Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Blessed is the one whose trust and hope rest in the LORD. That blessedness is life like a tree planted by the waters spreading roots by the river, which does not fear when heat comes but keeps a green leaf, is not anxious in the year of drought, and never stops yielding fruit. It stands opposite the cursed condition of the one who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with a heart departing from the LORD, who is like a dry bush in the desert missing good when it comes and living in parched wilderness. Sinful people find hope and righteousness only in God, and no one stays righteous any longer than he has faith in God and keeps a vital connection with Him, as a plant must stay rooted to receive what gives it life. To trust in the LORD is to shut oneself up with God in trouble instead of looking to people for help and counsel, because God never fails a trusting soul, while forsaking the living waters for broken cisterns brings barrenness of soul.
Blessing and Tree Imagery
Blessed is the one whose trust rests in the LORD and whose hope the LORD Himself is. That blessedness belongs to trust and hope placed in the LORD rather than in human strength, and it calls those who have relied on human leaders to turn wholeheartedly to God. Sinful people find hope and righteousness only in God, with faith in Him and living connection with Him sustaining the soul as water and nourishment sustain a rooted plant.
That blessed condition is pictured as a tree planted by the waters spreading its roots by the river. When heat comes it does not fear, but keeps a green leaf, and in the year of drought it is not anxious and never stops yielding fruit. As a flower of the field must stay rooted in soil and receive air, dew, showers and sunshine in order to flourish, so people receive from God what ministers to the life of the soul. For physicians facing temptation and danger, such reliance on God enables steadfast loyalty, remaining spiritually alive and fruitful even through hardship and scarcity. Its unfailing spiritual life and fruitfulness show steadiness through hardship and scarcity, withstanding heat and drought and continuing to bear fruit.
The blessed trusting person stands as another class in contrast to the cursed person who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with a heart departing from the LORD. The cursed one is like a dry bush or heath in the desert, missing good when it comes and living in parched wilderness and salt land not inhabited. By contrast the trusting one does not see when heat comes in the sense of fear, but keeps a green leaf, is not careful or anxious in drought, and does not cease from yielding fruit. To trust in the LORD in this contrast is to hold to Him as hope and fountain of living waters for healing and salvation, drinking pure cold waters, and not to learn the way of the heathen nor drink at polluted fountains and draw others away.
Righteousness Found Only in God
Sinful people find both hope and righteousness only in God, and blessing rests on the one whose trust and hope are in the LORD. No one remains righteous any longer than he has faith in God and keeps a vital, living connection with Him, receiving from God what ministers to the life of the soul just as a flower of the field must stay rooted in the soil and receive air, dew, showers, and sunshine in order to flourish. That trust in God stands in contrast to trusting in human beings and relying on human strength and making flesh an arm, which brings a curse. It therefore forbids trusting in man, making an iron rule for others, harnessing and driving them according to the human mind, binding minds or talents under human judgment and control, and even purchasing God-given talent to be absolutely under control, for God will not vindicate any such device for ruling or oppressing fellow men, since it dishonors Him, separates the human agent from God, exposes to temptation, destroys faith and principles that purge guile and selfishness and hypocrisy, and makes men slaves of men after Satan's methods, bringing confusion, distrust, jealousies, and evil surmisings. The blessedness of this vital union with God appears as being like a tree planted by the waters spreading roots by the river, unharmed when heat comes but keeping a green leaf, not anxious in the year of drought and never ceasing from yielding fruit, which is the evidence that the soul is connected with God. The LORD who searches the deceitful and desperately wicked heart knows this trust and gives to every person according to ways and according to the fruit of doings. The blessing belongs to the needy who hunger for salvation and turn to God, so they are not spiritually blind to the good He gives, unlike the heath in the desert who does not recognize when good comes. The whole seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah that records this precious promise is worthy of special study, for it is assurance from the highest Authority that safety lies in serving Him with humility of heart and seeking Him in united prayer with earnest desire to know and do His will, and those who do so will be given wisdom to know where to place themselves to accomplish the greatest good and how to work out all their plans.
