Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous: The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down" (Psm. 146:3-9). Wow! I have to say that it just doesn't get any better or truer than that. We simply cannot have our hope or our trust in any human, but rather in God who created the heavens and the earth. The very best of men are fallible, and are subject to the same frailties and difficulties as are all men. Jesus conquered every temptation that this world can offer, and he can no longer be tempted by any earthly issue. That is why the scripture can tell us the following: "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:15,16). We might like to add the following verse to the equation as well: "Who [Christ] is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him" (I Pet. 3:22).

Seeing we have a high priest and mediator to God who has overcome everything in this world, and has been "given all power in heaven and earth;" as long as our hope is firmly established upon him, and our trust is fully in him, there is no possibility we can lose if we just don't give up (Mat. 28:18). Satan knows that, and that is why discouragement is one of his favorite tools to use against us. Discouragement is the opposite of hope and confidence, and if we follow after it we may very well give up the ship. That is Satan's perverted hope, because he knows that we cannot be defeated if we stay anchored firmly to Jesus. All of the downtrodden conditions that are listed in our text passage, like oppression, hunger, captivity, blindness, being downcast, being a stranger, and being fatherless or a widow; are places where mourning can be turned into victory for all who put their trust in God, and their hope in Jesus Christ. There is a very good reason that the first words Jesus spoke at the renowned sermon on the mount were these: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 5:3). Regardless of one's state in this life, even if it is high; everyone who makes God their trust must be aware of their neediness in order to gain strength from the Lord. I often reference David in this regard, who though he was great in the earth, and wealthy as well; he constantly confessed his neediness to the Lord: "Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy" (Psm. 86:1). That quality of honesty and humility was in fact the main reason that God chose David and called him from keeping his father's sheep, to be the next king in Israel. The apostle Paul mentioned this in a sermon once: "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will" (Acts 13:22).

Yes, it is indeed the heart that God is interested in, and there has never lived a soul that gained favor with God who did not have a heart that was poor and needy. The heart that knows its need must have someone else to trust in, and someone else to hope in. Too many people look to other people to fill that need, and that has never been a successful endeavor in the history of mankind. It simply cannot be. The truth of the matter is that ALL men are poor and needy, but only those who acknowledge it and put their hope and trust in God will be lifted up out of their impoverished state. If we look to anyone else on earth to fill that need, it will invariably fail because our hope will be in someone who is just as poor and needy as we are. The apostle Paul put it down just like it is when he explained how Jesus came to make us rich: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (II Cor. 8:9). Jesus left the richest place in existence to come to the poorest place in existence, to redeem us from our poverty so that we could be made partakers of his wealth. If we show ourselves poor and needy with him, and hope only in him, he will fill us with the incomprehensible wealth of his love, and joy, and peace. Not only so, but if we live by those riches in this life, we will gain an eternal wealth that is far above what we can even imagine. If he is our hope and our trust in this life till the end, then we will be "joint-heirs" with him of all that exists (Rom. 8:17). That's really rich! In conclusion I will allow the apostle Paul to bring this full circle to where we began, and summarize it for us: "Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are your's; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your's; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (I Cor. 3:21-23). I think it's safe to say that it 'pays' to trust in God. Amen.