Commit Your Ways to Yahweh
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Psalm 37 verse 5, as we continue to work our way through these these precepts and promises, these exhortations and blessings that God has for His people. Psalm 37:5, "Commit your way to Yahweh, trust in Him, and He will do it." "Commit your way to Yahweh, trust in Him, and He will do it."
We've been learning from this psalm that God-centered faith maintains a right perspective on life by trusting God for grace to live each day in His service and for His glory. To live each day by His grace and for His glory. And we recognize our need for fresh supplies of grace every day.
If we're going to live in a manner that magnifies Christ, if we're going to live in a way that is worthy of our calling, we draw from the deep wells of God's grace. We draw from the well—that necessary grace that we need to live each day by His grace for His glory. The need for faith in God is clear. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
And we were thinking about that, delighting in God last week. He is, He exists, He's the living God. We rejoice in who He is, in His attributes, in His promises, in the comfort of His word. They console our hearts. And so we come to Him by faith, believing that He is and He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
If faith is the key to overcoming anxiety, it's incumbent upon us then to strengthen our faith by feeding on the promises of God, grazing on His faithfulness, feeding our souls by way of worship and delight in God, by way of prayer, communion with God. And we've been considering these precepts and promises here in these opening verses.
He begins with that admonition: do not fret, do not fret, especially on account of the wicked and the prosperity of the wicked. Though those evildoers rejoice now in the carnal objects of their pleasure, their joy will quickly fade away and soon turn to sorrow. Evildoers, we were reading in verse 9, will be cut off. But those who hope in Yahweh, they will inherit the land. "Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; you will look for his place and he will not be there. But the lowly will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace."
So you have this contrast, contrasting futures—the destruction of the wicked, they will be cut off, their day is coming. But the righteous, the righteous man is secure, eternally secure in Christ. And David, having preached to his own soul, now instructs us from his experience to remain faithful, to remain composed by considering these contrasts—the contrasting future of the evildoer who will be cut off with the righteous man who will inherit the land.
The future of the godly is sure, it is certain, even though now afflicted and tried, there is every reason to be content and hopeful. And so consider your future, child of God, don't worry, do not fret. Sinful worry is here forbidden because we're persuaded God is faithful and God will see us through. God is on His throne, He's ruling, He's reigning, He's governing, He's controlling, He's protecting, He's providing, and all will be well in the end.
The future is bright for the believer, the best is is yet to come. So the psalmist, he says do not fret, but then he encourages us to strengthen our faith. And so the command: trust in Yahweh, do good and cultivate faithfulness. Continue to follow hard after God and do what's right in the eyes of the Lord, do what you know to be right, hold on to your God.
Don't allow yourself to be distracted by the seducing world around you, don't give in to fleshly appetites, to worry, to envy—that only leads to to wrongdoing and away from fellowship with God. Rather, make sure you're pursuing God and asking for those things that are in accord with His will. Strengthen your faith, do good, cultivate faithfulness, graze on His faithfulness.
And so we have to ask, are my ways pleasing to God? Are my reasons for delighting in God purely selfish, or are they God-honoring? Do my desires align with God's desires? Those desires—God's desires—are holy and just and good and right. And so David encourages us here not just to strengthen your faith, cultivate faithfulness, but to delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
And we discovered last week, he advises us here to find our greatest joy and satisfaction in communion with God in worship. Let God shape your desires and mold your heart. May your your life be clay in His hand. He's the potter, you are the clay. He is shaping you, He is directing you, He is making you anew.
And for the Christian, nothing should be more desirable than knowing God, delighting in your God—who He is, His nature, His attributes, His promises, His word. They comfort your soul. Take pleasure in the things of God, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. And there's none greater, there's no greater joy, there's none greater than our God, there's none higher.
The Lord must be our portion. And we must come to the same conclusion that Asaph came to in Psalm 73 verse 25: "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever." Feed your soul on the goodness of God. Delight in the Lord, because all who find soul-satisfying joy in the Lord will know divine direction.
As you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. He will put His desires in your heart. He will shape your desires, and you will be guided to decisions that please God. So as we orient our heart to God, to what pleases God, His desires become our desires. And we noted last week that's not a formula to get whatever you want, for notice who gives the desires. He will give you the desires. They are the desires that God gives, and as such they are new desires, they are wholesome desires, they are holy desires, they are good and righteous desires.He will give you the desires of your heart, and the desires God gives will be in line with His revealed word.
And we conclude then if my desires are not in line with Scripture, with the revealed word, then I can be sure they're not God's desires. God has revealed His desires for us in His word, that we can know Him and we can walk in His truth.
So we cultivate faithfulness by focusing on our faithful God, knowing God, feeding on His word, considering who He is, what He has done for our souls.
And as Oswald Chambers said, we don't calculate without God. We don't calculate without God. God must be the greatest living factor in all our plans and calculations. And we delight in who He is, His attributes, His promises, in doing His will. Brings joy and delight to our soul in doing those things that please our God.
So first David said, don't fret, but trust. Trust and delight in your God. And now he instructs us here in verse 5, replace anxious care with prayer. Prayer. Replace anxious care with prayer. “Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust in Him, and He will do it.” (Psalm 37:5) And that word commit means to roll. Roll your burden on the Lord. And the idea is rolling your heavy burden onto another who then assumes responsibility for it and carries it for you.
