The Genesis Syndrome

Commit your way to YHWH, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:5 (Hebrew text)

Commit/Trust – David demonstrates that the fulfillment of God’s purposes in our lives depends on two related actions.  The first is voluntarily granting God ownership.  The second is acting with complete confidence of God.  David wasn’t the first to notice this combination.  In fact, it is built into the very fabric of successful human relationship.  If we look closely, we will find that our best relationships with each other are merely copies of the divine-human pattern.  The whole story begins in Genesis.

God established the perfect pattern of human relationships when He presented Adam with his needed companion, Havvah.  You will recall that God built Havvah according to a preconceived blueprint for a specific purpose.  That purpose was to act as Adam’s guide; to insure that Adam had the necessary advice and counsel to keep God’s commandment and fulfill God’s assigned task in the world.  In order to act in this enormously important role, God designed Havvah with the intelligence, spiritual acumen and relationship management skills necessary to set the boundaries for the couple.  Adam was created to remember. Havvah was built to guide.

Since Havvah was built from the substance of Adam, she became the perfect match for Adam, “bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh.”  Adam is the beneficiary of God’s design covenant with the woman.  But since she is now a separate being, the first step in the process of reunion (“and the two shall become one”) is voluntary.  Men do not have a voluntary relationship with themselves, but if they are going to have any kind of successful relationship with their spouses, it will have to be voluntary.  More importantly, it will have to be the voluntary relinquishing of self-ownership.  Marriage means giving up my rights to myself and giving those rights into the hands of my spouse.  This applies to every aspect of the marriage, including my own body (cf. Paul’s remark).  The first step in the first human relationship is galal, to roll, to roll that cylinder of ownership on my actions and my attitudes.  They don’t belong to me anymore.

The second step is just as important.  Proverbs 31:11 underscores the trust component in marriage.  It tells me that a man should trust (batach) his wife with the same actions that he trusts God.  Notice that Proverbs 31:11 concludes with the same category of thought as Psalm 37:5.  When we commit and trust in God, He completes His work.  When a man trusts his wife, it is prosperous to him.  Things get done that benefit him.  God’s actions are reflected in her actions.  Ownership and trust are defined by the vertical relationship to God, but they are demonstrated in the horizontal relationship between spouses.  Just how crucial this proper alignment is can be seen in Genesis 3, a story about a tiny twist on the correct alignment.

David may have reflected on the Genesis syndrome when he wrote these words.  He might have seen this ancient design pattern stretching across all flourishing relationships.  He could have considered the tragic consequences of not combining ownership and trust.  We don’t know what David was thinking, but we do know what God thinks about the matter.  Roll and rely.  Does that describe your divine and human relationships?

Topical Index:  Psalm 37:5, Adam, Havvah, commit, trust, galal, batach