Trust and Do Good
Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 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 do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, and the justice of your cause, like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:3-7)
Trust in the Lord: This is the only one of the nine invitations that David repeats. The reminder to trust is like that reminder evite that keeps on coming until you RSVP. Trust serves not only as the beginning. Trust contains all the rest. If we trust God, we’ll be inclined to do good, to enjoy safe pasture, to delight ourselves in him, and so on.
The term itself shows up 170 times in the Bible, over a third of which find themselves in the Psalms. Trusting the Lord is often set against trusting alternatives, such as wealth or military strength or human wisdom or idols. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7)
Many of the Psalms refer to trusting God’s unfailing love, his omnipotence, his trustworthiness. Trusting “in him” is like putting money in an impenetrable bank for safe keeping. Trust is the precursor to courage, to making good life choices, and of course, to worship. You can’t very well worship, let alone love a God you don’t trust.
When talking about my relationship with God, I usually prefer to speak of trust over the more standard term, faith. I guess it’s because it sounds to me more personal. Faith sometimes feels more like a duty, something I have to perfect and possess in increasing volumes. Trust, though, is rooted in the one in whom we deposit it. It’s more about him than me.
But then he surprises me by linking trust to an action.
And do good: Trusting the Lord is not an alternative to doing good in the world. On the contrary, it is the catalyst for doing good. Trusting him doesn’t let us off the hook for doing his will. It’s the motive and the impetus for it. My life verse is Daniel 11:32. “They that know their God shall stand firm and take action.” I’ve met way too many people who think all that God requires is to believe the right things, and have somehow overlooked that “faith without works is dead.”
In his letter to his disciple, Titus, Paul urged him to “love what is good,” in contrast to others who seem “unfit for doing anything good.” He told him to set an example to people by “doing what is good,” to be “eager to do what is good,” be “ready to do what is good,” and be “devoted to doing good.”
So, trust the Lord to show you and empower you to do good! As someone said, “While you’re praying, row toward shore.”
[Next time we’ll see what we can glean from: “Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”]
For now, tell the Lord that you trust him and ask him to give you opportunities and the courage to do something good today.
