Go ahead and open your Bibles to Psalm 37. This is a Psalm of David that starts off by offering encouragement to believers. David gives us some instructions on how to live our lives “in the Lord.” He says starting in verse 1, “Do not fret because of evil doers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. 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. He shall bring fourth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
Notice that there are four things that David tells us to do either “in the Lord” or “to the Lord.” These are what I call the 4 “in the Lord” commands. They are 1) Trust, 2) Delight, 3) Commit, and 4) Rest. Over my next four visits with you starting today, we are going to examine each of these commands one-by-one. I want to give you some examples of people who really illustrated these four statements of things to do “in the Lord” and also how we can fulfill these things today. These are things that are great for each of us to do and brilliant advice from the “Man after God’s own heart.” Let’s get started with the first of the four statements: “Trust in the Lord.”
The first commands to Trust in the Lord is, perhaps, the most important because it is a stepping stone to the rest of them. Let’s take some time this morning to examine some Biblical characters and how they trusted in the Lord. Let’s start by talking about Abraham. Abraham was one who completely trusted in the Lord. He left his home at the Lord’s command and trusted in the Lord to fulfill the daily needs of himself, his wife, and all of his camp. What impresses me the most is how Abraham trusted the Lord with his son, Isaac. Allow me to set up the story as we turn to Genesis 22. Abraham had been waiting on the promise of the Lord for a son that would be his heir. God said it would come through Sarah, but Abraham grew unsure and impatient. He has Ishmael with his wife’s maidservant Hagar, but the Lord still would remain faithful to His promise. Sarah was nearly 100 years old when she gave birth to Isaac. Ishmael and Hagar were sent away, and Abraham loved Isaac. This child was the fulfillment of the promise from the Lord over many years. He had waited and waited and just when it seemed all hope was lost, the Lord came through and gave him Isaac. Isaac would be what made Abraham happy and proud. Isaac would be the heir. Now that we have set up the story and how much Isaac meant to Abraham, let’s see how Abraham had to trust in the Lord. Starting in Verse 1 we read, (Read Genesis 22:1-19)
What great faith! What great trust! I am not a parent myself, but I can’t imagine how gut-wrenching this command from the Lord was for Abraham. God had fulfilled His promise to give you a son and heir, and now He wants you to sacrifice him like an animal. Abraham would have to have complete and total trust in the Lord. This is the God who brought you out of your homeland and is promising to make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. This is the God who has protected you and made you to prosper. This is the God who opened your wife’s womb to child-birth at nearly 100 years old! Surely this God would be able to raise your heir back from the dead. Surely this God would not break His promise. He never has before so why would He now? This is an act of a man who completely trusted the Lord.
Let’s now consider another character who completely trusted the Lord. Turn with me to the Book of Job. In chapter one, we see Satan interacting with God. Satan thought that none would remain faithful to the Lord, but God knew that Job would. Satan struck Job with tragedy in Chapter 1 starting in Verse 13. It says, (Read Job 1:13-22).
Throughout this whole ordeal, Job remained faithful to the Lord. Would we? Not only does this happen to Job, but once again he is put through even more by Satan. Starting in chapter 2 verse 1 we read, (Read Job 2:1-10).
This man has just lost not only his property, but his children. Not only that, but now he was stricken with painful boils all over his body. How would we react? Would we pity ourselves? Would we follow the advice of Job’s wife to “curse God and die,” or would we react like Job. He was suffering physically and emotionally, yet he still remained faithful to the Lord and trusted Him. Notice the incredible wisdom of Job when he states, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” Job realized that not only good things happen in life, but also bad. In the good times as well as in the bad times, it was important to Job to remain faithful to the Lord. He knew that everything he had came from the Lord, and that none of it was his own. Job understood that even in extreme adversity, God would remain faithful to him, so he must remain faithful to the Lord. I pray that we can do the same
I spend a lot of time around folks much older than myself. That is something I have done ever since I was a child. I like to listen to the experience and advice that older, more experienced people have to give. I like to learn from them and, perhaps, gain some of their wisdom. I spent a lot of time a few years back talking to some of these folks about their relationships and what lead to healthy relationships. Many of them had been married 30, 40, or even 50 years. They all gave me basically the same top 2 things that were the most important to a good relationship. The number 1 thing was communication. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been in a relationship for a long time. The number 2 thing was trust. For many of the people I talked to, trust was their number 1. They told me when I asked about trust that it was extremely important to fully trust their spouse. A lack of trust would lead to suspicion and closing oneself off from the other spouse. This would cause the relationship to spiral downward out of control. If they fully trusted their spouse, they would be able to be open and honest about everything. There would be no secrets and there would be no anxiety about how they were going to be treated. All of the negative emotions associated with that simply don’t appear when you fully trust someone. This, in their opinion, leads to a healthy, happy, and loving relationship.
I’ve mentioned this in previous sermons, but I think it is important to re-emphasize this often. We are in a relationship with God, and like our earthly relationships, it is important that it be healthy relationship. This involves trust. We have to be able to trust in the Lord completely in order to have a healthy relationship with Him. We have to be able to tell the Lord everything and not want to hold things back. We need to be able to tell the Lord when we are happy, sad, angry, confused, or any other thing that might be going on. We need to be able to trust the Lord with our hearts, our family, our finances, our jobs, our emotions, and everything else in our lives. Only then, will we be able to stop relying on ourselves and the world and completely rely on God. As Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not o your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
This morning as we come to a close, I want to encourage you once again with the words of David from Psalms 37. “Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the Land and feed on His faithfulness.” And also, “Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” My friends, trust in the Lord and He will not let you down. He didn’t let down Abraham. He didn’t let down Job. He will not let you down.
