethren and sisters, there's nothing wrong with doing that if at first we have cast our burden upon the Lord. If he has been the first to hear the burden, if he's been the first to, as it were, listen to what concerns us. As you know, the word here, Lord, is in the capital letters and thus in the Hebrew text, it is Jehovah. Jehovah, the self-existent one. It is Jehovah who is the great bearer of burdens for his people. It is the one who is endowed with omnipotence, is the most suitable person upon whom we can cast our burdens upon. He who bore the weight of our sin in his own body on the tree is able to bear our burden of grief and our burden of care. I was with the Richmond family yesterday, three homes, Sadie and Bob, Jeanie, Victor, Davey and Marie, and I brought them to this text and then I thought about a verse that I find in the book of Isaiah chapter 53. With regard to the burdens that we bear and the burdens that Christ bore, that great chapter, that evangelical chapter, we read that Jesus Christ, He's a man of sorrows, He's acquainted with grief. And then verse number 4 of Isaiah 53, Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. There's the burden of grief and sorrow, and He's carried them. He's carried them. Maybe today it's your heart is grieving, it's sorrowing. Ah, but Christ is the great burden bearer. Mr. Spurgeon, when commenting on this verse, he encouraged the Christian to do this. He said, cast your troubles where you cast your sins. Not a marvelous thought. Cast your troubles where you cast your sins. You cast your sins on Jesus, he said, cast your troubles there also. You see, brethren and sisters, not to cast your burden upon the Lord is to suggest that you don't believe that he's able to bear them, that he in some way is incapable or that he in some way is inept of relieving us from the burden. Oh, brethren and sisters, Jehovah is well able to carry any burden we place upon him. And so let's cast our burden upon him. It is the only wise course of action for us to take. Samuel Blackerby said, the best way to ease thyself is to lay thy load upon God. He will take it up and also carry thee. He'll not only take the burden, He'll take the believer and he'll carry us through. Now you might be asking the question, how do I do this? How do I cast my burden upon the Lord? Well, we do that in faith and we do that by prayer. It is by a simple act of faith and prayer. that we transfer our cares, our anxieties, our sorrows, our needs, our troubles, and our fears to the Lord. It's as if we go before the Lord and say, Lord, I'm placing into your hands that which burdens me, and I'm leaving it there with thee for thee to take care of. Joseph Scriven's famous hymn, what a friend we have in Jesus. A hymn that was composed in the most tragic of circumstances, and you'll probably know them well if you don't look them up. It speaks about carrying burdens that we would be better to transfer to the Lord. But there is a fourth verse to that hymn, a verse that we do not find in our own hymn book. And in that fourth verse, Joseph Scriven, he wrote these words, blessed Savior, thou has promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear. May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer, soon in glory bright unclouded. There will be no need for prayer. Rapture, praise, and endless worship will be our sweet portion there. Thou wilt all our burden bear. Let's take our burdens to the Lord and leave them there. We've thought about what we are to do. But having encouraged the believer to cast their burden upon the Lord, the psalmist now furnishes us with encouragement as to why we are to do that very thing. And that brings us to consider why we are exhorted to cast our burden upon the Lord. Why are we exhorted to do it? Well, can I say in the first place, that we'll find whenever we do so that the Lord will sustain us. As we cast our burden upon the Lord, He will do one of two things. He will either remove the burden altogether, or He will impart strength to us that is more equal to the burden's pressure. That's really the thought behind that phrase, and He shall sustain thee. The word sustain thee is support thee, maintain thee, hold thee, bear thee. He'll bear thee. Another way to put it is, He will make you sufficient for it. If God is pleased to leave the burden on His child for a period of time that is of His own choosing, then He will provide all of the grace and strength needed to bear the burden. The burden at times remains so that our strength and our faith are increased. Three times the Apostle Paul prayed for the removal of the thorn in the flesh. It was some bodily infirmity that God had placed upon his servant providentially. That request was denied. His prayer was answered with no. And in its place, God dispensed to his servant grace that would enable Paul to bear it. And therefore he wrote, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, would I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." The relief for Paul came not from the burden's removal, but from the grace that God imparted to his child in order that he might be able to bear the burden. God sustained Paul with sufficient grace as he carried the burden. You and I must come to realize that God does not promise to free us from the burden. That is not the promise. You need to read it. You need to meditate upon it, brother, sister. It is that he will sustain you as you carry the burden. He will sustain you. It isn't that He will remove the load that we cast upon Him and that He'll carry it for us, but rather that He'll sustain us so that we are enabled to carry the burden ourselves. When God doesn't immediately remove the burden, then He imparts all sufficient grace and strength to bear it. And we need to come to realize, brethren and sisters, that at times there can be a greater blessing in carrying the burden daily than for us to have the burden immediately removed. Because for God to remove the burden immediately means that we would lose all of the sweet sanctifying blessing that springs from the burden that God places upon us. And so whenever we cast our burden, first of all, He will sustain us. Secondly, we are assured that the Lord will never suffer the righteous to be moved. The word move there in the text means to totter, to shake, to slip, to be overthrown, to waver. The words in this end part of verse 22 can be rendered in this way, he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved forever. You know, we may think that we will become, we will be crushed under the burden. We may convince ourselves that we will slip and fall under the burden's weight, but God informs us here that if we cast our burden upon Him, He will not allow that to happen. We all know that tree branches, they sway in the gale, but the root that anchors the tree That the trunk stands upright through the stormy winds is that which causes the tree not to move. The branches may move, but the tree remains in its place because of its anchorage. And the ship will rise and fall on the swell of the ocean waves, but whenever the anchor is cast, Though the ship moves up and down, yet it does, it is not moved out of its place. It remains constant, even in the severest of storms, and such is the portion of God's people. When we cast our burden upon the Lord, He in turn, and He in turn has imparted to us the grace and the strength to sustain us, then there is no possibility that that burden will result in our demise or in our downfall. We will not be moved. We will not be moved. Do you feel today that the burden's about to crush you? Do you feel that you're about to slip, you're wavering, you're tottering under the burden's weight today. Sister, brother, do you feel like the feet are about to slide, as it were, from underneath you? Listen to the words of the psalmist again. Jehovah shall never, never suffer the righteous to be moved. Now, if words mean anything, they mean everything. And he has said it. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. Have you come to God's house, some burden? It's about to overwhelm you. Can I say that the answer to your dilemma is found in the words of this year's motto text, cast your burden upon the Lord. Cast your burden at the Savior's feet, brother, sister. And if you're not a Christian, bring the burden of sin to Christ, and He'll cleanse you, forgive you, and He'll send you home from this place with the burden of sin lifted. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. May the text, may the text be the blessing. May the word be the blessing to your soul today. May you remember it through 2023, whatever this year holds for us all. May God bless His word to our hearts for Christ's sake, amen. Let's bow in prayer. O God, our loving Father, we thank Thee for the day and hour that we cast our heavy burden down, the heavy burden of sin. And we find that, O God, Thou art able to shoulder that burden. Lord, we come now with other burdens, so many, so varied they are. We bring them all to Thee and we cast them all upon our God. We pray, O God, that in the midst of it all, of all of our burden bearing, Lord, sustain us, maintain us, uphold us, we pray. And we cry to Thee, O God, that we'll be those who will never be moved from our confidence in God, knowing that the burden has been placed upon us by providence. So answer prayer and bless as we pray. We offer petitions and prayers now in Jesus' precious name.