Trust in God

"Trust in God" – Psalm 37:24-25 "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Two verses, and a whole message. It is the testimony of an old man at the end of his life: David had seen wars, scarcity, betrayals, and persecutions; the one thing he never saw was God abandoning His own. From there the study walks through the stages of life to old age, defines who the righteous man is —not the perfect one, but the one who trusts and walks uprightly— and sets out the three eternal truths the psalm affirms, closing on the promise that the fall is not the end.

I. God may test the righteous, but He never abandons him

A. God permits trials, and many: life is made of trials. But a righteous man forsaken has never been seen, which means no trial is going to defeat you.

B. Trials do not hand us a book: they force us to exercise our life in God and to carry everything in prayer. Without prayer no one stays standing.

C. And often it is we who give occasion, because we carry inside a streak of wanting everything for ourselves.

II. "I have been young, and now am old": the stages of life

A. Aging begins the day you are born; what exists are stages. The strength of the young runs out fast.

B. In infancy and childhood there are things that mark a person, but it all depends on you. In adolescence there is much immaturity and much pretending to know; that is why a teenager should be counseled with father and mother present.

C. In adulthood, what has been achieved brings pride and showing off; and yet the money is never enough.

D. Old age lays bare everything in the heart and everything in the mind. The wise man numbers his days, and numbering means subtracting, which nobody wants to do.

E. If you do not get through one stage, you drag it into the next. That is why one must train to live each one, so as to reach old age by the best road.

F. The only thing to discuss with old age is how to know God more. And there is nothing worse than vanity, because on earth everything vain will end.

III. The verse is a declaration of divine faithfulness

A. It is an eternal reminder that God cares for, upholds, backs, supports, and protects the righteous.

B. That is why one must be faithful: because tomorrow the day turns bad, the bad news comes, the strength goes, and what was kept hidden is uncovered.

C. David writes these words at the end of his life. It is not theory or a set of ideas: it is a testimony, the account of a man who had seen wars, enemies, scarcity, betrayals, and persecutions.

D. The one thing David never saw was a righteous man abandoned by God.

E. And since no one knows when his soul will be required of him, one must be current: the body depends on the soul and the spirit, and there are only two destinations.

IV. Who the righteous man is

A. To be righteous is not to be perfect: it is to trust in God and to seek to walk uprightly.

B. Walking uprightly leaves no room for "they did this to me, and that is why I…".

C. The righteous man knows good from evil and honors the Lord. We open our mouths and speak without examining whether what we said was good or evil, and that is dangerous.

D. If we do not care to walk uprightly, there is a heaven that will not wait for us; and if we do walk uprightly, there is a heaven that will.

V. First truth: God never abandons His own

A. You may go through trials, but you will not be alone.

B. You may pass through scarcity, but you will not be without provision.

C. You may weep, but you will not be forsaken. None of this makes us victims.

D. Whatever we live through, we are not meant to face it alone: He sends angels at those moments, because much good moves from heaven toward the earth.

VI. Second truth: God upholds the righteous even when it cannot be seen

A. On the bad day we ask "where is God in this?", because no comfort is felt and no way out is visible.

B. The psalm answers: He is still there, He does not abandon, He upholds, He is always at your side.

C. And perhaps what is missing is more prayer, because the prayer of the righteous avails much.

D. Beware of fellowship with the world: if we are the Church of Christ, we must be so absolutely.

VII. Third truth: the blessing reaches the descendants

A. "Nor his seed begging bread." The faithfulness of the righteous draws mercy over his family, and that is in our hands.

B. We are not on earth as ornaments, but to bless, because we have been blessed.

C. God does not only care for the righteous man: He cares for his children and his children's children. And what reaches the heart of God, God brings to pass.

D. Your faithfulness generates spiritual inheritance and protection for the generations to come. But it requires prayer, seeking, and sanctification: no one comes to church while living in sin.

E. What is sown in faith today, the children reap tomorrow. It is not saying that we are: it is showing that we are, because the angels write, and in heaven the books will be opened at the judgment.

VIII. "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down"

A. The Bible does not say "if he falls": it says "though he fall". There will be stumbles, moments of weakness, errors, seasons when the weight is heavy and the load violent.

B. God knows we are human, and He does not demand perfection but dependence.

C. To be cast down is to be knocked over, defeated, without strength to rise. The promise is: you may fall, but you will not stay fallen.

D. The fall is not the end, the trial is not the end, the pain is not permanent, and the enemy does not have the last word.

E. "For the LORD upholdeth him with his hand": you do not get up by yourself. It is like a father walking with his child: the child stumbles but does not fall all the way, because he is holding his father's hand.

F. What God upholds no one can knock down: whoever comes against you comes against God.

G. God was faithful in the past —look back and you will see His hand in every season—, He is faithful now even when you do not think of it, and He will be faithful in your future, which is

under His control.

IX. Application

A. Begin the day in prayer. What keeps a person standing is not temperament or experience.

B. Choose what you listen to and whom you talk with: much conversation only feeds vanity.

C. Live well the stage you are in, because a stage lived badly is dragged into the next.

D. Weigh your words before releasing them: the righteous man distinguishes good from evil in what he says too.

E. Sow faithfulness with your descendants in mind; the mercy you draw does not stop with you.

F. When you fall, do not stay fallen. Humble yourself, and God lifts you up again.