#3. The blessedness of this trust (Psa. xl. 4).

In the O.T. there are seven different words translated “Trust”. These we considered in the opening article of this series. We discovered that the first one of this set of seven has the significance of “clinging”, as the Melon plant does by means of its tendrils. Out of the hundred or more occurrences of this word we selected seven, and set them out on page 13. The first of this set of seven was the “blessedness” that was pronounced upon the man that trusted in the Lord (Psa. xl. 4).

Upon examination we find that there are four occasions when this peculiar blessedness is pronounced. They are as follows:--

(1) “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” (Psa. ii. 12).
(2) “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him” (Psa. xxiv. 8).
(3) “Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust” (Psa. xl. 4).
(4) “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee” (Psa. lxxxiv. 12).

These four Psalms, with their blessing upon the man that trusts in the Lord, have four very different contexts.

(1) THE DAY OF THE LORD.—Psalm ii. is prophetic of the days immediately preceding the coming of the Lord. People and king alike agree in counsel against the Lord and His anointed. It will be a day when any who cling to the Messianic hope will be persecuted. As indicated in verse 12 of this Psalm, it is upon such that the Divine benediction rests. They believe the prophecies and the promises, they cling to the Lord and His faithful fulfillment of them, and receive the Divine approval, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him”.

(2) THE DAY OF TROUBLE.—Psalm xxxiv. 8 deals largely with the deliverance of the righteous in all his troubles. We read his experiences; we are called upon “to taste and see”. The Psalmist places on record,

“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears . . . . . This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them out of all their troubles . . . . . Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Psa. xxxiv. 4, 6, 7, 17, 19).

(3) THE DAY OF CONFLICT.—In this fortieth Psalm the writer tells of his deliverance from a horrible pit and from miry clay. The marginal note to the words “horrible pit” reads, “a pit of noise”, and if the reader will note that these words were penned in London towards the end of June 1944, he will probably realize why they struck a responsive chord. The Psalm indicates the exemplary effect of this deliverance, saying,

“Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord”, and this statement is followed by the Divine benediction on all such (verse 4).

(4) THE DAY OF EXILE.—The eighty-fourth Psalm was written for the sons of Korah whose duties are defined in I Chron. ix. 19 as “Keepers of the gates”, or thresholds and “Keepers of the entry”. The Psalmist remembers, with poignant feeling, the tabernacle and courts of the Lord, for there he had found the presence of the living God. He says, in verse 4, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house”, and then, in the second part of the Psalm, although for the time being unable to join in worship in the house of the Lord, yet preferring a doorkeeper’s post in the house of God to luxurious living in wickedness outside of it, he has found full compensation in that simple “clinging” to the Lord, recognizing that even though separated from the tabernacle of the Lord, He is nevertheless both Sun and Shield, and will give both grace and glory. He therefore readily concludes, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee” (Psa. lxxxiv. 12).

(From Berean Expositor, volume 33, page 209).

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