The Reply To Holiness
In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. Psalm 22:4
Trusted – Pay very close attention to the implications in this verse, especially since what is says is so rare in Old Testament literature. While we find dozens of uses of the verb batach exhorting and commanding trust in God, there are less than a hand-full of verses that actually say the people of Israel did trust in God. This verse is one of those rare occasions.
We are so used to the idea that Israel trusted God that we fail to recognize that most of the uses of batach describe cases of false trust. Batach certainly means, “to feel secure, to be unconcerned, to rely on someone or something,” but most of the time we find that people find security in the wrong things. The very short list includes wealth, households, military might, political alliances, other people, religious rituals and, last but certainly not least, ourselves. The Bible puts it quite plainly. Anyone who places security in these things will be confounded. Disappointment stands in the wings, ready to jump to center stage.
Actually, all human experience confirms this Biblical truth. There is simply no security in this world. If we are foolish enough to trust in what the world has to offer as substitutes for the divine, we will discover, sooner or later, that we made a terrible mistake. Nevertheless, in spite of universal human affirmation, we go right on placing our trust in the list of Biblical errors. Money, power, influence and even intimacy, become welcomed substitutes for real security. Since we all know better, but we go right ahead acting like idiots (and then bemoaning the tragedy that follows), we must ask the obvious question: why are we so gullible?
Let me suggest that the answer is in this verse; not in what is says but what it implies. This verse does not say that the fathers trusted in God because He delivered them. It says that they trusted God, and (as a result of that trust) they were delivered. What is the difference? This is the critical observation. If I trust God because I believe that He will do such-and-such, then my faith is not really in God but in the subsequent action He will perform on my behalf. In other words, I have faith in His deeds, not in Him. But if I trust God simply for Who He is, then He can respond in grace and mercy toward me. Why? Because I have learned to trust a person, not an action. I have discovered that I can have an intimate, secure relationship based on His character. I do not need to see Him act in order to know that He is reliable. The reason why we are constantly seduced into placing our trust in the list of false security is that we are still looking for action items. We have not stepped forward in faith and anchored our lives in the character of God. We do not understand what it means for God to be holy. We think of God in terms of actions. Our vocabulary reflects this when we are asked to describe the message of the Bible in a single word and we come up with “love,” or “mercy,” or “forgiveness.” Very few of us would first think of “holy.” We are geared toward God’s acts (and taught to think like this) rather than toward God’s being.
Psalm 78:22 complains that the father did not trust God. This is the typical occasion. Which use of bathach describes you?
