At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Proverbs 3:5–8
This is a passage that fits nicely on posters and plaques, and which marks the pious home. And on the face of it, the exhortation seems straightforward. Trust the Lord, people, all the way down to the ground.
But there are additional riches if we look at it more closely. Trusting the Lord with all your heart means more than gritting your teeth and trusting hard. It is contrasted with something, and that something is leaning on your own understanding. Another way this is stated is in the parallel phrase, “be not wise in thine own eyes.”
On the one hand is not leaning on your own smarts, not being wise according to yourself, and not indulging in evil. On the other is trusting in the Lord with all that you have, and fearing the Lord in a way that causes you to shun evil.
We sometimes feel like we need to be figuring out the world when we actually need to be figuring out God’s law. Knowledge of the law is the key to understanding the world. Knowledge of the world, if you begin there, is the key to apostasy and ruin.
The thing that is promised us is that God will direct our paths. In all our ways, we are to acknowledge Him, which means submitting to His revealed Word. We don’t have to figure out what is going to happen in the middle of next week before we decide what to do. We have to acknowledge God’s authority over us in the Word He has given us.
Prosperity—health to the navel and marrow in the bones—is a gift of God. He is the one who gives it. If we honor His law, then He will direct our paths. As He directs our paths, He is taking care of all the variables that we do not know. Not only do we not know them, it is not possible for us to know them. But it is possible for us to know what God has told us to do, and what He has told us to avoid.
Keep it simple. Trusting in the Lord with all your hearts means simply this. Entrust what will happen to you next year to the safekeeping of what you are reading in the Word this morning.
