In God We Trust
My God, in You I trust. Let me be not shamed, let my enemies not gloat over me. Psalm 25:2 Robert Alter translation
Trust – Trust in God is more than a motto on the back of a coin. In fact, we might wonder if biblical “trust” can even be understood apart from Hebrew thought. The word here is batah. It seems to have no cognates in other ancient languages. That makes it uniquely Hebrew. The fundamental meaning of the verb is to rely upon, to place confidence in, to experience well-being and security. But we should notice that the LXX never translates this word with pisteuo (to believe in). That is important. Trusting God is not a matter of what I think or believe. The rabbis translate batah with the Greek elpizo (to hope) or peithomai (to be persuaded). This suggests that trusting God is not a matter of intellectual or volitional faith but rather a matter of feeling secure.
Imagine what this means for us. We have been trained in the Hellenistic world. We are basically Greek in language and thought. In the Greek world, faith is a matter of assent to the truth of a claim and a decision to act upon that claim. So we are told that having faith in God is to agree that God exists and to decide to live according to that belief. But this isn’t the Hebrew idea of faith. Maybe that’s why there are no proofs for the existence of God in the Bible. Such things do not matter for biblical faith. Trust in God is living without concerns. It is the sense of confidence that comes from God’s total reliability. It is participating in the community that depends on God’s past history. “To believe is to remember,” said Heschel. Now we see just how correct he was. Faith is the feeling I have when I experience the reality of God’s care. It does not exist independently of my experience. It is not something out there, waiting for me to affirm. It is the present-moment reliability of God’s hand in my life.
Does this mean that I don’t have faith if I don’t feel God’s care? Not at all! Faith is the result of God’shesed. It is not the result of my current intellectual or emotional state. I participate in what God is doing, and when I recognize that is true, I immediately am aware of His care for me. It is His doing, not mine. My faith is the confident expectation that God is God, that what He does is good and that He cares for me.
Confident expectation does not mean that I maintain a steady and unwavering emotional condition before God. As the psalmist indicates, my emotions fluctuate. I pass from humble adoration to anger, from joy to remorse, from insensitivity to awe. But batah reminds me that through it all God does not change. When I examine myself, I discover that either I find a foundational assurance that God is good or I find an oscillating ocean of desire and disappointment. When I examine myself, I am either fixed on God or subject to the whims of the world.
Trust is the continued expectation of deliverance.
Topical Index: trust, batah, pisteuo, elpizo, hope, confidence, Psalm 25:2
Faith Fact- or Feelings?
In God We Trust. Faith is only as good as the object of our faith. Faith in what? In Gold? In Government? (hah!) Or in (always Faithful- semper fi) -God?
Our faith is based on what? What is the (sure and solid) foundation of our faith?
Is it..
Feelings. Nothing more than feelings. (?) Is faith based upon our emotions? Or is faith even deeper-wider-longer-higher still? Emotions and feelings can run pretty shallow or very deep..- all depending upon our constantly changing circumstances. “How do you feel this morning?”- is dependent upon a huge mix of factors. Do you feel secure? What makes you feel this way? Very touch-feely. I just consumed a wonderful cup of coffee, so I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.. but what does this have to do with faith? As we know, it is our faith that pleases God. This is a fact. Our faith pleases God, – causes Him to smile and to say, “well done!”
God said to Abraham, (remember “na?”- the Hebrew word for “please?”) “(Na) take your son, your only son (whom you love!) and sacrifice him to Me.” Now how did that make Abraham “feel?” That would (in my case) surely pull the rug out from under me and would turn me inside-out and upside-down! Abraham was said to be -known to be – “the friend of God,” but here is his so-called(?) “Friend”- asking him to do what? Let’s ask Abraham- “how does this make you feel?” An emotional upheaval was taking place, – not one doubt in this father’s mind! Did Abraham love Isaac? More than anything!- more than his own life and yet… Do what? -Can’t you hear Abraham arguing within himself! – all night long! – Wow! Sleep well Abraham.
In the end.. what prevailed? Who won? Faith, fact or feeling? Abraham asked his “self,” – Can I trust God? Can I trust what God says? Can I trust the word(s) of God? Has God ever (once) lied to me? No. Did God say? (very similar to the serpent saying- “hath God said?”) I will give you a son? And the joy, the joy!- the emotional skyrockets in flight joy when Isaac, the son of promise was born! – And now? Circumstances have changed..- haven’t they?
O God, my God, – why? Why are you asking me to do this? Ask for anything- anything but Isaac, my only begotten son, – the son of promise.
No matter if the moon was full, -it was (for Abraham) a dark and stormy night. Laughter had left and tears took laughter’s place. The feelings, the facts, but where was “faith” in all of this?
Abraham, deep within, knew something. Greater still, he knew SomeOne. Abraham intimately, up close and personal, -knew God. He had a history. A personal history with God, and Abraham knew God and knew God would never lie! God had always and forever spoken nothing but the truth unto His (covenant) friend, Abraham. Abraham, that awful night, made the (volitional) choice to trust (batah) God. That night, that one night, Abraham gave his LORD and his Master and his Creator and Sustainer – everything. Not withholding a single thing, Abraham said “YES,” to God. He said, “I will do this.”
But not only did he “say it,”- in the morning he gathered his servants, saddled his donkey and set out to “do it.” Not only ‘to will,”- but to do- this is faith. Abraham believed God AND Abraham trusted God. Faith, fact and feeling- you cannot have one without the other! All three, present and accounted for!
When Abraham saw the substitutionary ram God had provided what did his faith say?- “God will provide Himself the Lamb?”- and (fact) He did! What were his feelings afterward? Joy? Joy- unspeakable and full of glory? Wasn’t this another Hallelujah (kairos?) moment?
~ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was glad ~ (John 8.56) – You think? Lol. Amen!