Trust Opposed to Trusting People
Blessed trust means shutting oneself up with God when in trouble instead of looking to people for help, opinions, sympathy, succor and counsel, because God never fails a trusting soul. Forsaking the living waters for broken cisterns that hold no water brings barrenness of soul, while trusting the Lord brings refreshing and steady fruitfulness that endures heat and drought. To trust in the Lord is to hold to Him as the Hope of Israel and the fountain of living waters for healing and salvation, drinking the cold snow-waters of Lebanon. It is not to learn the way of the heathen nor to drink at the polluted fountains of infidelity and draw others away.
Depending on men for strength and influence is leaning on a broken reed, coveting human influence instead of honoring God by appreciating His sufficiency. It is looking to visible human power that can be seen instead of divine invisible power that leads and gives victory, setting God aside as insufficient and resorting to worldly men for recognition and influence to do some great thing. Leaning on the arm of the world instead of the arm of God turns aside the work God desires to accomplish through His chosen people. No confidence can be put in any person, however learned or elevated, unless he holds the beginning of his confidence in God firm to the end. Even Solomon, thrice called beloved of God and entrusted with building the temple, was overcome when he allied with idolatrous nations and bound himself by marriage to heathen women until he forsook the temple to worship in groves prepared for idols, and Israel became weak when the people wanted to be like other nations and asked for a king, desiring human guidance rather than God, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and dispersion of the nation.
Forsaking the Mighty One, the source of all strength, to affiliate with worldlings and depend on them makes a person weak in moral power like those trusted. Forbidden alliances leaven God's peculiar people with evil practices, cause loss of identity, loss of first love and zeal for God's service, bring only disappointment for advantages sought, and cause loss of many souls. What happened to Israel through such alliances will happen to all who go to the world for strength. The blessing forbids trusting in man, making flesh an arm, departing from the Lord, having implicit confidence in ideas and opinions of human authors, drinking of turbid streams of the valley, and walking in sparks of one's own kindling.
Counsel to Leaders and Workers
For leaders the blessing belongs to humbling the soul before God, confessing sins, giving up the will to God's will, and becoming truly converted, so that selfishness is emptied from the heart, self-confidence dies, the disposition to dominate and control disappears, and the life reveals the transformation within. It stands as a direct rebuke to leaders who are not walking in the light, whose wrong course of action and selfish principles keep God from prospering His work, calling them to hear and heed corrective messages, with the warning that pride, indifference, and determined resistance to appeal leave them to their own perverted imaginations.
Making an iron rule for others, harnessing and driving them according to a human mind, binding minds or talents under human judgment and control, even purchasing God-given talent to be absolutely under control, is forbidden. Exercising controlling authority by permissions and forbiddings, and accepting responsibilities that belong to God alone as head of the church, is forbidden, for it gives false education that leads believers away from trust in God into dependence on human power, contrary to the gospel plan. God will not vindicate any such device for ruling or oppressing fellow men, for it dishonors Him, separates the agent from God, exposes to temptation, destroys faith in God and in principles that purge guile and selfishness and hypocrisy, makes men slaves of men after Satan's methods, and brings confusion, distrust, jealousies, and evil surmisings.
Every minister must bind himself to Christ as the Source of all light and power and become attached to Him, and must not follow in the shadow of any living person, bind the heart to any human being, or let another do his thinking for him. Merely accepting what a father or some great and good person of past generations said and did, sinking individuality in them, preaching other men's ideas, and accepting teaching without diligent and prayerful thinking for oneself, is forbidden. Entire dependence where conscience is not one's own and judgment is controlled by others is the doctrine of the church of Rome and stands opposite the blessing.
Those who bear God's message exalt the message, not self, walking humbly with God day by day and working under the guidance of the Great Shepherd as faithful caretakers worthy of responsibility, and God will exalt them in due time. No human being, whatever his position, is to take God's place by teaching others to look to him for wisdom, and to trust the Lord is to look to Him for guidance and to follow His counsel when it is received. The blessing is held up as a rebuke to teachers who have departed from safe paths and are accountable to God for their treatment and oversight of students despite receiving clear spiritual light and guidance.
