Trust in the Lord

Today, in our study of Proverbs, we come to what is to me a very memorable passage. Let's read it and look at it in depth.

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Discussion

• The Hebrew word translated trust is batach which means to trust or to have confidence in or to be secure in. We can trust in the Lord being confident that He will do what He says He will do. We can trust in the Lord knowing that we are secure as His children and that nothing can separate us from His love.
• The Hebrew word translated all is kol which all of, everything, the totality of. We are not to trust God just a little, but completely. After all, if we can be confident of and secure in Him, why shouldn't we trust Him completely?
• The Hebrew word translated heart is leb which means inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding. We are to trust God with all of our feelings (heart), our thoughts (mind), soul (inner man), decisions and desires (will) and our knowledge (understanding).
• The Hebrew word translated lean is sha`an which means to lean on for support or to trust.
• The Hebrew word translated understanding is biynah which means understanding, discernment, and intelligence. This Hebrew word has already popped up a number of times so far in Proverbs. We are not to lean on or trust in our own understanding but to trust in the Lord. That may seem a little strange since everything we've been reading so far is about passing wisdom and knowledge on from a father to s son. But we need to remember that wisdom comes from God and if our knowledge and understanding don't come from God, it can't be trusted.
• "In all of your ways," the Hebrew word kol pops up hear again and the Hebrew word translated ways is derek which we've seen before in Proverbs (even if I haven't pointed it out before). Derek can be translated way, road, distance, journey, manner. In other words, in every way we go, every road we travel, every distance we move, every journey we take, every manner we act in...
• The Hebrew word translated acknowledge is yada which means to know, to perceive and see, to distinguish
• "In all of your ways acknowledge Him" means that in every thing we do, every move we make, recognize that the God we can trust completely is there and act like it.
  • Do you sometimes do things when nobody is watching that you wouldn't do otherwise? Like play with something you've been told not to play with or eat a piece of candy you were told to save for later or take something that wasn't yours just because you wanted to play with it
  • If we acknowledge God in all of our ways, then we recognize that there is never a time when someone isn't watching us. Does that make you want to think different in times like what we've just discussed?
• The result of this is that He will make our paths straight
  • In Proverbs 1:15 we were told to not set foot on sinner's paths
  • In Proverbs 2:13 we saw how the wicked left the straight paths
  • In Proverbs 2:15 we saw how the wicked's paths are crooked
  • In Proverbs 2:9 we saw how wisdom leads us to what is right and just and fair - every good path
  Thus, if in all of our ways we acknowledge God, He will lead us away from sinful, wicked paths and lead us to what is right and just and fair. This sounds like a good way to go doesn't it?