And he says, commit your way or roll your heavy burden onto the Lord. And we can see a connection with the word ‘cast’ in Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. "Cast your burden upon Yahweh, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken" (Psalm 55:22). And Peter, that wonderful word in 1 Peter 5:7, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."
And it's interesting, the connection with the morning service because the word cast means to throw, to toss. For example, in Luke 19:35, we read that the disciples, they threw their cloaks upon the colt so Jesus could ride into Jerusalem. And that colt would bear Him up and carry Him. Or as we think of the horse and the rider, one would throw a saddle on a horse or toss a saddle over a horse, and that powerful beast, that powerful animal is more than able to bear the weight of its saddle and rider.
This is casting all your care on Him because He cares for you. Toss it, throw it onto the Lord. Roll your burden onto the Lord. 1 Peter 4:19 says those who suffer, those who suffer according to the will of God must entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. We entrust our souls to One who is absolutely trustworthy and able to hold our soul in life, to bear us up.
God loves to be trusted. We are to entrust everything to Him, our entire life. Commit your way to Yahweh.
And that word commit really suggests a willingness, there's a willingness to turn it all over to Jesus, to your God. As we read in Peter, “God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5) And as we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we will cast all our cares upon Him, knowing He cares for us. And one way we humble ourselves under His mighty hand is by casting all our anxiety on the Lord. We give our cares to Him. And He is more than able to bear them. Our cares become His cares. And as He assumes responsibility of them, our cares are His cares. He takes responsibility for them.
And so when we read that word in Peter, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you," is there any doubt about it? There's no need to wonder about His care. To ask, does He care for me? Scripture clearly confirms He does. He cares for you, child of God. You can entrust your life to His care. And He welcomes us. He invites us to cast our cares on Him, to commit our way to Him, for He cares for His own. There's no need to doubt. There's no need to worry. There's no need to fret. He cares for you.
Child of God, He cares for you. Let that sink into your soul again this night. Your welfare is His concern, and He has undertaken the responsibility of caring for you. Literally, in the Greek, it reads this way: it is a care to Him concerning you. It's a care to Him concerning you. You can cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you.
And just as we remembered this morning at the table of the Lord, Jesus Christ bore our sins and our sorrows on the cross. He made them His very own. He took them upon Himself. He bore our penalty. He undertook the responsibility of them. He was constituted sin for us. The one who knew no sin was made sin for us. He took our sins upon Himself. Our sin was transferred to Him, and He took responsibility for it. He carried the weight of it, and He bore the burden to Calvary, and He suffered, and He died alone. And we say, how marvelous, how wonderful, I stand amazed.
And so, just as Christ undertakes for our salvation and bore our sins, He bears our sorrows. He assumes the responsibility, or He undertakes or assumes the responsibility of caring for His own children. You can cast your care on Him because He cares for you. We roll our burden on the Lord, and He then carries it, and that signifies there's a transfer of responsibility, a handing over of control. You surrender it to God. You leave it with the Lord. You commit everything into His hand, that omnipotent hand, the right hand of the Almighty God, and He is able to hold our soul in life.
And so we commit all our desires, all our cares, all our necessities unto the Lord. But how do we do this? Well, by communion and by prayer. By coming to the Lord in prayer and committing your way to Yahweh, trusting in Him that He will bring it to pass. By coming to the Lord in prayer, the consolations that delight the soul are the comforts that flow from communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, from the knowledge of His goodwill for us, that He is graciously disposed to do us good.
And Paul taught this in Philippians 4:6 and 7. We read it at the beginning of the service: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will garrison, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And so in prayer, we let our requests be made known to God. We express them. We verbalize them. We make them known to God.
But why should we do this? Well, it's not for God's information, as if He doesn't know what's going on. He knows all things. He knows all about us. But we cast our burdens upon the Lord in prayer. We commit our way to—to Yahweh in prayer as an expression of our dependence upon the Lord.
And some will object and say, well, if God is sovereign over all, He will do it. It says right here, trust in Him. He will do it. He's going to work out His plan. He's going to do His pleasure. He's working out His plan. He knows all my needs. He has said He will sustain the righteous. Why pray? Does He need to be informed? Of course not. Why commit your way to Yahweh in prayer?
Well, for a number of reasons. First, prayer is a duty. It is a command. It's something we're commanded to do out of obedience. And in prayer, we express our dependence upon God, and that pleases God. If we are commanded to do it out of obedience, and obedience to God's commands honor Him, then it's our duty. It should be our delight. It exalts God. It's God-glorifying. He above all knows what is most desirable and good for us. What He, as our good Father, commands then is for our blessing and for our good. And we're commanded to call upon the Lord, to seek His face, to commit our way unto the Lord.
But not only is it our duty, it's a privilege. Prayer is a privilege. This is our privilege. We're encouraged to see here prayer as a great honor. It's the highest privilege we have as the children of God in prayer. We not only express our dependence upon God, but we're entering into communion with our Father in heaven. We're entering into communion with our God, our Creator, our Savior, our Friend, our King and Redeemer. Think about that. To think that the God of heaven, the God of heaven and earth, bends His ear, inclines towards us, bows down to hear us, is amazing to us.