For physicians facing temptation and danger, reliance on God enables steadfast loyalty and faithful standing, keeping spiritual life and fruitfulness like a well-watered tree even through hardship and scarcity. That trust means relying on God rather than on people who dishonor God and disregard His law, or on worldly counsel, policy, help, influence, support, and example, and expecting less from them guards against disappointment and keeps trust centered on God. All physicians must make Christ, the great Medical Missionary, their Strength and lean weight upon Him, obtaining an experience of trust in God for themselves rather than binding up with a human leader and leaning upon him, and embracing responsibilities God has not laid upon a man encourages others to depend on that man in place of leaning upon the Lord.
God's workers must make God their trust and hope by believing He will do as He has said, that He is mindful of their labors and values their work, and that divine agencies are appointed to cooperate with those who labor together with Him. To think He will not do as He has said or has no time to notice His workers dishonors Him. Trusting the Lord still includes counseling with brethren and giving plans the careful consideration of other minds, without making that counsel dependence. Depending on finite, erring fellow men is making flesh an arm, ceasing to look to Jesus, and being led astray by Satan's trap to catch men and win them to his side.
Trust in God is especially important for people in positions of influence and responsibility, because prosperity and exalted status can distort judgment and lead to falling if they rely on human strength instead of God. Blessing belongs to trusting the Lord God of Israel as Ruler with humility and less confidence in self, refusing to lean on men or on human judgment, with divine power combined with human effort so the work will abide the test. Those who fulfill it are made manifest by meekness of spirit, by less talking and much more praying, by caution in plans and movements, revealing dependence on God and the mind of Christ, and without this trust the follies of Israel in the days of Samuel in trusting man will be repeated among God's people today.
Daily Life of Trust
Trust shows itself in thankfulness for the Bible as God's revelation to humanity and in close, attentive study of it as the Book of books. That same trust turns away from authors who teach unbelief, deny God's existence, and pour contempt on His word, keeping their works off library shelves where children can reach them, refusing to treat knowledge of their writings as essential to good education, and giving no place to Satan's agents. The promise is assurance from the highest Authority that safety lies in serving God with humility of heart and seeking Him in united prayer with earnest desire to know and do His will, and those who do so will be given wisdom to know where to place themselves to accomplish the greatest good and how to work out all their plans. They remain like a tree planted by the waters that does not fail in heat or drought but keeps yielding fruit, and the whole seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah that records this precious promise is worthy of special study.
It means childlike love, faith, and perfect trust that seeks nearness to the Father above every other person and rests in safety in His wisdom and strength. Such trust answers God's bids to look to Him and be saved, to come to Him and receive rest, and to ask Him for wisdom which He gives liberally to all without reproach. The one whose hope is in the LORD leans upon God alone, standing toward heaven and entwining about God, and when shaken loose from human support can still stand upright in God's strength and flourish without it, never leaning in vain and never shaken from God, for God is a present help in trouble. Trust means not leaning on other people, even sympathizing brethren and sisters, for God at times separates His servants almost entirely from His people and shakes them from every earthly help so they will stop leaning on man and learn to look to God alone. This manifest trust amid affliction gives cheerfulness, courage, hope, and faith and provides a Source of strength and happiness unknown to lovers of pleasure, becoming a testimony that gives influence with unbelievers and raises up defenders when assailed, while when courage and hope waver that testimony ceases and no further benefit can be given or received in that place.
The promise means not trusting human agencies or making flesh an arm, but committing the keeping of soul and body to a covenant-keeping God, making Him the great Physician, praying to Him, exercising personal faith without doubt, and refusing discouragement. With consecration of the whole self to God, this trust brings the strength and steadiness pictured in the following verse, so the person remains fruitful through heat and drought, and the promise is to expect this fruitfulness when cooperating with God. Trusting God rather than people or one's own judgment is shown by humility, meekness, caution, less talking and more prayer, revealing dependence on God and the mind of Christ. It calls people to rely on the LORD for help and strength, not on human beings or human ability, depending on God continually. It teaches seeking wisdom from God in humility rather than looking to human leaders to decide duty or serve as conscience, and when all do this many dangers are avoided.
