Sustain Me

Cast your cares upon the Lord and he will sustain you. -Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

In today's suggested reading of Psalm 55, the psalmist begs God to listen and to not ignore. The psalmist is being attacked by someone that the psalmist knows well. This friend, now an enemy, is saying terrible things. The wicked are making awful threats. The psalmist is suffering, troubled and distraught. The psalmist wishes for wings of a dove in order to fly away and finally be at rest.

This psalm affirms that when personal relationships break down, things can get ugly in a hurry. Now, if an enemy attacks you, it's bad enough. But when you're attacked by a close friend, with whom you once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God (verse 14), it's especially difficult to endure.

I suspect that many reading this devotional are feeling attacked today. I don't know who or what your enemy is: it might be a close friend as is the case with the psalmist but the battle being waged against you may be something else entirely. The psalmist shares his or her complaint with God with confidence that God will hear and that God will rescue. And the psalmist encourages you and me to do and to believe the same thing. He puts it this way: cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.

If you're like me, you're good at telling God your problems but you sometimes question whether God is interested in sustaining you when you cast your cares upon Him. May God grant you the grace today to trust God with your problems and to trust that God will be your help.

If you're interested in reading through the Bible, tomorrow's readings are 2 Samuel 21-23 and 1 Thessalonians 1.