READ Psalm 68:19–23. 19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. 20 Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death. 21 Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins. 22 The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan; I will bring them from the depths of the sea, 23 that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes, while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”
THE GREAT ESCAPE. Here is a God we long to hear more about: who “daily bears our burdens” and provides a way to escape death (verses 19–20). To bear someone else’s burdens is to sympathize, identify with, and become involved in the person’s life so they do not have to face it alone. In Christ, God literally identified with us, becoming human, bearing not only the sufferings of mortality but also the judgment we deserve for sin (described chillingly in verses 21–23), a weight that literally crushed him (Isaiah 53:4–5; Luke 22:41–44). Death used to be just an executioner, but for those in Christ it is now a gardener, “an usher to convey our souls beyond the utmost stars and poles.”55
Prayer: Lord, you have removed the one burden that can crush me—the effort to save myself, to achieve my own significance and security. Thank you for coming to me when I was “heavy laden” and giving me your wonderful rest (Matthew 11:28–30, King James Version). Amen.