It means drawing near to God and finding strength in Him rather than depending on a human leader to do the work only the LORD God of Israel can do. When God alone is trusted He educates His people and leads them in safe paths, makes them light-bearers who do not walk in darkness but shine in good works, and works as their power and efficiency. Working in harmony with Him in faith and humility, the Spirit works a repentance not to be repented of, while if the LORD is not made the trust even blessings already received become condemnation. Blessing, fruitfulness, and steadfastness belong to wholehearted trust, in contrast to the cursed person who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with heart departing from the LORD, becoming like a dry bush in the desert who misses good when it comes and lives in parched salt land, whereas the trusting person is like a tree planted by the waters spreading roots by the river who does not fear when heat comes but keeps a green leaf. That trust calls for showing faith by works, speaking truth persuasively, laboring for souls who do not know truth, serving as faithful humble messengers, arousing the churches, being diligent and guarded, and humbling the heart before God in prayer and belief for clear spiritual eyesight and intense interest in the world's condition before it is too late.
Dependence is to be placed in God far more than in men and far less in men, for men if given opportunity and left to themselves would lead the flock into strange pastures. Because satanic agencies are linking arms with men who should stand free from seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, trust in the LORD must be declared at different assemblies, watching for crisis and meeting it when it comes, not always in person but with the written message, with no time to be lost. Those who trust His instruction for guidance can rely on His cooperation, while reliance on human wisdom instead of following the LORD leads to failure. The trusting person does not drink of the turbid streams of the valley or walk in sparks of his own kindling, but drinks the water of life, learns meekness and lowliness of heart in Christ's school, has self hid in Christ, and receives vivid impressions from the Word of life. The blessing is applied by urging respect for those in positions of trust without relying on human beings as strength, and instead depending on Christ for strength and ability.
Blessed is the one whose trust and hope rest in the LORD. That blessedness is life like a tree planted by the waters spreading roots by the river, which does not fear when heat comes but keeps a green leaf, is not anxious in the year of drought, and never stops yielding fruit. It stands opposite the cursed condition of the one who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with a heart departing from the LORD, who is like a dry bush in the desert missing good when it comes and living in parched wilderness. Sinful people find hope and righteousness only in God, and no one stays righteous any longer than he has faith in God and keeps a vital connection with Him, as a plant must stay rooted to receive what gives it life. To trust in the LORD is to shut oneself up with God in trouble instead of looking to people for help and counsel, because God never fails a trusting soul, while forsaking the living waters for broken cisterns brings barrenness of soul.
Blessing and Tree Imagery
Blessed is the one whose trust rests in the LORD and whose hope the LORD Himself is. That blessedness belongs to trust and hope placed in the LORD rather than in human strength, and it calls those who have relied on human leaders to turn wholeheartedly to God. Sinful people find hope and righteousness only in God, with faith in Him and living connection with Him sustaining the soul as water and nourishment sustain a rooted plant.
That blessed condition is pictured as a tree planted by the waters spreading its roots by the river. When heat comes it does not fear, but keeps a green leaf, and in the year of drought it is not anxious and never stops yielding fruit. As a flower of the field must stay rooted in soil and receive air, dew, showers and sunshine in order to flourish, so people receive from God what ministers to the life of the soul. For physicians facing temptation and danger, such reliance on God enables steadfast loyalty, remaining spiritually alive and fruitful even through hardship and scarcity. Its unfailing spiritual life and fruitfulness show steadiness through hardship and scarcity, withstanding heat and drought and continuing to bear fruit.
