The Marriage Vow
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. Psalm 9:10
Trust – “I promise to love, honor and obey . . until death do us part.” Recognize those words? Of course, if you look on the Internet for “traditional” wedding vows, you will find a slight (politically correct) variation. Now it says, “love, honor, comfort and keep.” Obedience is no longer requirement. Nevertheless, our study of Psalm 22 shows that even the traditional wedding vows have a glaring omission. What God is most interested in as a symbolic representation of our intimacy with Him isn’t even mentioned. What’s missing is trust. Batach is the essential character of union with the Spirit. It is the one Hebrew verb that shows up in both relationships between God and man and husband and wife (see Proverbs 31:11). Without trust, what good is the rest? Love (but don’t trust), honor (but carry suspicion), comfort (without security), keep (unreliably)? No, without trust, there is no marriage. So, why do we leave it out?
And when it comes to God, without trust, there is no relationship.
Does that seem harsh? Is it too rigid? Maybe we should modify it to make it religiously correct? Maybe all it takes is the proper moral attitude, or a walk down the aisle, or membership? Maybe Jesus was only interested in making sure we were forgiven or got a ticket to heaven? But I doubt it! Trust is the flip-side of holiness. If God is holy, then I am duty bound to trust Him. If I do not trust Him, then I have impugned His holiness. I have suggested that God lies about His absolute moral perfection, and therefore, I can’t rely on Him. Do you see the connection? There is no escaping it. Either I trust God because I know Who He is, or my relationship with Him is a sham even if I pledge love, honor and obedience. If you don’t believe this, go ask your spouse! Where there is no trust, there is no relationship – there is only accommodation. And God is not interested in accommodation. He does not want to live together. He wants to be married.
David, who knew the necessity of trust as any adulterer does, tells us that the reason we can put our trust in God (notice that this is an active decision of the will) is simply because we know God’s name. This verse is chocked full of marriage language. Trust, know, forsake are all words that belong in the marriage covenant. To know (yada) even covers the sexual content of marriage. We trust because we know His name. But what can that mean? That I know how to spell G-O-D? Of course not! To know His name is the idiom for knowing the essential character of the person. Why do you think so many Hebrew names have meanings that reflect who the person is? Because a name is a shorthand code for the essence of the person. To know God’s name (which is not GOD, by the way) is to know His essential character. I can trust Who He is only when I know Who He is.
How do I know Who He is? Oh, the answer is really simple. Seek!
So, I ask you, are you married to the Lord of hosts? Or did you forget the word trust when you took the vow?