This is a privilege. This is the greatest honor, the highest privilege we have as the children of God. The Lord hears our prayer. Is that not a marvel to you? Our Father hears. We have those wonderful words in in 1 John 5:14: "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." He hears us. "And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." Our Father hears. He hears us.
What a privilege to come into the presence of the Most High God, to enter into communion with Him with this confidence. He hears us. He delights in the prayer of the righteous. His eye is towards us. As one author put it, "We make supplication to God because we live in a world of trouble and pain, and the peace of God does not come from denying trouble, but by bringing our trouble to God." When we pray, we do not need to twist God's arm to get Him to listen. He hears us. He hears the prayer of the righteous.
And as John Calvin said, “When we pray, we climb into our Father's lap and we whisper our needs into His ear.” What a privilege to come to our Father in heaven and call upon Him—to climb on His lap as His child and whisper our needs into His ear. What a beautiful picture that is. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion—has compassion on us. Our Father hears us. He has compassion on those who fear Him.
This is our duty, but this is a privilege, an honor. It's an expression of our dependence on the Lord for everything, and we're entering into communion with the Most High God, and we commit our way to Yahweh. Commit your way. “Commit your way to Yahweh.” Your way. What is that? All that pertains to my life. The things connected with what is going on in my life. Whatever you're facing, whatever you're dealing with—your anxious thoughts, your perplexing questions, your problems, your confusion, your heartache, your hurts, your sins, your secrets, your cares, your fears, your decisions—whatever it may be, all of it. “Commit your way to Yahweh.” Commit your way. Roll it on the Lord as an expression of faith and humble dependence, as an expression of complete trust.
We deposit for safekeeping, we deposit for safekeeping that which we care about. We entrust it all to Him. We commit it to Him. Commit your way. But that also suggests further, it suggests a condition to the enjoyment of God's peace and grace. He says commit. This commitment, this rolling of your burden, it is a condition for and of our peace. It's a condition to our peace. Paul said it's by prayer. It's by supplication. It's by letting your requests be made known to God. The peace of God will guard your hearts and keep your minds. (Philippians 4:6)
As you roll your burden upon the Lord, you can know His sustaining grace. And so we come to petition God for those fresh supplies of grace that we need, grace that He has promised to give, but grace that He will only give to those who call, those who ask, those who draw near, those who humble themselves under His mighty hand, those who commit their way to Him.
James 4:2, "You do not have because you do not ask." But yet, if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:5, "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." And so, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." It's a condition to the enjoyment of God's grace and His peace.
Commit your way to the Lord. Roll your burden upon Him. Paul said in Ephesians 6:24, "Grace will be with you, will be with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love." We will know His grace as we trust in Him, as we delight in Him, as we commit our way to Him, as we love Him with that incorruptible love—that's with a genuine, sincere, devoted, dependent love.
It's true, God has ordained the end from the beginning. He is working all things according to His plan and purpose, but He also ordains the means to the end. And prayer is a means to the end. He has called us to pray, to commit our way to Him. This is our privilege. We express our dependence. We enter into communion. And as we do that, contentment, rest comes as we center our lives on Christ and commit into His hand all our cares, all that pertains to us.
We're encouraged to roll our burdens on the Lord also as a way to to remain composed in a time of trial. Where do we go when we're crushed, when we're burdened, when we're heavy laden, when we're under pressure? What did David do? What does he teach us to do here? He says, don't fret, don't worry, don't be seduced by the world, don't give away to fleshly appetites. Trust the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord, rest in the Lord.
When you're under pressure, run to the One who is a refuge for us. We hide ourselves in Him and there we find safety and security. We look to the Lord for the renewing of our minds and for the quieting of our fluttering hearts. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of mercies. He's the God of all comfort and He comforts us in all our affliction. And so we commit our way to Yahweh, to the Lord, the self-existent, unchanging, eternal God, the I Am. Commit your way, He says, to Yahweh.
And we see some examples of that in Scripture, of turning to the Lord in a time of crisis. I think of David, David in 1 Samuel 30. David and his men returned to the city of Ziklag and they find it burned and in ashes. The Amalekites had taken away the wives and the children. David and his men sat down and they wept until they had no more strength to weep. And those men were so bitterly upset that they were ready to stone David. And how did he respond under such great distress? Well, we read in 1 Samuel 30:6, "But David strengthened himself in the Lord.” He composed himself and he looked to the Lord for guidance. David strengthened himself in Yahweh, his God. Commit your way to Yahweh.
We think of Jehoshaphat, and the sons of Moab and Ammon came against them. He's overwhelmed. He's outnumbered. He doesn't know what to do. He feels powerless, and in the face of a seeming impossible situation, he's afraid and he set his face to seek the Lord and he called for a fast.
And we have those wonderful words in 2 Chronicles 20 and his prayer in verse 6: "O Yahweh, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can take their stand against You." Commit your way to Yahweh.
"O our God," verse 12, "will You not judge them? We are powerless.” “We are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; and we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on the Lord. You."
You think of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1. As he heard the report of the city in ruins, the walls broken down, and he wept and he prayed to the God of heaven. Read 1 Nehemiah 1 and 2. Wonderful examples of committing your way to the Lord.