The blessed trusting person stands as another class in contrast to the cursed person who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with a heart departing from the LORD. The cursed one is like a dry bush or heath in the desert, missing good when it comes and living in parched wilderness and salt land not inhabited. By contrast the trusting one does not see when heat comes in the sense of fear, but keeps a green leaf, is not careful or anxious in drought, and does not cease from yielding fruit. To trust in the LORD in this contrast is to hold to Him as hope and fountain of living waters for healing and salvation, drinking pure cold waters, and not to learn the way of the heathen nor drink at polluted fountains and draw others away.
Righteousness Found Only in God
Sinful people find both hope and righteousness only in God, and blessing rests on the one whose trust and hope are in the LORD. No one remains righteous any longer than he has faith in God and keeps a vital, living connection with Him, receiving from God what ministers to the life of the soul just as a flower of the field must stay rooted in the soil and receive air, dew, showers, and sunshine in order to flourish. That trust in God stands in contrast to trusting in human beings and relying on human strength and making flesh an arm, which brings a curse. It therefore forbids trusting in man, making an iron rule for others, harnessing and driving them according to the human mind, binding minds or talents under human judgment and control, and even purchasing God-given talent to be absolutely under control, for God will not vindicate any such device for ruling or oppressing fellow men, since it dishonors Him, separates the human agent from God, exposes to temptation, destroys faith and principles that purge guile and selfishness and hypocrisy, and makes men slaves of men after Satan's methods, bringing confusion, distrust, jealousies, and evil surmisings. The blessedness of this vital union with God appears as being like a tree planted by the waters spreading roots by the river, unharmed when heat comes but keeping a green leaf, not anxious in the year of drought and never ceasing from yielding fruit, which is the evidence that the soul is connected with God. The LORD who searches the deceitful and desperately wicked heart knows this trust and gives to every person according to ways and according to the fruit of doings. The blessing belongs to the needy who hunger for salvation and turn to God, so they are not spiritually blind to the good He gives, unlike the heath in the desert who does not recognize when good comes. The whole seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah that records this precious promise is worthy of special study, for it is assurance from the highest Authority that safety lies in serving Him with humility of heart and seeking Him in united prayer with earnest desire to know and do His will, and those who do so will be given wisdom to know where to place themselves to accomplish the greatest good and how to work out all their plans.
Trust Opposed to Trusting People
Blessed trust means shutting oneself up with God when in trouble instead of looking to people for help, opinions, sympathy, succor and counsel, because God never fails a trusting soul. Forsaking the living waters for broken cisterns that hold no water brings barrenness of soul, while trusting the Lord brings refreshing and steady fruitfulness that endures heat and drought. To trust in the Lord is to hold to Him as the Hope of Israel and the fountain of living waters for healing and salvation, drinking the cold snow-waters of Lebanon. It is not to learn the way of the heathen nor to drink at the polluted fountains of infidelity and draw others away.
Depending on men for strength and influence is leaning on a broken reed, coveting human influence instead of honoring God by appreciating His sufficiency. It is looking to visible human power that can be seen instead of divine invisible power that leads and gives victory, setting God aside as insufficient and resorting to worldly men for recognition and influence to do some great thing. Leaning on the arm of the world instead of the arm of God turns aside the work God desires to accomplish through His chosen people. No confidence can be put in any person, however learned or elevated, unless he holds the beginning of his confidence in God firm to the end. Even Solomon, thrice called beloved of God and entrusted with building the temple, was overcome when he allied with idolatrous nations and bound himself by marriage to heathen women until he forsook the temple to worship in groves prepared for idols, and Israel became weak when the people wanted to be like other nations and asked for a king, desiring human guidance rather than God, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and dispersion of the nation.
Forsaking the Mighty One, the source of all strength, to affiliate with worldlings and depend on them makes a person weak in moral power like those trusted. Forbidden alliances leaven God's peculiar people with evil practices, cause loss of identity, loss of first love and zeal for God's service, bring only disappointment for advantages sought, and cause loss of many souls. What happened to Israel through such alliances will happen to all who go to the world for strength. The blessing forbids trusting in man, making flesh an arm, departing from the Lord, having implicit confidence in ideas and opinions of human authors, drinking of turbid streams of the valley, and walking in sparks of one's own kindling.
