22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
The LORD is our burden-bearer. When He permits a burden to fall upon us, He does not move away from us. He stays with us in our troubles. He is ever near us to bear our burdens. “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
Because He is by our side, ready to bear our burdens for us, we can cast all our burdens upon Him. So He urges us not to be worn down by our burdens, but to cast them upon Him. Often we tend to bear our burdens on our own for too long. Such an attitude is not pleasing to the LORD. He wants us to cast all our burdens on Him at once. It is stubbornness to refuse to lay our burdens on Him and stop worrying about them. It can also mean that we do not trust Him fully.
Let us remember that there is none like our LORD who Himself stooped to carry our load of sin and burdens. According to Isaiah 53:4, “Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” According to the apostle Peter, He has by “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). The guilt of sin has been our heaviest burden, for it has eternal consequences. But He has carried them all away for us.
How often we bear our own burdens, which we neither need nor ought to bear! It is being disobedient. We ought to cast them quickly on Him. If we have laid them on Him, we have nothing to be afraid of, for “he shall sustain thee”. The Hebrew word translated “sustain” has meanings like “measure”, “contain”, “nourish”, etc. Hence, it carries the idea that God will give such a measure of His grace, wisdom and strength as we would need in our trials, that we shall be sufficiently supported and sustained. His nourishment shall be abundant to all who turn to Him for help.
Also, we are assured that “He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” The greatest desire and purpose of the righteous is to be a vessel of His glory in good times and bad times. The LORD will not allow such a man to stagger or be shaken. Many trials may come upon him and even his own life may be threatened; but the LORD shall hold the righteous fast and grant him the strength to remain steadfast, unmoveable to the end.