“God is able.” 2 Corinthians 9:8: "And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time, having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed." We cast our burdens upon the Lord as a way to remain composed in the time of trial, trusting in the Lord, the God who is able. He’s the God of all grace—all grace at all times, for all things. 2 Corinthians 9:8. We commit our way to Yahweh.
We commit our way to Yahweh. He knows the story of your life. He’s the author of it. He’s writing the story, and every day He’s writing a new chapter, and you can entrust your life to Yahweh. We can trust Him with everything.
One author said, “Our lives are much more fragile than we think.” Our lives are much more fragile than we think. We think we have things under control. We think we can handle things on our own, but we can’t. We’re fragile. We’re weak. And so he said, “therefore, each day is a renewed declaration of our dependence on God.” We worry about tomorrow. We worry about tomorrow. When we worry about tomorrow, we are living in tomorrow today. But God gives us strength and grace for only one day at a time. Grace for each day.
And when believers make their requests known to God, they do so not to an annoyed deity who won’t listen to them, but a loving and caring Father who hears. He hears us. And our Father, our God, cares for us. He cares about our needs far more than we do. He knows our needs. Your Father in heaven knows all about your needs. And to doubt this, this author said, is to doubt the very character of God. Doubt is the opposite of dependence. It is defiance. It is a defamation of the character of God.
When we worry, we are saying, Father, You are not sovereign. Father, You are not wise. Father, You are not loving. Father, You do not care for me. And yet we read, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." How can you question it? How can you doubt it?
And Peter, in that same chapter in 1 Peter 5:10, he says, "And after you have suffered for a little while,” for a season, for a time, “the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." And this is our confidence as believers: the God of all grace, the God of heaven and earth who hears our prayers, our feeble cries, our groans, the groanings of our heart. The God of all grace is personally working in our lives.
That verse tells us that the God of all grace is personally working in our lives to make us more like Christ—that He Himself will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you, Peter said. God takes a personal interest in us and He’s going to see to it that His will be accomplished. And we have no reason to fear, but every reason to trust Him, trust in Him, and He will do it. He will bring it to pass.
He thinks on me. His thoughts towards me are more in number than the sand on the seashore. I can’t even fathom that. I can’t even number them. He cares for me. He will do it. He’s working all things together for my good and for His glory. Yes, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers out of them all, and He invites us to offload our burdens, to bring them to Him, and He’s willing—so willing—to carry the load, to do the heavy lifting, to take responsibility for them, and still we hold on to them.
And yet, as we cast our cares, our anxiety on the Lord, knowing He cares for us, He’s going to see to it that we are perfected, restored, made complete, fully equipped or fitted out for every good work. He will furnish us for the fight. He will see to it that we are confirmed, that is, that we will be given that assurance that our faith in God, that our trust in God is completely warranted. He will never fail us. He will never forsake us, and He’s going to see to it that we are strengthened, that is, granted the necessary help to persevere and overcome, grace to endure, knowing His strength—His strength is made perfect in our weakness. It is form-fitted for our weakness. It is timely grace. It is needed grace. He will never leave us or forsake us.
In fact, He says He’s going to see to it not only that He will perfect you, confirm you, strengthen you, but that you will be established. He sets us on a firm and immovable foundation—on Christ the solid rock—and He will be our sure foundation. “Commit your way to Yahweh, trust in Him, and He will do it.” (Psalm 37:5)
Verse 6 says, "He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday." You can trust in God. Trust God in every circumstance, and He will make your righteous faith shine bright. It will be visible for all to see. You will be vindicated. Your faith is warranted. It will be clear and obvious.
And although, as Calvin said, “Although the life of the godly should be assailed by many dangers, yet they are secure in the aid and protection of God, and that however much the wicked should plot against them, they shall be continually preserved.” Preserved. We are kept by the power of God through faith, and that’s what we read here in this chapter. The Lord upholds the righteous. They shall be sustained because Yahweh is the one who sustains by His hand. Verse 17, verse 23, verse 39 and 40. He helps and He protects and He keeps them because they take refuge in Him. We are kept by the power of God.
Eric Watkins said, “Who we are in Christ informs our response to trials and adversity. Rather than leading us to anxiety or despair, trials should remind us that heaven will be better, that Christ is sufficient, that these momentary light afflictions we endure now are incomparable to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us with Christ in heaven.” The best is yet to come. We have a glorious future.
And let me end tonight with some thoughts from the doctor, Martin Lloyd-Jones, adapted from his book, *Spiritual Depression*. We looked at these when we worked our way through the anxiety series last year. And you will find these in that little book that we prepared for that study.
Think about this as we close.
“Conditions are always changing. Therefore, I must not be dependent on conditions. What matters supremely and vitally is my soul and my relationship to God. Number three, God is concerned about me as my Father, and nothing happens to me apart from God. Apart from God.
Number four, God's will and ways are a great mystery, but I know that whatever He wills or permits is of necessity for my good. Every situation in life is the unfolding of some manifestation of God's love and goodness. Six, I must regard circumstances and conditions not in themselves, therefore, but as part of God's dealing with me in the work of perfecting my soul and bringing me to final perfection. And seven”, in conclusion, he said, “Whatever my conditions, whatever my conditions may be at this present moment, they are only temporary. They are only passing. They can never rob me of the joy and the glory that ultimately await me with Christ.”