Counsel to Leaders and Workers
For leaders the blessing belongs to humbling the soul before God, confessing sins, giving up the will to God's will, and becoming truly converted, so that selfishness is emptied from the heart, self-confidence dies, the disposition to dominate and control disappears, and the life reveals the transformation within. It stands as a direct rebuke to leaders who are not walking in the light, whose wrong course of action and selfish principles keep God from prospering His work, calling them to hear and heed corrective messages, with the warning that pride, indifference, and determined resistance to appeal leave them to their own perverted imaginations.
Making an iron rule for others, harnessing and driving them according to a human mind, binding minds or talents under human judgment and control, even purchasing God-given talent to be absolutely under control, is forbidden. Exercising controlling authority by permissions and forbiddings, and accepting responsibilities that belong to God alone as head of the church, is forbidden, for it gives false education that leads believers away from trust in God into dependence on human power, contrary to the gospel plan. God will not vindicate any such device for ruling or oppressing fellow men, for it dishonors Him, separates the agent from God, exposes to temptation, destroys faith in God and in principles that purge guile and selfishness and hypocrisy, makes men slaves of men after Satan's methods, and brings confusion, distrust, jealousies, and evil surmisings.
Every minister must bind himself to Christ as the Source of all light and power and become attached to Him, and must not follow in the shadow of any living person, bind the heart to any human being, or let another do his thinking for him. Merely accepting what a father or some great and good person of past generations said and did, sinking individuality in them, preaching other men's ideas, and accepting teaching without diligent and prayerful thinking for oneself, is forbidden. Entire dependence where conscience is not one's own and judgment is controlled by others is the doctrine of the church of Rome and stands opposite the blessing.
Those who bear God's message exalt the message, not self, walking humbly with God day by day and working under the guidance of the Great Shepherd as faithful caretakers worthy of responsibility, and God will exalt them in due time. No human being, whatever his position, is to take God's place by teaching others to look to him for wisdom, and to trust the Lord is to look to Him for guidance and to follow His counsel when it is received. The blessing is held up as a rebuke to teachers who have departed from safe paths and are accountable to God for their treatment and oversight of students despite receiving clear spiritual light and guidance.
For physicians facing temptation and danger, reliance on God enables steadfast loyalty and faithful standing, keeping spiritual life and fruitfulness like a well-watered tree even through hardship and scarcity. That trust means relying on God rather than on people who dishonor God and disregard His law, or on worldly counsel, policy, help, influence, support, and example, and expecting less from them guards against disappointment and keeps trust centered on God. All physicians must make Christ, the great Medical Missionary, their Strength and lean weight upon Him, obtaining an experience of trust in God for themselves rather than binding up with a human leader and leaning upon him, and embracing responsibilities God has not laid upon a man encourages others to depend on that man in place of leaning upon the Lord.
God's workers must make God their trust and hope by believing He will do as He has said, that He is mindful of their labors and values their work, and that divine agencies are appointed to cooperate with those who labor together with Him. To think He will not do as He has said or has no time to notice His workers dishonors Him. Trusting the Lord still includes counseling with brethren and giving plans the careful consideration of other minds, without making that counsel dependence. Depending on finite, erring fellow men is making flesh an arm, ceasing to look to Jesus, and being led astray by Satan's trap to catch men and win them to his side.
Trust in God is especially important for people in positions of influence and responsibility, because prosperity and exalted status can distort judgment and lead to falling if they rely on human strength instead of God. Blessing belongs to trusting the Lord God of Israel as Ruler with humility and less confidence in self, refusing to lean on men or on human judgment, with divine power combined with human effort so the work will abide the test. Those who fulfill it are made manifest by meekness of spirit, by less talking and much more praying, by caution in plans and movements, revealing dependence on God and the mind of Christ, and without this trust the follies of Israel in the days of Samuel in trusting man will be repeated among God's people today.
