In 1973, Paul McCartney & Wings released the album Band on the Run. One of the songs on this classic album is Let Me Roll It. Many people have interpreted this song as an olive branch offering to John Lennon after all the bitterness arising from his song, released in the aftermath of the breakup of the Beatles, How Do You Sleep?. However, in an interview with Clash magazine in 2010, McCartney explained that Let Me Roll It was actually more of a song about drugs.

I've always thought that it is a mistake to over-think the lyrics of Lennon & McCartney's songs. I've always liked Let Me Roll It, with its arresting riff and the echo on the vocals that sounds (ironically) just like John Lennon. Most of all I like it because it is one of those tunes that is incredibly catchy. So, for me, learning that it was all about drugs (so obvious, when you look at the lyrics!), takes something away from it.

Anyway, I mention the song because I always think of it and start humming it every time I read Psalm 22:8.

'He trusts in the Lord,' they say, 'let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.'

Let me explain.

The songwriter in this case, David, is talking about people who are mocking and deriding him for trusting in God. Here it is in the English Standard Version:

6  But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 7  All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8  "He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"

The Hebrew word that is translated "to trust" has the sense "to commit".

Alex Motyer, in his wonderful book, Psalms by the Day: A Working Translation with Analysis and Explanatory Notes, translates verse 8 like this:

'Commit it to Yahweh!'--- 'He will rescue him'; 'He will deliver him because he is pleased with him.'

Motyer points out that the literal meaning of "commit" is 'Roll (it) to Yahweh'.

Now you can see why I start humming!

Psalm 37:5 says, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this". Proverbs 16:3 says, "Roll your works ...". Same words, each time.

Commit the big thing to God. Trust in God. Roll your ways, and everything you do and plan, to God.

Sometimes things get far too heavy to lift. Life brings burdens that are much too heavy to carry for any distance. So simply lean into those things, push them towards the Lord in prayer, and roll them to God.

David says the result will be that God will rescue the one who does this.

Let me roll it to you.