"Commit your way to Yahweh, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass." (Psalm 37:5)
Let's pray.
We've been learning from this psalm that God-centered faith maintains a right perspective on life by trusting God for grace to live each day in His service and for His glory. To live each day by His grace and for His glory. And we recognize our need for fresh supplies of grace every day.
If we're going to live in a manner that magnifies Christ, if we're going to live in a way that is worthy of our calling, we draw from the deep wells of God's grace. We draw from the well—that necessary grace that we need to live each day by His grace for His glory. The need for faith in God is clear. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that "without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
And we were thinking about that, delighting in God last week. He is, He exists, He's the living God. We rejoice in who He is, in His attributes, in His promises, in the comfort of His word. They console our hearts. And so we come to Him by faith, believing that He is and He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
If faith is the key to overcoming anxiety, it's incumbent upon us then to strengthen our faith by feeding on the promises of God, grazing on His faithfulness, feeding our souls by way of worship and delight in God, by way of prayer, communion with God. And we've been considering these precepts and promises here in these opening verses.
He begins with that admonition: do not fret, do not fret, especially on account of the wicked and the prosperity of the wicked. Though those evildoers rejoice now in the carnal objects of their pleasure, their joy will quickly fade away and soon turn to sorrow. Evildoers, we were reading in verse 9, will be cut off. But those who hope in Yahweh, they will inherit the land. "Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; you will look for his place and he will not be there. But the lowly will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace."
So you have this contrast, contrasting futures—the destruction of the wicked, they will be cut off, their day is coming. But the righteous, the righteous man is secure, eternally secure in Christ. And David, having preached to his own soul, now instructs us from his experience to remain faithful, to remain composed by considering these contrasts—the contrasting future of the evildoer who will be cut off with the righteous man who will inherit the land.
The future of the godly is sure, it is certain, even though now afflicted and tried, there is every reason to be content and hopeful. And so consider your future, child of God, don't worry, do not fret. Sinful worry is here forbidden because we're persuaded God is faithful and God will see us through. God is on His throne, He's ruling, He's reigning, He's governing, He's controlling, He's protecting, He's providing, and all will be well in the end.
The future is bright for the believer, the best is is yet to come. So the psalmist, he says do not fret, but then he encourages us to strengthen our faith. And so the command: trust in Yahweh, do good and cultivate faithfulness. Continue to follow hard after God and do what's right in the eyes of the Lord, do what you know to be right, hold on to your God.
Don't allow yourself to be distracted by the seducing world around you, don't give in to fleshly appetites, to worry, to envy—that only leads to to wrongdoing and away from fellowship with God. Rather, make sure you're pursuing God and asking for those things that are in accord with His will. Strengthen your faith, do good, cultivate faithfulness, graze on His faithfulness.
And so we have to ask, are my ways pleasing to God? Are my reasons for delighting in God purely selfish, or are they God-honoring? Do my desires align with God's desires? Those desires—God's desires—are holy and just and good and right. And so David encourages us here not just to strengthen your faith, cultivate faithfulness, but to delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
And we discovered last week, he advises us here to find our greatest joy and satisfaction in communion with God in worship. Let God shape your desires and mold your heart. May your your life be clay in His hand. He's the potter, you are the clay. He is shaping you, He is directing you, He is making you anew.
And for the Christian, nothing should be more desirable than knowing God, delighting in your God—who He is, His nature, His attributes, His promises, His word. They comfort your soul. Take pleasure in the things of God, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. And there's none greater, there's no greater joy, there's none greater than our God, there's none higher.
The Lord must be our portion. And we must come to the same conclusion that Asaph came to in Psalm 73 verse 25: "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever." Feed your soul on the goodness of God. Delight in the Lord, because all who find soul-satisfying joy in the Lord will know divine direction.
As you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. He will put His desires in your heart. He will shape your desires, and you will be guided to decisions that please God. So as we orient our heart to God, to what pleases God, His desires become our desires. And we noted last week that's not a formula to get whatever you want, for notice who gives the desires. He will give you the desires. They are the desires that God gives, and as such they are new desires, they are wholesome desires, they are holy desires, they are good and righteous desires.He will give you the desires of your heart, and the desires God gives will be in line with His revealed word.
And we conclude then if my desires are not in line with Scripture, with the revealed word, then I can be sure they're not God's desires. God has revealed His desires for us in His word, that we can know Him and we can walk in His truth.
So we cultivate faithfulness by focusing on our faithful God, knowing God, feeding on His word, considering who He is, what He has done for our souls.
And as Oswald Chambers said, we don't calculate without God. We don't calculate without God. God must be the greatest living factor in all our plans and calculations. And we delight in who He is, His attributes, His promises, in doing His will. Brings joy and delight to our soul in doing those things that please our God.
So first David said, don't fret, but trust. Trust and delight in your God. And now he instructs us here in verse 5, replace anxious care with prayer. Prayer. Replace anxious care with prayer. “Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust in Him, and He will do it.” (Psalm 37:5) And that word commit means to roll. Roll your burden on the Lord. And the idea is rolling your heavy burden onto another who then assumes responsibility for it and carries it for you.