Daily Life of Trust
Trust shows itself in thankfulness for the Bible as God's revelation to humanity and in close, attentive study of it as the Book of books. That same trust turns away from authors who teach unbelief, deny God's existence, and pour contempt on His word, keeping their works off library shelves where children can reach them, refusing to treat knowledge of their writings as essential to good education, and giving no place to Satan's agents. The promise is assurance from the highest Authority that safety lies in serving God with humility of heart and seeking Him in united prayer with earnest desire to know and do His will, and those who do so will be given wisdom to know where to place themselves to accomplish the greatest good and how to work out all their plans. They remain like a tree planted by the waters that does not fail in heat or drought but keeps yielding fruit, and the whole seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah that records this precious promise is worthy of special study.
It means childlike love, faith, and perfect trust that seeks nearness to the Father above every other person and rests in safety in His wisdom and strength. Such trust answers God's bids to look to Him and be saved, to come to Him and receive rest, and to ask Him for wisdom which He gives liberally to all without reproach. The one whose hope is in the LORD leans upon God alone, standing toward heaven and entwining about God, and when shaken loose from human support can still stand upright in God's strength and flourish without it, never leaning in vain and never shaken from God, for God is a present help in trouble. Trust means not leaning on other people, even sympathizing brethren and sisters, for God at times separates His servants almost entirely from His people and shakes them from every earthly help so they will stop leaning on man and learn to look to God alone. This manifest trust amid affliction gives cheerfulness, courage, hope, and faith and provides a Source of strength and happiness unknown to lovers of pleasure, becoming a testimony that gives influence with unbelievers and raises up defenders when assailed, while when courage and hope waver that testimony ceases and no further benefit can be given or received in that place.
The promise means not trusting human agencies or making flesh an arm, but committing the keeping of soul and body to a covenant-keeping God, making Him the great Physician, praying to Him, exercising personal faith without doubt, and refusing discouragement. With consecration of the whole self to God, this trust brings the strength and steadiness pictured in the following verse, so the person remains fruitful through heat and drought, and the promise is to expect this fruitfulness when cooperating with God. Trusting God rather than people or one's own judgment is shown by humility, meekness, caution, less talking and more prayer, revealing dependence on God and the mind of Christ. It calls people to rely on the LORD for help and strength, not on human beings or human ability, depending on God continually. It teaches seeking wisdom from God in humility rather than looking to human leaders to decide duty or serve as conscience, and when all do this many dangers are avoided.
It means drawing near to God and finding strength in Him rather than depending on a human leader to do the work only the LORD God of Israel can do. When God alone is trusted He educates His people and leads them in safe paths, makes them light-bearers who do not walk in darkness but shine in good works, and works as their power and efficiency. Working in harmony with Him in faith and humility, the Spirit works a repentance not to be repented of, while if the LORD is not made the trust even blessings already received become condemnation. Blessing, fruitfulness, and steadfastness belong to wholehearted trust, in contrast to the cursed person who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with heart departing from the LORD, becoming like a dry bush in the desert who misses good when it comes and lives in parched salt land, whereas the trusting person is like a tree planted by the waters spreading roots by the river who does not fear when heat comes but keeps a green leaf. That trust calls for showing faith by works, speaking truth persuasively, laboring for souls who do not know truth, serving as faithful humble messengers, arousing the churches, being diligent and guarded, and humbling the heart before God in prayer and belief for clear spiritual eyesight and intense interest in the world's condition before it is too late.
Dependence is to be placed in God far more than in men and far less in men, for men if given opportunity and left to themselves would lead the flock into strange pastures. Because satanic agencies are linking arms with men who should stand free from seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, trust in the LORD must be declared at different assemblies, watching for crisis and meeting it when it comes, not always in person but with the written message, with no time to be lost. Those who trust His instruction for guidance can rely on His cooperation, while reliance on human wisdom instead of following the LORD leads to failure. The trusting person does not drink of the turbid streams of the valley or walk in sparks of his own kindling, but drinks the water of life, learns meekness and lowliness of heart in Christ's school, has self hid in Christ, and receives vivid impressions from the Word of life. The blessing is applied by urging respect for those in positions of trust without relying on human beings as strength, and instead depending on Christ for strength and ability.