Who can you Trust? Psalm 20
We have been in Whitby for 15 years now. Wow, time flies when you’re having fun.
It feels like yesterday when we moved from Maple (2 min from Wonderland, which is not all it’s cracked up to be) to Jays Drive, Whitby. Our house sell experience was interesting.
Sold in January, moved out in April, closed the new house in August. Lived in my parents basement in between. (Good times)
Lots happened in that span…
– We had a fun experience with our house sale. NOT FUN. Long story short, the buyers tried to change the price before closing. It didn’t happen, we won, and sold.
– Our daughter Madison was born
– My dad passed
– And…we nearly lost our down payment…YA…all because of a shady investor.
This is what happened in a nut shell…
– had mutual funds with this broker, nothing fancy
– sold our home, needed a place for my down payment to sit
– left it with him in a secured investment
– when we needed it to close, he was late, and was having a hard time transferring the funds
– that was a LONG day, that turned into a second day, which moved our closing one day (don’t you worry, I charged our investor the bridge finance fee
– fortunate for us, we got the funds, closed the house, and moved to Whitby
– we found out a few months later, that very unfortunate for others, they did lose money, lots of it. (So Sad)
THEY – I – trusted him.
Even though you hear about these things all the time, we never thought that this person was capable of doing what he did. He broke trust with loyal clients, old time friends, and even family.
– – – – – – –
Trust is beautiful…until it’s broken.
Trust is comforting…until it crumbles.
Trust is settling…until it collapses.
Trust is reliable…until it’s not.
Who did YOU trust…that disappointed?
Who did YOU trust in…that failed you?
(people, government, tech, cars, systems, stuff, jobs, leaders)
In Psalm 20, we land on a verse that so emphatically challenges us to be thoughtful and careful of who and where we put our trust.
Before we land there, let’s read through this Psalm.
Psalm 20:1-5
1 May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
4 May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.
After reading this a few times, I noticed that David is praying for someone else, not himself. Biblical Scholars call this a royal Psalm; one that is about and for the King. But which king?
– The current King who David might be praying for?
– Himself, who will one day be King?
– Or looking way into the future, the Messiah, who he knows will be THE KING?
I find it comforting knowing that David, takes time, to pray for a leader, but more than that, for another – for others.
Many of the psalms are personal prayers.
– God help me
– God save me
– God deliver me
But here, for the king, or even if it’s for his people, his community, David is praying for others.
It’s verse 7, which we’ll get to, got me to this Psalm, but verses 1-5 got my attention too. These words, this prayer, made me think:
– Who am I praying for?
– Do I use all of my journal space for me, or are there a few lines dedicated to others, those I lead, and those who lead me, those I do life with?
We learn something about all of us in this Psalm
– we get distressed
– we need help
– we desire to do well
– we need to acknowledge where we’re lacking
We also learn about God in this Psalm
– He answers us
– He helps, supports, remembers, gives, …
– His name means something, it carry’s weight, it has power attached to it.
Most importantly, we learn that we can TRUST him. We can trust God.
6 Now this I know:
The Lord gives victory to his anointed.
He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary
with the victorious power of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
Some may trust in horses…
Some may trust in chariots…
BUT we
TRUST
in
the NAME of the LORD our GOD
What a plain and simple and important thought we have in this Psalm…
Don’t worry about what SOME do…
Don’t focus on what SOME trust in…
What things, after some reflection, do you, or did you, put too much trust in?
Fill the blank… Some may trust in _________? I may have trusted in _________?
In Deuteronomy 17:16, we read these instructive words,
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”
God is saying to Israel, ‘don’t be like the people you left’, ‘don’t be like the people who enslaved you’, ‘don’t count what you have and put your trust in it, trust me, God’.
We read these very familiar words in Proverbs 3,
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
– – – – – – – –
We posted this image in our story yesterday. The US dollar, the (apparent) envy of the economic world, has these words on it. (In God we Trust)
This was first put on coins in 1863. It was put into their law in 1956, Dwight Eisenhower, signed it into law. Why? I hope it was to show that they trusted in something other than money?
The thing with trust is…you can say you trust something or someone, but your actions are the proof at the end of the day. The US dollar is a perfect example of this. (ask me later why I think this).
The question for us today is this…
What will we put our absolute trust in?
I mean, do your homework and research…when it comes to investing, your health, your purchases, your relationships, make good decisions. Due diligence is important when it comes to these things. You want to feel comfortable about moving forward with your savings, your investments, your friendships, your important life decisions. But in the end, don’t put your absolute trust in anything or anyone else but GOD.
As David so plainly encourages us to ask…
Will we be the people who trust in ________ or will we trust in the name of the Lord our God?