Last evening amidst the gloaming I took to the hills after work. I walked some of my favorite paths. I had a novel with me, too, and I paused a while at Reader’s Rock where I sat and read more of McCarthy’s Blood Meridian yet again. Then I walked some more. And finally I returned home.

When I entered the house, my wife and I spoke for a while and talked of our son’s recent trip to the beach with some of his friends. It was a pretty normal evening. But I had a heaviness of heart I could not seem to shake.

My wife sat down at her keyboard and began playing a hymn from Sovereign Grace entitled “From Everlasting (Psalm 90).” And everything changed in my spirit. I stood behind her as she sat on her piano stool and played the keys and sang. And again, my heart changed.

As the words from Psalm 90:2 filled the house, my heart changed. “[F]rom everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps 90:2b). She continued through the song, her long pianist fingers coming down upon keys of white and black, and the words continued: “[F]rom everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

I finally turned away when she finished playing, went and brushed my teeth, and prepared for bed. I reflected on words from Psalm 55 from some of my recent studies in Scripture:

My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
²¹ His speech was smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were drawn swords.

²² Cast your burden on the Lord,
    and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.

²³ But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
    shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you. (Ps 55:20-23)

David penned Psalm 55 and Moses penned Psalm 90. Two men that God used from everlasting to everlasting. David wrote in verse 22 of Psalm 55 that the believer is to cast his burden on the Lord. And the result of that trust? God will sustain him. He will not permit the righteous person to be moved (v. 22). What’s more, God will cast down the wicked “into the pit of destruction” (v. 23).

Peter picks up on that image in his letters: “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7). Casting one’s heavy heart–casting one’s burden–casting one’s load of anxieties upon the Lord is the posture of the Christian because it entails looking away from ourselves and unto the Lord, a posture of trust. And assurance.