Cast Your Burden on Yahweh
1 For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David. Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide yourself from my supplication. 2 Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan 3 because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me. 4 My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. 5 Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me. 6 I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest. 7 Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah. 8 “I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm.” 9 Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her. 11 Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don’t depart from her streets. 12 For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him. 13 But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend. 14 We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company. 15 Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling. 16 As for me, I will call on God. Yahweh will save me. 17 Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice. 18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, although there are many who oppose me. 19 God, who is enthroned forever, will hear and answer them. Selah. They never change and don’t fear God. 20 He raises his hands against his friends. He has violated his covenant. 21 His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. 22 Cast your burden on Yahweh and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved. 23 But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
A man wishes he could fly away from a city where the danger is a friend, and is told instead to hand over the weight.
2 Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan 3 because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me. 4 My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. 5 Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.
Five words for the same condition in two verses. The psalm is describing panic, and it does not attempt to make it dignified.
6 I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest. 7 Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.
The most human wish in the Psalter. Not for the enemy's defeat, not for vindication — for escape, to anywhere, and specifically to the empty country where nobody is. The psalm records the longing without granting it and without rebuking it.
9 Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her.
The walls that were supposed to keep danger out have violence patrolling them. The threat is not outside the city.
12 For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him. 13 But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend. 14 We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God’s house with company.
The heart of the psalm. He states plainly that an enemy's attack would have been bearable — he could have taken it, or avoided the man. What has broken him is that it came from someone he prayed with. They had walked to worship together.
Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is among them, in their dwelling.
The imprecation follows immediately, and its violence is inseparable from what has just been described. This is the language of a man whose closest friend has turned, and the collection prints it rather than editing it into something more presentable.
Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
Three fixed times, which became the pattern of Jewish daily prayer and is what Daniel was doing at his window Daniel 6:10. A man in this state does not pray spontaneously; he prays on a schedule, because the schedule is what survives when nothing else does.
His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
Two comparisons, each pairing something soothing with something lethal. It is the most exact description of a certain kind of betrayal in Scripture.
Cast your burden on Yahweh and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.
The answer to the wish for wings, and it is not what was asked for. He wanted to be somewhere else; he is told to put down the weight where he is. Peter takes the verse up almost unchanged 1 Peter 5:7, and the reason he attaches is the one the psalm implies: because he cares for you.
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