Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2830
“Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you: He shall never allow the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22.
Those of you who were here last Thursday evening will recollect that the sermon was concerning those sons of Ger-shon who were burden-bearers in connection with the tabernacle in the wilderness. [Sermon #2829, Volume 49—lowly service] They were not appointed to preach. They were not ordained to
fight—their service consisted in bearing burdens. There were some here, on that occasion, whom I had never known before who had been, by the space of 30 years, great sufferers. They were carried into this place last Thursday evening—I did not know of their presence until afterwards, when they told me that the sermon seemed to have been made for them and that it had given them great comfort.
I thought I would follow up that sermon about burden-bearers by a discourse upon another text which shows us that there are some burdens which we need notcarry. Burdens of service, or burdens of which come through our consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ—these we will never lay down so long as we live. It shall be our joy to daily take up our cross and follow Jesus, but there are certain burdens of care and sorrow, of which the text speaks—especially the burdens which come from the slander, reproach and oppression of ungodly men—which we need not carry. David says, “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
Beloved Friends, the very best men in the world may be slandered! And if you should hear them evilly spoken of, be you not among those who straightway condemn them. There are some who say, “Where there is smoke, there is sure to be fire.” And although it is well known that “common fame is a common liar,” yet there are some who are so fond of hearing or telling lies that they are sure to believe such a lie as this, especially if it is spoken concerning a servant of God. Be you not, therefore, ready to believe all the reports that you hear against any Christian people. The best of men, as I have already reminded you, have been worst spoken of and there are some who turn upon them directly, like lions scenting their prey.
I may be just now addressing some who are the victims of the malice of ungodly men or women. I am sorry, dear Friends, that this should be your lot, for it is among the most bitter of human afflictions. But at the same time I would remind you that nothing unusual has happened to you. You remember the three brave men who were cast alive into Nebuchadnezzar’s burning fiery furnace when it was heated seven times more than it was known to be heated? You are scarcely enduring such a fiery trial as that and, certainly, you are not suffering as did your Master, the Lord of all pilgrims who have made their way to Heaven! But if, in any degree, it should happen that you are bearing a burden of this kind, the text will have a special message for you.
In speaking upon this passage, I want to keep it in context with the whole Psalm. I do not think it is dealing properly with the Bible to pick out one verse here, and another there, without looking to see what the context of the passage is. If men’s books were treated as God’s Book is often treated, we should make many a grand and noble literary work to appear to be an insane production! It is true that God’s Book can endure even such treatment as that. It is such a wonderful Book that even a sentence torn out of it will convey a most precious Truth of God, but it is not fair to the Book, and it is
not fair to yourself, to treat the Bible so. A text of Scripture should always be viewed in the setting in which God has placed it, for there is often as much that is admirable in the gold which forms the setting of the jewel as there is in the jewel itself.
I. So, looking at our text in that light, I shall begin by saying that WHEN WE ARE MUCH TRIED AND BURDENED, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT WE ARE TEMPTED TO DO. The text does not mention it, but the Psalm does. And the text is an antidote to the malady which the Psalm describes or implies. “Cast your burden upon the Lord,” is an injunction concerning that which we are to put in the place of something else which more naturally suggests itself to our poor foolish minds.
And, first, when we are in very severe trouble, we are tempted to complain. The Psalmist says, in the second verse, “I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise.” I am not sure that our version is quite fair to David in this instance, but it suits my present purpose admirably. As the children of God, we ought to avoid even the semblance of a complaint against our Heavenly Father. But when our faith is sorely tried, when some sharp reproach is stinging our spirit, we are all too apt to begin thinking and saying that God is dealing harshly with us. You know Job, that most patient of men, became very impatient when his so-called “friends” poured vinegar instead of oil into his wounds. Smarting under their cruel treatment, he said some things which he had far better have left unsaid. O Brothers and Sisters, pray that whenever the Lord lays His rod heavily upon you, your tears may have no rebellion in them! Whatever His providential dealings with you may be, may you be enabled to say, with the Patriarch, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” May you even join Job in his triumphant declaration, “Through He slays me, yet will I trust in Him.” It is grand faith that enables a Believer to say, “Though I should die at God’s altar, I will die like the lamb that is brought to the slaughter, or be like the sheep that is dumb before her shearers and makes no complaint.”