And he says, commit your way or roll your heavy burden onto the Lord. And we can see a connection with the word ‘cast’ in Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7. "Cast your burden upon Yahweh, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken" (Psalm 55:22). And Peter, that wonderful word in 1 Peter 5:7, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."
And it's interesting, the connection with the morning service because the word cast means to throw, to toss. For example, in Luke 19:35, we read that the disciples, they threw their cloaks upon the colt so Jesus could ride into Jerusalem. And that colt would bear Him up and carry Him. Or as we think of the horse and the rider, one would throw a saddle on a horse or toss a saddle over a horse, and that powerful beast, that powerful animal is more than able to bear the weight of its saddle and rider.
This is casting all your care on Him because He cares for you. Toss it, throw it onto the Lord. Roll your burden onto the Lord. 1 Peter 4:19 says those who suffer, those who suffer according to the will of God must entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. We entrust our souls to One who is absolutely trustworthy and able to hold our soul in life, to bear us up.
God loves to be trusted. We are to entrust everything to Him, our entire life. Commit your way to Yahweh.
And that word commit really suggests a willingness, there's a willingness to turn it all over to Jesus, to your God. As we read in Peter, “God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5) And as we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we will cast all our cares upon Him, knowing He cares for us. And one way we humble ourselves under His mighty hand is by casting all our anxiety on the Lord. We give our cares to Him. And He is more than able to bear them. Our cares become His cares. And as He assumes responsibility of them, our cares are His cares. He takes responsibility for them.
And so when we read that word in Peter, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you," is there any doubt about it? There's no need to wonder about His care. To ask, does He care for me? Scripture clearly confirms He does. He cares for you, child of God. You can entrust your life to His care. And He welcomes us. He invites us to cast our cares on Him, to commit our way to Him, for He cares for His own. There's no need to doubt. There's no need to worry. There's no need to fret. He cares for you.
Child of God, He cares for you. Let that sink into your soul again this night. Your welfare is His concern, and He has undertaken the responsibility of caring for you. Literally, in the Greek, it reads this way: it is a care to Him concerning you. It's a care to Him concerning you. You can cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you.
And just as we remembered this morning at the table of the Lord, Jesus Christ bore our sins and our sorrows on the cross. He made them His very own. He took them upon Himself. He bore our penalty. He undertook the responsibility of them. He was constituted sin for us. The one who knew no sin was made sin for us. He took our sins upon Himself. Our sin was transferred to Him, and He took responsibility for it. He carried the weight of it, and He bore the burden to Calvary, and He suffered, and He died alone. And we say, how marvelous, how wonderful, I stand amazed.
And so, just as Christ undertakes for our salvation and bore our sins, He bears our sorrows. He assumes the responsibility, or He undertakes or assumes the responsibility of caring for His own children. You can cast your care on Him because He cares for you. We roll our burden on the Lord, and He then carries it, and that signifies there's a transfer of responsibility, a handing over of control. You surrender it to God. You leave it with the Lord. You commit everything into His hand, that omnipotent hand, the right hand of the Almighty God, and He is able to hold our soul in life.
And so we commit all our desires, all our cares, all our necessities unto the Lord. But how do we do this? Well, by communion and by prayer. By coming to the Lord in prayer and committing your way to Yahweh, trusting in Him that He will bring it to pass. By coming to the Lord in prayer, the consolations that delight the soul are the comforts that flow from communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, from the knowledge of His goodwill for us, that He is graciously disposed to do us good.
And Paul taught this in Philippians 4:6 and 7. We read it at the beginning of the service: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will garrison, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And so in prayer, we let our requests be made known to God. We express them. We verbalize them. We make them known to God.
But why should we do this? Well, it's not for God's information, as if He doesn't know what's going on. He knows all things. He knows all about us. But we cast our burdens upon the Lord in prayer. We commit our way to—to Yahweh in prayer as an expression of our dependence upon the Lord.
And some will object and say, well, if God is sovereign over all, He will do it. It says right here, trust in Him. He will do it. He's going to work out His plan. He's going to do His pleasure. He's working out His plan. He knows all my needs. He has said He will sustain the righteous. Why pray? Does He need to be informed? Of course not. Why commit your way to Yahweh in prayer?
Well, for a number of reasons. First, prayer is a duty. It is a command. It's something we're commanded to do out of obedience. And in prayer, we express our dependence upon God, and that pleases God. If we are commanded to do it out of obedience, and obedience to God's commands honor Him, then it's our duty. It should be our delight. It exalts God. It's God-glorifying. He above all knows what is most desirable and good for us. What He, as our good Father, commands then is for our blessing and for our good. And we're commanded to call upon the Lord, to seek His face, to commit our way unto the Lord.
But not only is it our duty, it's a privilege. Prayer is a privilege. This is our privilege. We're encouraged to see here prayer as a great honor. It's the highest privilege we have as the children of God in prayer. We not only express our dependence upon God, but we're entering into communion with our Father in heaven. We're entering into communion with our God, our Creator, our Savior, our Friend, our King and Redeemer. Think about that. To think that the God of heaven, the God of heaven and earth, bends His ear, inclines towards us, bows down to hear us, is amazing to us.
This is a privilege. This is the greatest honor, the highest privilege we have as the children of God. The Lord hears our prayer. Is that not a marvel to you? Our Father hears. We have those wonderful words in in 1 John 5:14: "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." He hears us. "And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." Our Father hears. He hears us.
