August 22 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 110-112; 1 Corinthians 5

Place It on God’s Plate

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. Psalm 55:22

For years, a mother prayed as she helped her adult daughter navigate the healthcare system and find counselling and the best medications. Her extreme highs and deep lows weighed on her mum’s heart day after day. Often exhausted from sadness, she realised she had to take care of herself too. A friend suggested writing out her worries and things she couldn’t control on small pieces of paper and placing them on “God’s plate” at her bedside. This simple practice didn’t eliminate all stress, but seeing that plate reminds her those concerns are on God’s plate, not hers.

In a way, many of David’s psalms were his way of listing his troubles and laying them on God’s plate (Psalm 55:1, 16-17). If the coup attempt by his son Absalom is what’s being described, David’s “close friend” Ahithophel had indeed betrayed him and was involved in the plot to kill him (2 Samuel 15-16). So “evening, morning and noon [David cried] out in distress,” and God heard his prayer (Psalm 55:1-2, 16-17). He chose to “cast [his] cares on the Lord” and experienced His care ( v. 22).

We can authentically acknowledge that worries and fears affect us all. We may even have thoughts like David’s: “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (v. 6). God is near and is the only one who has the power to change situations. Place it all on His plate.

By Anne Cetas

REFLECT & PRAY

Where are your worries—on God’s plate or yours? What will you give to Him right now?

I often have concerns on my heart, dear God. I relinquish them all to You again. I’m emptying my plate and filling Yours.

Put your cares and worries on God’s plate tonight by listening to the Our Daily Bread Evening Meditations

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

David describes in deep anguish and emotional distress how he’s being venomously attacked—not by an enemy but by “my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship” (Psalm 55:13-14). Some scholars say this trusted friend was likely Ahithophel, David’s counsellor who switched sides and actively advised and emboldened Absalom, David’s son, to usurp the throne and pursue and kill David (2 Samuel 15:12; 16:20-17:3).

At first, the psalmist pictures himself as a dove escaping, isolating, and detaching himself from the conflict to seek respite and security in the desert (Psalm 55:6-8). But he found sustenance and rest in God instead. David says to “cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken” (v. 22; see 1 Peter 5:7). Some scholars say that Ahithophel’s betrayal of David foreshadowed Judas’ betrayal of Jesus (Luke 22:47-48 ). Interestingly, both Ahithophel and Judas hanged themselves (2 Samuel 17:23; Matthew 27:5).

K. T. Sim

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