Verse of the Day for June 9

The well loved line about casting your burden sits right after a description of betrayal. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. Earlier in the psalm David says this was not an enemy but a companion, someone he once walked with to the house of God.

So the burden in verse twenty two is specific. It is the weight of being lied to by a friend. Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee. Sustain is not the same as remove. It means being held up while the weight is still real.

Then the psalm ends on a choice. After all the anger about deceitful men, the last words are but I will trust in thee. It is a decision, made in the first person, at the end of a long complaint.

Courage after betrayal rarely comes as one great act. It is a string of small choices. Not to reply to the message tonight. To pray for the person tomorrow, even through gritted teeth. To trust one new person again next month.

If someone's soft words have cut you, you do not need to resolve all of it today. Make one choice. Hand this one weight over, and say the psalm's last sentence for yourself.

Being sustained does not mean the weight is gone, it means you are held up under it.

You can end a day of hurt the way David ended this psalm, with one sentence of trust.