What a privilege to come into the presence of the Most High God, to enter into communion with Him with this confidence. He hears us. He delights in the prayer of the righteous. His eye is towards us. As one author put it, "We make supplication to God because we live in a world of trouble and pain, and the peace of God does not come from denying trouble, but by bringing our trouble to God." When we pray, we do not need to twist God's arm to get Him to listen. He hears us. He hears the prayer of the righteous.
And as John Calvin said, “When we pray, we climb into our Father's lap and we whisper our needs into His ear.” What a privilege to come to our Father in heaven and call upon Him—to climb on His lap as His child and whisper our needs into His ear. What a beautiful picture that is. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion—has compassion on us. Our Father hears us. He has compassion on those who fear Him.
This is our duty, but this is a privilege, an honor. It's an expression of our dependence on the Lord for everything, and we're entering into communion with the Most High God, and we commit our way to Yahweh. Commit your way. “Commit your way to Yahweh.” Your way. What is that? All that pertains to my life. The things connected with what is going on in my life. Whatever you're facing, whatever you're dealing with—your anxious thoughts, your perplexing questions, your problems, your confusion, your heartache, your hurts, your sins, your secrets, your cares, your fears, your decisions—whatever it may be, all of it. “Commit your way to Yahweh.” Commit your way. Roll it on the Lord as an expression of faith and humble dependence, as an expression of complete trust.
We deposit for safekeeping, we deposit for safekeeping that which we care about. We entrust it all to Him. We commit it to Him. Commit your way. But that also suggests further, it suggests a condition to the enjoyment of God's peace and grace. He says commit. This commitment, this rolling of your burden, it is a condition for and of our peace. It's a condition to our peace. Paul said it's by prayer. It's by supplication. It's by letting your requests be made known to God. The peace of God will guard your hearts and keep your minds. (Philippians 4:6)
As you roll your burden upon the Lord, you can know His sustaining grace. And so we come to petition God for those fresh supplies of grace that we need, grace that He has promised to give, but grace that He will only give to those who call, those who ask, those who draw near, those who humble themselves under His mighty hand, those who commit their way to Him.
James 4:2, "You do not have because you do not ask." But yet, if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:5, "Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." And so, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." It's a condition to the enjoyment of God's grace and His peace.
Commit your way to the Lord. Roll your burden upon Him. Paul said in Ephesians 6:24, "Grace will be with you, will be with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love." We will know His grace as we trust in Him, as we delight in Him, as we commit our way to Him, as we love Him with that incorruptible love—that's with a genuine, sincere, devoted, dependent love.
It's true, God has ordained the end from the beginning. He is working all things according to His plan and purpose, but He also ordains the means to the end. And prayer is a means to the end. He has called us to pray, to commit our way to Him. This is our privilege. We express our dependence. We enter into communion. And as we do that, contentment, rest comes as we center our lives on Christ and commit into His hand all our cares, all that pertains to us.
We're encouraged to roll our burdens on the Lord also as a way to to remain composed in a time of trial. Where do we go when we're crushed, when we're burdened, when we're heavy laden, when we're under pressure? What did David do? What does he teach us to do here? He says, don't fret, don't worry, don't be seduced by the world, don't give away to fleshly appetites. Trust the Lord, delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord, rest in the Lord.
When you're under pressure, run to the One who is a refuge for us. We hide ourselves in Him and there we find safety and security. We look to the Lord for the renewing of our minds and for the quieting of our fluttering hearts. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of mercies. He's the God of all comfort and He comforts us in all our affliction. And so we commit our way to Yahweh, to the Lord, the self-existent, unchanging, eternal God, the I Am. Commit your way, He says, to Yahweh.
And we see some examples of that in Scripture, of turning to the Lord in a time of crisis. I think of David, David in 1 Samuel 30. David and his men returned to the city of Ziklag and they find it burned and in ashes. The Amalekites had taken away the wives and the children. David and his men sat down and they wept until they had no more strength to weep. And those men were so bitterly upset that they were ready to stone David. And how did he respond under such great distress? Well, we read in 1 Samuel 30:6, "But David strengthened himself in the Lord.” He composed himself and he looked to the Lord for guidance. David strengthened himself in Yahweh, his God. Commit your way to Yahweh.
We think of Jehoshaphat, and the sons of Moab and Ammon came against them. He's overwhelmed. He's outnumbered. He doesn't know what to do. He feels powerless, and in the face of a seeming impossible situation, he's afraid and he set his face to seek the Lord and he called for a fast.
And we have those wonderful words in 2 Chronicles 20 and his prayer in verse 6: "O Yahweh, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can take their stand against You." Commit your way to Yahweh.
"O our God," verse 12, "will You not judge them? We are powerless.” “We are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; and we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on the Lord. You."
You think of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1. As he heard the report of the city in ruins, the walls broken down, and he wept and he prayed to the God of heaven. Read 1 Nehemiah 1 and 2. Wonderful examples of committing your way to the Lord.
“God is able.” 2 Corinthians 9:8: "And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time, having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed." We cast our burdens upon the Lord as a way to remain composed in the time of trial, trusting in the Lord, the God who is able. He’s the God of all grace—all grace at all times, for all things. 2 Corinthians 9:8. We commit our way to Yahweh.
