Using, Not Trusting

Psalm 20 is a sweet passage full of hopes of victory and prayers of blessing over the king as he heads out for battle. Towards the end, there's this great little line that has run over and over again in my head over the past couple of weeks.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Now here's the thing. If you were to take a look at the army of Israel during this time, I'm quite sure that you would have found horses and chariots fully employed and in use for battle. The Psalmist here is not outlawing the use of horses and/or chariots. He is saying that while the Israelite army will employ horses and chariots, they will not and do not trust in them for victory.

This using (in an appropriate way, not in the pejorative sense of the word) but not trusting seems to be at the heart of much of the biblical description of how we are to relate to the things of this world. From the Ten Commandments through Jesus through the letters of the New Testament, we are called to enjoy all things at our disposal and to use them but not to put our hope and trust in them.

This has deep ramifications for Christians as we think about our money, particularly, as so many of us are discovering that trusting in our own savings or resources does not yield the security it promises and that we crave.

The idea of using but not trusting is a bit of a tricky dance here on this side of the fall, as people living in the Land of the Ruins. It sounds almost like we're being toyed with, or being baited into something.

But perhaps this prescription is the only way that anyone can be healthy in relation to things. Our obsession with things de-humanizes us. Don't we all know someone who is bent in on money or their car or a hobby who is, well, weird?

This invitation to put our ultimate trust in God frees us to use things in ways that keep us from becoming sick--it's the one option that we have that makes us free, healthy, joyful human beings.