“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humanity.” (Psalm 118:8)
Over the course of our lives, we’ll encounter a great many people. From the day we’re born to the day we die, we would have met an innumerable amount. Relatives, friends, coworkers, and so many strangers. With every relationship comes the potential of love, belongingness, support, and an opportunity to trust.
What is trust? Two ways to understand the word are a “confident expectation” in someone or something, and a strong belief in someone’s integrity. We trust our parents to feed and take care of us. We trust our spouses to be faithful. And we trust our subordinates to listen and receive our direction.
Though we put trust in many people, our confident expectation is not always met. Parents abuse, spouses cheat, and subordinates slack. With every relationship we form, there’s also the potential for hate, disconnect, contempt. In these moments, to our dismay, we lose trust. The same is not true in our relationship with God. Though we don’t always trust God, He always gives us a reason to trust.
When was the last time someone let you down? When was the last time God let you down? The difference between the two is what the psalmist highlights in Psalm 118:8. The more we understand the difference between trusting God and people, the better off we’ll be in many ways. So I ask, where do you put your trust?
What Is the Meaning of Put Your Trust in God Not Man in Psalm 118?
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humanity.” (Psalm 118:8)
In this late chapter from the Book of Psalms, the psalmist composes a joyful song on behalf of Israel. “Give thanks to the Lord,” he begins (Psalm 118:1). This cheerful tone continues from the first stanza to the second, as he cites reasons for giving thanks. Those reasons include God’s goodness, love, deliverance, and help. God is such an asset to the nation that the psalmist comes to a bold conclusion.
“The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)
God’s blessings have proved for the psalmist that God is trustworthy. Now he believes with absolute reassurance. What’s also interesting is that the very first reason for trust is God’s goodness. God has done so much for him and Israel, that comes to a conclusion about God’s character, one that is echoed throughout Scripture.
While admiring God through the first two stanzas, the psalmist takes a bit of time to draw distinctions between God and people. First, he expresses a lack of fear due to God’s protection, then he expresses confidence when faced with adversity (Psalm 118:7).
When we get to the eighth line, he draws a distinction between trusting God and trusting people. The Lord is a “refuge” one more dependable than humanity. Notice that the psalmist doesn’t say to never trust humanity, but rather, trusting God is better. Why? Well, as the psalm continues, we are given details about people aligning themselves against the writer.
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“All the nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I destroyed them.” (Psalm 118:10)
People have allied themselves against the psalmist and Israel. They made themselves enemies. Thus, the reason why the psalmist says to trust God more often than people is that sometimes people make themselves our enemies. God does not. If we are in enmity with God, that is our own choice. The same is true with other people. We can’t control whether or not someone chooses to be against us, but we can choose whether we are against them.
Psalm 118 continues in its praise, confidence, and trust in God for four more stanzas and twenty-nine lines in total. Just as the songwriter’s trust remains certain, he ends the song with an important proclamation. God is good and His love endures forever (Psalm 118:29).
What Does it Mean to Put Your Trust in God Each Day?
There’s much we learn from Psalm 118. We gain insight into God’s character as experienced by a Jew at the time and can make correlations to our lives now. God provides for us in the same same fashion He did then: deliverance, love, goodness, and help.
Aside from God’s character, the psalmist also showcases what we should be doing as believers - putting our trust in God. Not once, or twice, but daily. Of course, this is easier in theory than in action, but the process of trusting God is not as complicated as we may think.
If we take a look at the psalm, he is able to put such resolute trust in God because he recognizes a fact - God is trustworthy. Why? God is good. How does the songwriter know? He spends time reflecting on God’s blessings, not just for him, but the nation of Israel. He reflected so much he wrote a song!
That’s how we too develop a resolute and unwavering degree of trust in God. We build our awareness of who He is by acknowledging His acts. This means giving thanks for all He has done, for us and for others.
We can’t trust God if we don’t know why He’s trustworthy. If God performed no miracles, had no love for us, who would offer up trust? There would be no reason. Thus, if we live our lives ignoring the blessings God has given us, we too won’t see reason for trust.
Unmentioned in this psalm, there will be times when God doesn’t answer specific prayers. For some people, this causes them to lose trust, others give up their faith entirely. We fall into this trap when we lack the gratitude that the psalmist has toward God.
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Every day won’t be perfect. Sometimes we will lose loved ones, jobs, and give up on dreams, but every day has at least one reason to trust God. And if we’re being totally honest, there are a great many daily reasons to trust God.
Trusting God is Better than Trusting Man
Trusting people is not a bad idea, in fact, trusting people, certain people is wise and essential. The Bible makes clear from the Book of Genesis that God does not desire for any of us to be alone. God made Eve for Adam, and for each of us God desires companionship in some form.
When we put trust in people, we can reap the fruits of a healthy relationship. A trusting couple experiences peace and calm in their relationship as a result. When questionable things occur, communication is had and all issues get resolved. Friends who trust will talk, share secrets, and bear one another’s burdens. Children who trust adults are more likely to share and seek support.
However, people, unlike God, can damage trust, whether accidentally or intentionally. If we are accustomed to running to people every time we need help, and not God, we will find ourselves disappointed. Sometimes people don’t want to hear our problems, sometimes they are unavailable. There are times we put our trust in people only to receive bad advice, be lied to, or for someone to divulge our secrets. Not everyone engages in this, but trusting people can potentially have this result. That’s the risk we take when building a relationship.
That is not the case with God. He is a trustworthy refuge, a permanent one, a person to run to and a place to reside. Humans cannot offer that for us and that is why we need to keep our focus on God. He is for us what people never can be, and for that, He will always remain trustworthy.
Aaron D'Anthony Brown is a freelance writer, hip-hop dance teacher, and visual artist, living in Virginia. He currently contributes work to iBelieve, Crosswalk, and supports various clients through the platform Upwork. He's an outside-the-box thinker with a penchant for challenging the status quo. Check out his short story “Serenity.”
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