We commit our way to Yahweh. He knows the story of your life. He’s the author of it. He’s writing the story, and every day He’s writing a new chapter, and you can entrust your life to Yahweh. We can trust Him with everything.
One author said, “Our lives are much more fragile than we think.” Our lives are much more fragile than we think. We think we have things under control. We think we can handle things on our own, but we can’t. We’re fragile. We’re weak. And so he said, “therefore, each day is a renewed declaration of our dependence on God.” We worry about tomorrow. We worry about tomorrow. When we worry about tomorrow, we are living in tomorrow today. But God gives us strength and grace for only one day at a time. Grace for each day.
And when believers make their requests known to God, they do so not to an annoyed deity who won’t listen to them, but a loving and caring Father who hears. He hears us. And our Father, our God, cares for us. He cares about our needs far more than we do. He knows our needs. Your Father in heaven knows all about your needs. And to doubt this, this author said, is to doubt the very character of God. Doubt is the opposite of dependence. It is defiance. It is a defamation of the character of God.
When we worry, we are saying, Father, You are not sovereign. Father, You are not wise. Father, You are not loving. Father, You do not care for me. And yet we read, "casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." How can you question it? How can you doubt it?
And Peter, in that same chapter in 1 Peter 5:10, he says, "And after you have suffered for a little while,” for a season, for a time, “the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." And this is our confidence as believers: the God of all grace, the God of heaven and earth who hears our prayers, our feeble cries, our groans, the groanings of our heart. The God of all grace is personally working in our lives.
That verse tells us that the God of all grace is personally working in our lives to make us more like Christ—that He Himself will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you, Peter said. God takes a personal interest in us and He’s going to see to it that His will be accomplished. And we have no reason to fear, but every reason to trust Him, trust in Him, and He will do it. He will bring it to pass.
He thinks on me. His thoughts towards me are more in number than the sand on the seashore. I can’t even fathom that. I can’t even number them. He cares for me. He will do it. He’s working all things together for my good and for His glory. Yes, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers out of them all, and He invites us to offload our burdens, to bring them to Him, and He’s willing—so willing—to carry the load, to do the heavy lifting, to take responsibility for them, and still we hold on to them.
And yet, as we cast our cares, our anxiety on the Lord, knowing He cares for us, He’s going to see to it that we are perfected, restored, made complete, fully equipped or fitted out for every good work. He will furnish us for the fight. He will see to it that we are confirmed, that is, that we will be given that assurance that our faith in God, that our trust in God is completely warranted. He will never fail us. He will never forsake us, and He’s going to see to it that we are strengthened, that is, granted the necessary help to persevere and overcome, grace to endure, knowing His strength—His strength is made perfect in our weakness. It is form-fitted for our weakness. It is timely grace. It is needed grace. He will never leave us or forsake us.
In fact, He says He’s going to see to it not only that He will perfect you, confirm you, strengthen you, but that you will be established. He sets us on a firm and immovable foundation—on Christ the solid rock—and He will be our sure foundation. “Commit your way to Yahweh, trust in Him, and He will do it.” (Psalm 37:5)
Verse 6 says, "He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday." You can trust in God. Trust God in every circumstance, and He will make your righteous faith shine bright. It will be visible for all to see. You will be vindicated. Your faith is warranted. It will be clear and obvious.
And although, as Calvin said, “Although the life of the godly should be assailed by many dangers, yet they are secure in the aid and protection of God, and that however much the wicked should plot against them, they shall be continually preserved.” Preserved. We are kept by the power of God through faith, and that’s what we read here in this chapter. The Lord upholds the righteous. They shall be sustained because Yahweh is the one who sustains by His hand. Verse 17, verse 23, verse 39 and 40. He helps and He protects and He keeps them because they take refuge in Him. We are kept by the power of God.
Eric Watkins said, “Who we are in Christ informs our response to trials and adversity. Rather than leading us to anxiety or despair, trials should remind us that heaven will be better, that Christ is sufficient, that these momentary light afflictions we endure now are incomparable to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us with Christ in heaven.” The best is yet to come. We have a glorious future.
And let me end tonight with some thoughts from the doctor, Martin Lloyd-Jones, adapted from his book, *Spiritual Depression*. We looked at these when we worked our way through the anxiety series last year. And you will find these in that little book that we prepared for that study.
Think about this as we close.
“Conditions are always changing. Therefore, I must not be dependent on conditions. What matters supremely and vitally is my soul and my relationship to God. Number three, God is concerned about me as my Father, and nothing happens to me apart from God. Apart from God.
Number four, God's will and ways are a great mystery, but I know that whatever He wills or permits is of necessity for my good. Every situation in life is the unfolding of some manifestation of God's love and goodness. Six, I must regard circumstances and conditions not in themselves, therefore, but as part of God's dealing with me in the work of perfecting my soul and bringing me to final perfection. And seven”, in conclusion, he said, “Whatever my conditions, whatever my conditions may be at this present moment, they are only temporary. They are only passing. They can never rob me of the joy and the glory that ultimately await me with Christ.”
"Commit your way to Yahweh, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass." (Psalm 37:5)
Let's pray.
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