Psalm 62:8 Trust in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. I. TRUSTING IN GOD IS A BELIEVER'S DUTY (Psalm 65:5; Proverbs 3:5; Isaiah 51:5; Psalm 52:8; Psalm 78:22). II. WHAT IT IS TO TRUST IN GOD. 1. Generally. To trust in God, is to cast our burden on the Lord, when it is too heavy for our own shoulder (Psalm 55:22); to dwell "in the secret place of the Most High;" when we know not where to lay our heads on earth (Psalm 91:1); to "look to our Maker," and to "have respect to the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 17:7); to stay ourselves, when sinking, on the Lord our God (Isaiah 26:8); in a word, trust in God is that high act or exercise of faith, whereby the soul, looking upon God, and casting of itself on His goodness, power, promises, faithfulness and providence, is lifted up above carnal fears and discouragements, above perplexing doubts and disquietments, either for the obtaining and continuance of that which is good, or for the preventing or removing of that which is evil. 2. More particularly. (1) The ingredients of trust in God are — A clear knowledge or right apprehension of God, as revealed in His Word and works (Psalm 9:10; Psalm 91:14). A full assent of the understanding, and consent of the will, to those Divine revelations, as true and good, wherein the Lord proposeth Himself as an adequate object for our trust. A firm and fixed reliance of the whole soul on God. (2) Its concomitants — An holy quietness, security and peaceableness of spirit, springing from a full persuasion of our safety. A steadfast, well-grounded hope, which includes — (i.) A holy and confident expectation and looking out after God's gracious presence; (ii.) An humble and constant waiting on God's leisure. An humble, holy and undaunted confidence. (3) Its effects. Fervent, effectual, constant prayer. Sincere, universal, spiritual, cheerful, constant obedience. Soul-ravishing, heart-enlivening joy (Psalm 13:5; Isaiah 12:2; 1 Peter 1:8). III. WHAT IS, OR OUGHT TO BE, THE GRAND AND SOLE OBJECT OF A BELIEVER'S TRUST. The Lord Jehovah is, or at least should be — 1. The grand object of a believer's trust. "Put your trust in the Lord" (Psalm 4:5). In whom should a dying creature trust, but in a "living God"? (1 Timothy 4:10). In stormy and tempestuous times, though we may not run to the bramble, yet we must to this Rock, for refuge (Isaiah 26:4). When the sun burns hot, and scorches, a Jonah's gourd will prove insignificant: no shadow like that of a God's wings (Psalm 36:7). 2. The sole object of a believer's trust. — Holy trust is an act of worship proper and peculiar to a holy God. No creature must share in it: whatever we trust in, unless it be in subordination unto God, we make it our God, or at least our idol. True trust in God takes us off the hinges of all other confidences: as we cannot serve, so we cannot trust, God and Mammon. There must be but one string to the bow of our trust; and that is the Lord. IV. WHAT ARE THOSE SURE AND STABLE GROUNDS ON WHICH SAINTS MAY FIRMLY AND SECURELY BUILD THEIR TRUST ON GOD — 1. God's almighty arm and power. The Lord hath an arm, an outstretched arm (1 Kings 8:42); a hand, an omnipotent hand; a hand that spans the heavens (Isaiah 40:12), that strecheth them out as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. On this Almighty arm may believers trust (Isaiah 51:5). 2. God's infinite and free goodness, mercy and bounty. His bowels are as tender as His arm is strong. 3. God's many, choice, exceeding great and precious promises. — These are the flagons that faith keeps by her, the apples [which] she hath hoarded up in store, to revive and quicken in a day of swooning. Who will not trust the word, the promise, the protest of the King of kings? (Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 4:5, 61). 4. God's inviolable, steadfast, never-failing faithfulness (1 Corinthians 10:13). God's goodness inclines Him to make good promises, and His faithfulness engages Him to make those promises good. 5. God's most holy, wise, powerful, gracious providence (Acts 17:25, 28; Proverbs 15:3). Faith reflects on former experiences, its own and others; and by the holy skill it hath in the physiognomy of providence, clearly reads and collects what God will do, in what God hath done. It casts its eye on — (1) The experiences of others. — And judges herself to have an interest in those very providences of grace which they enjoyed. (2) Its own experiences (1 Samuel 17:37; 2 Corinthians 1:10). 6. Those dear relations in which the Lord is pleased to stand and own towards His people cry aloud for their trust in Him. Hath He built the house, and will He not keep it up? He that made us will assuredly take care of us. We may safely give up ourselves, our trust our all, to Him, who hath given us ourselves and our all. This relation the apostle makes the ground of trust (1 Peter 4:19). V. WHAT ARE THOSE SPECIAL AND SIGNAL SEASONS WHICH CALL ALOUD FOR THE EXERTING OF THIS DIVINE TRUST? The wise man tells us there is an appointed time for every purpose under heaven: a time to kill and to heal, to plant and to pluck up, to weep and to laugh, to get and to lose, to be born and to die (Ecclesiastes 3:1, etc.). In all these, trust in God is not, like snow in harvest, uncomely, but seasonable, yea, necessary. VI. HOW FAITH OR TRUST EXERTS, PUTS FORTH, DEMEANS, AND BESTIRS ITSELF IN THESE SIGNAL SEASONS. 1. In times of fulness and prosperity. When it goes well with us and ours; when the candle of the Lord shines on us and our tabernacle; whern our lines fall in pleasant places, and our God makes us to lie down in green and fat pastures: now, now is a fair opportunity for faith or trust to exert itself, yea, and to appear gloriously. And, indeed, it requires no less than the utmost of faith's skill to steer the soul handsomely in this serene and smooth-faced calm. And so — (1) Faith or trust looks upward, and there fixeth its eye on God. And so holy faith delivers herself, in such expressions as these; namely — (i.) How full soever my large cistern be, it is the Lord, and the Lord alone, that is the grand Fountain, or rather Ocean, of all my enjoyments.(ii.) Since all that I have is received of God, I may not, I must not boast, crack, glory, as if I received it not (Genesis 4:7).(iii.) Inasmuch as all that I have is from God's blessing and bounty, this whole all shall be for His praise and glory, (iv.) Because all my enjoyments proceed from God's free-gift, or rather his loan, therefore they must and shall be readily surrendered to God's call.(v.) Now I enjoy most from God, now, even now, it is necessary that I should trust mostly, yea, wholly and only, in God.(vi.) These outward enjoyments are indeed sweet; but my God, the author of them, is infinitely more sweet. On the things of God. Faith discovers a world beyond the moon, and trades thither; leaving the men of the earth to load themselves with clay and coals, faith pursues its staple commodity, and traffics for grace and glory. (2) Faith or trust looks downward, on its fullest and sweetest temporal enjoyments. — And so it accurately weighs these enjoyments in the balance of the sanctuary, and so makes a just estimate of them as to their worth and value. 2. In times of sadness, afflictions, wants, sufferings, miseries. — When the hand of the Lord is gone out against us, and He greatly multiplies our sorrows; now, now is a time for a saint's trust to bestir itself to purpose. (T. Lyre.) Parallel Verses KJV: Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. |
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