"What Needless Pain We Bear"

"Blessed is the Lord who daily carries our load" (Psalm 68:19).

The expression is literally, "Blessed is the Lord who daily loads-up for us our burden" (viz. provisions loaded on a beast of burden.) Our Lord stoops to take up our burdens and load them upon Himself. He does so "day|day," as the text puts it—day, after day, after day, after day... 

What burden is laid on me today? Well, it's the cumbrance of living in a worn-out body and doing so with contentment and joy—"to lark and leap on shanks grown dry as sticks!" (Godric).

What burden rests on you today? A fretful child, an aging parent, a frustrating sin, a pain-filled marriage, a lingering illness? Lay it down. Your Lord, who has always loved you, will pick it up and carry it all through the day. He will do so, "because He cares for you!" (1 Peter 5:7).

And tomorrow? Well, you and I will need to do it all over again.

What Thou shalt today provide,

Let me as a child receive;

What tomorrow may betide,

Calmly to Thy wisdom leave:

’Tis enough that Thou wilt care,

Why should I the burden bear?

—John Newton

David Roper

6.30.17