Give up the Burden

“Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do this.” (Psalm 37:5)

This is the second part of a verse that is often quoted separately from this one. The verse before this one says “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

When written, the scriptures didn’t have chaptes and verses. David wrote these not to be parsed out separely, but as a whole thought, with the final part being a command to commit our way to the Lord. How do these parts fit together? How is the transition from delight in the Lord fit with commit our ways? Some translations say “he shall bring it to pass.”

When you look at the original Hebrew, the phrase “Commit you way” carries the same meaning as “Roll thy way upon” in the same way that if you were carrying a heavy burden you would roll it onto someone’s shoulder to take over carrying it for you. In those days people did a lot of carrying so this would have been a metaphor aptly understood. It the same meaning as when you aren’t able to carry something any further and someone else comes along stronger that you to take over the load. So, when this passage is read by us today as commit your way we think of our plans, etc. but David was writing about whatever we are carrying today.

Whatever you are carrying today, don’t keep trying to carry it yourself, but give it to the Lord to carry for you, and he will “bring it to pass” – He will take it to it’s destination. Is David saying that all will be better? Not necessarily, but when we give our cares to the Lord and trust Him for the outcome we know it will be better no matter what the result.

My shoulders feel lighter already!