In my previous post I related how a sermon by our pastor on Psalm 115 inspired me to write about God verses idols. There is something else about this Psalm that after more than four decades as a follower of Christ has proved to be the very essence of my faith, and it is found in these three verses in the middle of the Psalm:
9 All you Israelites, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
11 You who fear him, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and shield.
A perfectly biblical three times, trust in the Lord! The context, God verses idols, and the claims of the nations (v.2) that God is MIA, is what makes these exhortations so powerful. If we don’t trust in the Lord, what or who do we trust? The older I get, and the more I learn, the more significant I realize how important it is to always consider the alternative. I call this in a phrase, the consideration of the alternative. As I argued previously, there is no Switzerland, no metaphysical or spiritual neutrality. We have to believe, or trust (the biblical Greek word translated faith), in something or someone. People don’t give up belief or trust without religion, they just place it somewhere else.
A great word that explains what I mean is juxtaposition: “the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect.” In this case the juxtaposition is as stark as it is possible to be, God or idols. The thing is, Christians, including me, fall into idolatry all the time; it’s a constant temptation of existence in a fallen world, living among fallen people in a fallen body. Calvin called the human heart an idol factory. The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian heart is that the Holy Spirit convicts us of this natural inclination to trust idols instead of the Lord. We repent, the non-Christian keeps chasing idols.
How do we know we are giving into this idolatrous inclination? It’s not as obvious as building little statues to worship as in ancient times, or making the obvious idolatries of modern times the obsession of our lives. Rather, it comes down to the simple, yet the very difficult to pull off idea of trust. Do we trust the Lord, or not? The life lived by the former is one thing, the latter quite another. How do we know we are not trusting the Lord? I would suggest one verse in the Bible give us the secret to this often elusive biblical virtue. Every time I meditate upon it I’m convicted about just how terrible I am at trusting the Lord. The verse is Isaiah 26:3:
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Perfect peace. The logic is indisputable: If we don’t have perfect peace, we don’t trust the Lord. I don’t know what perfect means exactly, but I do know I am rarely perfect! If we have any fear, anxiety, or worry, that means we do not trust the Lord. I’m afraid it’s pretty black and white, and convicting if we’re honest with ourselves. As I’ve gotten older I find myself repenting of the sin of not trusting God more than any other. I’ve also realized that the greatest thing I can teach my children, or any friends or family who embrace Christ, is that trusting the Lord is the sin qua non of the Christian life. We come up against things we don’t understand? Trust the Lord! The “stuff” hits the fan? Trust the Lord! We’re confused? Trust the Lord! It’s really the answer to everything, and glorifies God as the Almighty Sovereign Savior that he is for his people, for you and me who claim the name of Christ. Because either Romans 8:28 is true, or it is not. If it is, trust the Lord! If it’s not, only 99%, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die! It’s all, or nothing at all. We either live by faith, or by sight. Either God in Christ is sovereign over all things, or he’s not. If he’s not, something else is. If he is, trust the Lord!
I recently listened to three podcasts by Cameron McAllister, who works with RZIM, on living in a culture of fear. And he recorded these before the media induced panic over a virus. For a young guy he has a lot of great insights worth considering. Like me you can listen while you’re walking or in your car, and I think you’ll find it worthwhile, especially in light of our country and the world shutting down over a virus. Here are links to part 1, part 2, and part 3. I leave you with three words: Trust the Lord!
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