Trust Fund

March 27th, 2007

Psalm 40
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, "Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased, O LORD, to save me; O LORD, come quickly to help me. May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, "The LORD be exalted!" Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.

That was from the NIV. This is from the New Century Version.

Psalm 40
I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of destruction, out of the sticky mud. He stood me on a rock and made my feet steady. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many people will see this and worship him. Then they will trust the Lord. Happy is the person who trusts the Lord, who doesn't turn to those who are proud or to those who worship false gods. Lord my God, you have done many miracles. Your plans for us are many. If I tried to tell them all, there would be too many to count.

You do not want sacrifices and offerings. But you have made a hole in my ear to show that my body and life are yours. You do not ask for burnt offerings and sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, "Look, I have come. It is written about me in the book. My God, I want to do what you want. Your teachings are in my heart." I will tell about your goodness in the great meeting of your people. Lord, you know my lips are not silent. I do not hide your goodness in my heart; I speak about your loyalty and salvation. I do not hide your love and truth from the people in the great meeting.

Lord, do not hold back your mercy from me; let your love and truth always protect me. Troubles have surrounded me; there are too many to count. My sins have caught me so that I cannot see a way to escape. I have more sins than hairs on my head, and I have lost my courage. Please, Lord, save me. Hurry, Lord, to help me. People are trying to kill me. Shame them and disgrace them. People want to hurt me. Let them run away in disgrace. People are making fun of me. Let them be shamed into silence. But let those who follow you be happy and glad. They love you for saving them. May they always say, "Praise the Lord!" Lord, because I am poor and helpless, please remember me. You are my helper and savior. My God, do not wait. For the director of music. A psalm of David.

And last, but not least, this is from The Message. I want to get a spectrum of versions on this. I will tell you why in just a minute.

Psalm 40
I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God. Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God, turn your backs on the world's "sure thing," ignore what the world worships; The world's a huge stockpile of God-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one comes close to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you.

Doing something for you, bringing something to you - that's not what you're after. Being religious, acting pious - that's not what you're asking for. You've opened my ears so I can listen. So I answered, "I'm coming. I read in your letter what you wrote about me, And I'm coming to the party you're throwing for me." That's when God's Word entered my life, became part of my very being. I've preached you to the whole congregation, I've kept back nothing, God - you know that. I didn't keep the news of your ways a secret, didn't keep it to myself. I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough. I didn't hold back pieces of love and truth For myself alone. I told it all, let the congregation know the whole story.

Now God, don't hold out on me, don't hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together. When troubles ganged up on me, a mob of sins past counting, I was so swamped by guilt I couldn't see my way clear. More guilt in my heart than hair on my head, so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out. Soften up, God, and intervene; hurry and get me some help, So those who are trying to kidnap my soul will be embarrassed and lose face, So anyone who gets a kick out of making me miserable will be heckled and disgraced, So those who pray for my ruin will be booed and jeered without mercy. But all who are hunting for you - oh, let them sing and be happy. Let those who know what you're all about tell the world you're great and not quitting. And me? I'm a mess. I'm nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you've got what it takes - but God, don't put it off.

I will be honest. I am not a fan of “The Message” translation. I don’t think that it is all that great of a translation in comparison to the others that are out there. That’s my personal opinion. But even with that said, I like some of the things that it says in the translation on Psalm 40. In fact, all three translations here create a really great picture of Psalm.

Again, I have to be honest. I didn’t dig up this Psalm by myself. My wife read it to me last night. You see, I have discovered that I have been struggling with trust. I prayed with her about it on Saturday and then heard a wonderful message from Marvin on Sunday about having a child-like heart. One of the things that really stabbed deep into my rock-like heart was when he brought up trust. I was thinking, “Was he outside my window when I was praying or something?” Another friend gave me a book titled “Called and Accountable” and I again wondered: WHAT’S GOING ON?! How do they know? I even asked my wife about it. She responded that they didn’t, but God did. She’s right. I did marry a smart woman. It was one of my requirements.

So, what is trust? What does it mean to trust someone or to trust God? It is one thing to say it; it is another to do it. God prefers action, over words (see James). This is going to be filled with a plethora of definitions on trust. I am going to look at the dictionary and the thesaurus. I may even check out the encyclopedia, if time is willing. I will check out the Hebrew dictionary on this, however, just to get a full understanding. This should be good and enlightening.

Time to dig…

Trust (noun):

• Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
• Confident expectation of something; hope.
• A person on whom or thing on which one relies.
• Reliance on something in the future; hope.
• Custody; care.
• Something committed into the care of another; charge.
• The trait of believing in the honesty and reliability of others.
• Complete confidence in a person or plan.

Trust (verb):

• To rely upon or place confidence in someone or something.
• To have confidence; hope.
• To have trust or confidence in; rely or depend on.
• To believe.
• To expect confidently; hope.
• To have or place reliance; depend.
• To be confident; hope.
• To place in the care of another; entrust.
• Allow without fear.
• Have confidence or faith in.
• Be confident about something.

Synonyms: assurance, certainty, certitude, confidence, conviction, credence, credit, dependence, entrustment, expectation, faith, hope, positiveness, reliance, stock, store, sureness.

OK, so I do trust, but I don’t trust enough. I know I trust myself. YEA!!! Oh, wait, that’s not a good thing. I mean, self-confidence breeds arrogance. Who likes arrogant people? Arrogant people are definitely not humble. And people who aren’t humble don’t go to heaven. That was a double negative, but it works.

This is from WikiPedia.org: In the social sciences, the subtleties of trust are a subject of passionate debate. In sociology (and psychology) the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the benevolence and competence of the other party. A failure in trust will be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of benevolence.

From this perspective, trust is an internal state, and cannot be measured. Only confidence, which is expressed as behavior, can be measured. Trust may be considered a moral choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_%28sociology%29

It does go on, but it seemed to talk about more about a trust in computers from there… I’m not really sure why. But at least that part was good.

(Added March 28th)
So here is what I think and know about trust.

• So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? (Luke 16:11)

God won’t give me heaven with him unless I handle my finances here. That’s what it says.

• “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” (John 14:1)

It is a command to trust in God and Christ.

• As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Isaiah 28:16; Romans 10:11)

This sounds like a promise to me. I should place my promise on Christ, who the scripture is referencing, and when I do so, I won’t be put to shame. I will not carry with me shame if I trust in Christ. And trust is depending on Christ, it is believing in Christ, it is relying on Christ.

(Added March 29th)

• May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

There is a certain peace and joy that comes with trust. With trust, there is an overflow of hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t indicate that it is a promise, due to the word “may”, but it is something that can happen. I’m sure that it is more of a normalcy and not more of an exception. But then, you never know.

• It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1st Corinthians 13:7)

It, of course, is referring to love. Love always trusts. I’ll leave it at that and expand on my next scripture.

• Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1st John 4:6) And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1st John 4:16)

God is love. Love always trusts. God always trusts. God loves me. God always trusts me. WOW! That is convicting. Again, that convicts into my deepest core of my being. I have this overwhelming heartbreak of what I have held back and yet God and Christ haven’t withheld anything.

This past week has been difficult and eye-opening. It has been a learning experience and I’m still learning. I can’t say that it has been easy in the slightest. I know this is a really long quiet time to read. If you read it all, I hope it encourages you. If anything, maybe a little more learned about me. Anyway, have a wonderful. Until next time, Johnny Out.