Give your burdens to the Lord

Psalms 55:22 Feeling burdened by worries? Pass them along to the Lord in prayer.

Photo by Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 on Unsplash

“Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭55‬:‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There is probably no human feeling worse than anxiety. It’s also very common, affecting every age group, race, and religion. The young worry about school grades and whether or not they’re liked; the elderly are worried about disease and death. Everyone is anxious about having enough to eat, a roof over their head, and how the future will unfold.

This psalm is attributed to King David, in which he begins by wishing that he was anywhere but in a leadership position in a war-weary country. We’d all like to escape from our anxieties, and as much as distractions can take us away from worries for a short while, they’re still there at the end of the day.

David was upset about the fact that a one-time friend had now turned into a dangerous enemy, but he realized that worrying about the situation wasn’t going to resolve it. Instead, he chose to burden God with his concerns, knowing that his Creator could and would handle any problem.

Psalm 55 begins with fear, which turns to David’s fury at his enemy. In the end, David realizes that faith alone is the remedy to ease his anxious mind. British evangelist and preacher G. Campbell Morgan put it eloquently when he said “Fear leads only to desire to flee. Fury only emphasizes the consciousness of the wrong. Faith alone creates courage.”

¹

Once we’ve passed our concerns on to the Lord, it’s time to stop worrying: “If I cast my burden upon the Lord, what business have I to carry it myself? How can I truthfully say that I have cast it upon him if still I am burdened with it?”

²

---

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Heavenly Father, when my mind and heart are burdened with worries, I prayerfully seek Your strength to help me. I know that my faith in You alone will ease my mind and that Your grace and mercy will see me through. In Jesus’ holy name I pray, AMEN.

1. Morgan, G. Campbell "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Revell, 1959)

2. Spurgeon, Charles Haddon "The Treasury of David: Volume 1" (Psalms 1-57) (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1988)