Psalm 25: Trust

What does it really mean to trust God? The Bible is filled with commands to do things like believe, follow, wait, have faith and trust. These are commands that are foundational, that are of extreme importance, that the very essence of our lives hinge upon. They sound elementary but are anything but simple. They are often quoted without thought, we tell people to “just believe” or “just have faith” as if it is or should be easy. It’s the spiritual equivalent of “just say no”, a shallow command unwilling to acknowledge the depth of the difficulty faced. In Psalm 25, David was praying for God to remove his enemies and strengthen his faith, for God to work in him and for him, for God to change his heart and his circumstances. He began his prayer with a statement I hope to better understand, “O my God, in you I trust”. What does it really mean to trust God?

The Hebrew word that we translate as trust is a Hebrew word that is used 120 times in the Old Testament, most often in the Psalms. It means to trust, to have confidence, to be bold, to be secure, to feel safe. It is most often a word that is used as a command or a declaration, which means that it is not something that can be provided for us but rather something that we must choose for ourselves. In Psalm 25, David wrote, “in You I trust”. He wasn’t praying for the ability to trust or for a reason to trust. He was making a declaration that would lead to a decision, he was working to choose trust, because not only is trust a choice, trust is hard work.

The author of Proverbs used the same Hebrew word when he wrote, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”. This verse gives us some insight into what it means to trust. Choosing to trust God means also choosing not to lean on our own understanding. What is our understanding? It’s not just our intellect, it’s the sum of all our mental and emotional parts. Our understanding is a combination of past experience, future expectations, feelings, fears and traditions. It’s what we’ve been told, what we’ve assumed and what we’ve tried hard to avoid. Abraham leaned on his own understanding when he gave Sarah away twice because he feared that he would be killed by someone who wanted her for himself. Moses leaned on his own understanding when he struck the rock even though God told him to simply speak to it. Moses had his staff with him, the staff that God had used to do many other miraculous signs, why carry it and not use it? Why not strike the rock to show God’s power even more fully? But God responded and told Moses that striking the rock had been a response of distrust.

We lean on our own understanding when we do what makes the most sense to us, when we retreat into fear or anxiety, when we hold fast to the opinions in and around us, when we feel out of control simply because God is desiring, even demanding that we give control to Him. Trust is, quite simply, surrender. It’s believing in the One who loves us. It’s choosing to believe that He has chosen us when we feel completely unchosen. Trust is putting our confidence in someone other than ourselves, even when we are tempted to believe that we are the only ones that understand what we are going through or where we need to go.

In Psalm 25, David didn’t only declare His trust in God, he prayed for God to build that trust in greater measure. Trust is one of those things that must be committed to before the process begins, because the process will be more than we planned or prepared for. Jesus didn’t explain all the details of the journey to the apostles, He simply said, “Follow Me”. That’s the way God interacts with all of us, it’s the way He’s always interacted with His children. He told Abraham to go to a land He would show him, and He would make him into a great nation. He told Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver Israel from Pharaoh. He anointed David to be the King of Israel while Israel already had a king. We can go on and on, God tells us to trust Him by obeying Him without ever telling us what the steps of obedience will look or feel like. So, David declared trust in God and then prayed for God to build trust in him, “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.” Trust is built in the journey, not for the journey. We start with a singular choice of trust and then we are taught how to make that same choice over and over again for the rest of our lives.

What does it mean to trust God? It means to choose Him daily. To choose to believe in His goodness in each situation, not just every situation, to choose to believe that His mercies are new every morning even during the darkest of nights. It means to choose to believe that we are protected even when we are surrounded by enemies, provided for even when we see much less than what we need, loved when we feel overlooked and led when we seem completely lost. Trust is a choice I will make today that I will have to work hard to make again tomorrow, it doesn’t happen in a moment, it’s needed in every moment. I trust God by choosing Him and that choice becomes easier to make when I begin to believe that He has already and eternally chosen me.