Sole Trust

“He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.” (Ps 62:6 AV)

There is one word that jumped out at me.  Only.  Not God and something or someone else.  He only!  He alone!  Our problem is we have our hope in God plus something else.  God and our spouse.  God and our church.  God and our government.  God and science.  God and our abilities.  God and our health.  God and our doctor.  God and the statistics.  God and our finances.  God and our educational institutions.  God and the media.  God and our friends.  God and the internet.  David wrote this Psalm sometime around the rebellion of Absalom.  In fact, there are a good number of Psalms written with that event as the backdrop.  The most significant ordeal David ever went through was the rebellion and consequent death of his own son.  When David left Jerusalem he had a very small contingent willing to aide him.  The vast majority of Israel went after Absalom.  This was similar to Saul’s pursuit of David but ramped up tenfold.  David could not initiate any hostilities against his own son.  He couldn’t because it was his own son.  When David said God alone was his hope, he wasn’t kidding.   We also want to notice the exclusivity of the object of faith as it relates to the depth of faith he has.  Making God alone the object of one’s faith serves to strengthen that faith, not weaken it.

I don’t care for flying.  Well, let me clarify.  I don’t like taking off or landing.  As long as I don’t think about it, the in-between isn’t all that bad.  The funny thing is, if one must fly, one must learn to place his or her trust in one single individual.  The pilot.  There is no other choice.  There is support one can lean on.  The structure of the plane has some safety about it.  Knowing it can stay aloft for a time even in the midst of power failure.  It can still glide.  As we saw, a plane can even land in a river.  There are flight attendants who can calm the nerves.  There are pills one can take to make the trip a bit easier.  But when all is said and done, the traveler’s life rests in the capable hands of one person.  The one behind the controls.  Years ago, to overcome my fear of flying, a friend of mine gave me a discovery flight for my birthday.  That is when a trained pilot takes a novice up and allows that greenhorn to fly the plane.  This pilot allowed me to take the plan up and fly around.  To and from Chicago from Milwaukee.  It was a blast.  It was fun because, at any moment, she could take the controls and fly the craft herself.  She controlled the rudders while I controlled everything else.  That is until we came in to land.  She coached me through it but I could feel her strength overpowering my input.  I finally took my hands off the yoke and said she had the plane all by herself.  Before that, it was her and me.  Knowing I was out of my league, I surrendered full control to her.  A great relief came over me because I knew the moment I surrendered any input and gave it 100% to her, we would be safe.

David had no choice but to leave it all to the LORD.  Our instincts tell us the more objects in which we can place our trust, the stronger that trust becomes.  If I am in a tree stand and I can trust the tree to withstand the wind, the tie-offs to maintain their strength, and the stand to hold together under my weight, the more strong my faith becomes.  This may be true of the natural world.  Yet, when applied to life, God alone should be our trust.  We can do our due diligence.  We can tie the stand down with new ties.  We can tighten all the bolts and be sure the stand is securely anchored into the ground.  We can examine the tree for size and durability.  But ultimately, our trust should rely on God alone.  That pilot could have had a seizure and I would have had to land that plain.  New ties can still snap.  A million things could happen to the safeguards we have put in place.  But God is faithful!  He never fails.  That’s upon whom our trust should rely