“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act.” Psalms 37:3-5
I think these verses here say a whole lot about how we should trust. You see trust is not a passive verb. Trusting in God takes action on our part as well. First of all, we can’t just get up and say I am going to trust you today Lord and then sit in our chair all day long and expect everything to fall into place if we do nothing. We trust as we go about our day. We trust and we do whatever good we can do for the day. To dwell in the land, and befriend faithfulness means we are going about our day and trying to remain faithful in our walk, in our speech and in our day to day activities. We trust the Lord to work out the stuff of life as we continue to live the life He gave us. It would be so easy, especially these hard days of Covid and the craziness in the world to lock ourselves in our homes and try to stay there until it’s all over. But part of trusting Him is to keep on living our day to day life.
The next part of this verse has often been quoted as a way some people think they will just get what they want but it requires action on our part too. You can’t just get up and say I’m delighting in you Lord, now give me what I want. Let me put it this way. One of the greatest delights of my life is to spend time with my grandchildren. Just thinking of them, and looking at pictures of them can bring a smile to my face. But how would they ever know the they are a delight to me if I didn’t make an effort to spend time with them. They live an hour and a half from me, so I don’t have opportunity to see them on a daily basis, but you let a few weeks pass and I am calling my son to make a plan to see them. I want them to know how much I delight in them. Oh they are little and they don’t realize to call it that right now, but one day I want them to look back and see the good memories we made together. Much the same, if you aren’t spending time with God, how would He ever know that you take delight in Him. And as far as that giving you the desires of your heart thing, what happens as you spend time with Him, the desires of His heart become the desires of your heart and He blesses you through them. Some of your desires may stay the same, but if your desire is not in line with His will, then you will find over time, your heart’s desires have changed.
Finally, make a commitment to Him. Make your commitment to His will and way for your life and He will act. Trusting Him is following where He leads you. It means praying about that job offer and letting Him direct your path. It means praying about your relationships. If you are single and looking for a mate, praying for God to show you and direct you to the right person. It means praying about your friendships. It means praying about big decisions in life that come your way. And it means praying about small decisions that come your way and everything in between, where you will serve your church and community. Commit your way to Him and trust Him to direct you and He will do it!
I want to end with these verses out of The Passion Translation. I love to use some of these translations for understanding and clarity when I am studying. I personally like to read out of the ESV, NIV or NKJV but I use TPT, NLT and the MSG to give me a different approach to the verses I am studying. Sometimes the way it reads is so perfectly put that I like to share.
“Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his eyes. Fix your heart on the promises of God, and you will dwell in the land, feasting on his faithfulness. Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh, and he will give you what you desire most. Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way, you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!” Psalm 37:3-5
Let’s trust Him today and everyday, letting Him direct our steps day by day and He will pull it off perfectly!
Restore 