Cast Your Burden upon the Lord, and He Will Sustain You

Psalm 55 is a psalm of David, a prayer born out of deep pain. In the first part David longed to fly away like a dove from the storm, and in the second the painful betrayal of a close friend was revealed. In this third and final part comes the turning point: out of all the pain, disappointment, and loneliness, David turns to trust. He prays evening, morning, and noon, knows that God hears his voice, and arrives at the great message of the psalm — to cast every burden upon the Lord.

This is a part of rest and faith. After bringing his pain into the open, David does not stay in it. He chooses to rely, to believe that God will sustain and uphold him, and that the righteous will never be moved. Even when the betrayer spoke words smoother than butter while hiding war in his heart, David places his fate in God's hands alone.

The central verse, chosen as the title of this song, is:

"Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you."

Cast upon God everything that weighs on you — the worry and the burden — and He will hold you, care for you, and sustain you. This is one of the most comforting lines in all of Psalms: a call to release fear and place full trust in God.

This song is part of the larger journey of the project: with God's help, to compose and sing the entire Book of Psalms in a diverse, emotional, Jewish, and uplifting musical language.