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What is the Lord's promise? "He shall sustain thee."
Sustain.--He shall "feed" thee as the word is translated in I Kings 17: 4, "I have
commanded the ravens to feed thee". He shall sustain, as the word is translated in
I King 17: 9, "I have commanded a widow . . . . . to sustain thee". Elijah's allotted
portion of trial was sustained by the Lord, Who was behind the ravens and the widow.
Yet more than feeding and nourishing the word means "contain" (I Kings 7: 26)
as well as sustain, "comprehend" (Isa. 40: 12), and "make provision for" (I Kings 4: 7).
The Lord Who appointed the wilderness wandering also "sustain" His people in it
(Neh. 9: 21). The Lord Who suffered Jacob to be grieved at the loss of Joseph appointed
also that Joseph should "nourish" his father in the hour of need (Gen. 47: 12).
As we think of Job, of Joseph, of Jacob, of Elijah, of Israel, the invitation of Psa. 55:
becomes more insistent, more attractive, more real.
"Cast THY burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain THEE."
Further, is there not a real connection between this "thy" and "thee"? Can we hope for
this sustaining apart from this casting? He Who bore our sins in His Own body on the
tree can surely bear our burdens. You who have been made free from sin; can you not
believe that He can make you free from care? "Care" or "anxiety" is the LXX translation
of Psa. 55: 22, and brings Phil. 4: 6, 7 forward as a N.T. parallel and explanation. "Be
careful for nothing" (care is the burden of the Psalm), "but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving" (this is how the burden is "cast"), "and the peace of God,
which passeth all understanding", this shall be the sustenance, the nourishment, the
provision throughout the pathway of faith.
Peter's words, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you" (I Pet. 5: 7)
bring Psa. 55: 22 over bodily into the N.T., placing it in an epistle the theme of which is
"suffering in view of glory", and which warns us, in spite of the peculiarity of our allotted
portion, to:--
"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you" (I Pet. 4: 12).
May the contemplation of these words mean the losing of burdens for many of the
Lord's tried ones, for "He is faithful that promised".