Trusting God

 April 2, 2024

“Trust in the Lord, and do good; 

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 

Delight yourself also in the Lord, 

And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 

Commit your way to the Lord, 

Trust also in Him, 

And He shall bring it to pass.”

—Psalm 37:3-5 

Verse 4 is one of my all–time favorite Bible verses: “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart,” but as I read it recently, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before: that little word “also.” It’s not found in every translation, so I don’t want to make too much of it, but it implies that there is something preceding that is important. That takes us to verse three, where four commands are given: ”Trust, Do good, Dwell, and Feed.” I’ll take just that first command tonight.

“Trust in the Lord.” This command implies that God is trustworthy. Perhaps you’ve put your trust in someone, only to find out they weren’t trustworthy. They betrayed your trust, didn’t follow through on their promises, turned against you. When that happens, it can become hard to trust someone else down the road. Sometimes we have a hard time trusting God, especially when he doesn’t answer our prayers as we think he should. A faulty understanding of God and how he works has caused many to lose faith, to conclude that God can’t be trusted. If I am going to trust him, it’s imperative I get to know him as he really is, and not as I want him to be.

Trust also implies risk. If I am certain of the outcome, I don’t need to trust. Trust is only possible in a context of uncertainty, when we take another step in the dark, not knowing if it will land on solid ground or plunge us into oblivion.

So what does it mean for you to trust God today? Where are you feeling uncertain, nervous, maybe a bit scared? Learning to trust God, to say to him, “OK, your will, not mine, be done,” is the first step towards the end result you want in life.