8
It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
9
It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.
My Thoughts
This passage emphasizes the superiority of trusting the Lord over placing confidence in humans, including powerful figures like princes. The psalmist underscores God’s unchanging nature and perfect reliability compared to the fallibility of man, who is prone to failure and deceit. Commentaries highlight that trusting God is wiser, morally correct, and ultimately safer and more beneficial, as firsthand experience often shows human promises to be unreliable. Thus, placing faith in God strengthens the spirit and provides peace amidst life’s uncertainties.
There is no doubt as to who we should put our trust in. The Lord our God is perfect in all His ways, just in all His dealings with us, never changing, always the same; yesterday, today, and forever. Man is sinful and subject to failure. There is no comparison, and there should be no question about whom to trust. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB says:
5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
It tells us to trust the Lord with all of our heart and not lean on our own understanding. In other words, trust in the Lord, not man’s understanding, or by putting confidence in what “earthly princes” tell us is good and right…….Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” It is better in all ways, for first of all, it is wiser: God is infinitely more able to help, and more likely to help, than man, and therefore prudence suggests that we put our confidence in him above all others. It is also morally better to do so, for it is the duty of the creature to trust in the Creator. God has a claim upon his creatures’ faith; he deserves to be trusted; and to place our reliance upon another rather than upon himself is a direct insult to his faithfulness. It is better in the sense of safer, since we can never be sure of our ground if we rely upon mortal man, but we are always secure in the hands of our God. It is better in its effect upon ourselves: to trust in man tends to make us mean, crouching, dependent; but confidence in God elevates, produces a sacred quiet of spirit, and sanctifies the soul. It is, moreover, much better to trust in God, as far as the result is concerned; for in many cases the human object of our trust fails from want of ability, from want of generosity, from want of affection, or from want of memory; but the Lord, so far from falling, does for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think. This verse is written out of the experience of many who have, first of all, found the broken reeds of the creature break under them, and have afterwards joyfully found the Lord to be a solid pillar sustaining all their weight.
“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” These should be the noblest of men, chivalrous in character, and true to the core. The royal word should be unquestionable. They are noblest in rank and mightiest in power, and yet, as a rule, princes are not one whit more reliable than the rest of mankind. A gilded vane turns with the wind as readily as a meaner weathercock. Princes are but men, and the best of men are poor creatures. In many troubles, they cannot help us in the least degree: for instance, in sickness, bereavement, or death; neither can they assist us one jot in reference to our eternal state. In eternity, a prince’s smile goes for nothing; heaven and hell pay no homage to royal authority. The favour of princes is proverbially fickle; the testimonies of worldlings to this effect are abundant. All of us remember the words put by the world’s great poet into the lips of the dying Wolsey; their power lies in their truth:
O how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favours!
There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
Yet a prince’s smile has a strange witchery to many hearts; few are proof against that tuft-hunting which is the index of a weak mind. Principle has been forgotten and character has been sacrificed to maintain position at court; yea, the manliness which the meanest slave retains has been basely bartered for the stars and garters of a profligate monarch. He who puts his confidence in God, the great King, is thereby made mentally and spiritually stronger, and rises to the highest dignity of manhood; in fact, the more he trusts the more is he free, but the fawning sycophant of greatness is meaner than the dirt he treads upon. For this reason and a thousand others, it is infinitely better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
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Enduring Word
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man: Spurgeon suggested many reasons why this is true.
· It is better because it is wiser.
· It is better morally, fulfilling the duty of the creature to the Creator.
· It is better because it is safer.
· It is better in its direction, lifting us up instead of bowing us down.
· It is better in its outcome.
Jesus knew this by His own experience as each of His disciples forsook Him at the cross, and even leaders who were sympathetic to Him (such as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus) did not give their help to Jesus during His suffering and crucifixion. (Guzik)
Than to put confidence in princes: “Men of high estate are generally proud, vain-glorious, self-confident, and rash: it is better to trust in God than in them. Often, they cannot deliver, and often they will not when they can. However, in the concerns of our salvation, and in matters which belong to Providence, they can do nothing.” (Clarke)
i. Boice on Psalm 118:8-9: “It is reported by people who count such things that there are 31,174 verses in the Bible, and if that is so, then these verses, the 15,587th and the 15,588th, are the middle verses. That position should be reason enough to give them prominence.”
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Albert Barnes
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man – This is stated apparently as the result of his own experience. He had found people weak and faithless; he had not so found God. Compare Psalms 40:4; Psalms 62:8-9. Literally, “Good is it to trust in Yahweh more than to confide in man.” This is the Hebrew form of comparison, and is equivalent to what is stated in our version, “It is better,” etc. It is better,
(1) because man is weak – but God is Almighty;
(2) because man is selfish – but God is benevolent;
(3) because man is often faithless and deceitful – God never;
(4) because there are emergencies, as death, in which man cannot aid us, however faithful, kind, and friendly he may be – but there are no circumstances in this life, and none in death, where God cannot assist us; and
(5) because the ability of man to help us pertains at best only to this present life – the power of God will be commensurate with eternity.
It is better … than to put confidence in princes – Even in the most mighty of the human race; in those who of all people may be supposed to have the most ability to aid us; in those whose favor is often sought more than the favor of God. Princes are only men; often as faithless and deceitful as other men; often less reliable in their character than those in more humble life. and in the great matters where we most need aid – in sickness, in danger, in death, in the eternal world – as absolutely powerless as men in the lowest condition of poverty, or in the most humble rank.
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John Gill
[It is] better to trust in the Lord,…. This, with what follows in Psalm 118:9, is the conclusion from the above premises and experience; it is good to trust in the Lord; such enjoy peace, are in safety, shall not want any good thing, nor ever be ashamed and confounded: the Targum is, “it is better to trust in the Word of the Lord;”
than to put confidence in man; it is not good to put confidence in man at all; it is trusting to a broken staff, to a mere shadow, which can yield no support or relief: it is best to trust in the Lord; he is able to help, as well as willing; he is faithful to his word, and unchangeable in his promises; whereas man, though he may have a will to help, oftentimes has it not in his power; and when it is in his power, and has promised it, he disappoints, being changeable or unfaithful. Wherefore trust not in man, but in the Lord; yea, cursed is the man that trusts in man; see Jeremiah 17:5.
[It is] better to trust in the Lord,…. The Targum is “in the Word of the Lord.” This is repeated for the sake of what follows:
than to put confidence in princes; who have greater ability to help, and whose honor should engage them to keep their word; and yet it is better to trust in the Lord than in them; see Psalm 146:3. Two different words being used in this verse and Psalm 118:8; for trust and confidence, Jarchi has observed, that the one signifies a lesser, the other a stronger confidence; as if the sense was this, “It is better lightly to trust in the Lord than to put the strongest confidence in men and princes.” But the observation is scarcely solid enough.
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Matthew Henry
It encouraged him to trust in God; from his own experience he can say, It is better, more wise, more comfortable, and more safe, there is more reason for it, and it will speed better, to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man, yea, though it be in princes, v. 8, 9. He that devotes himself to God’s guidance and government, with an entire dependence upon God’s wisdom, power, and goodness, has a better security to make him easy than if all the kings and potentates of the earth should undertake to protect him.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
The really better may not be the apparently better.
It may truly be said that the object of the discipline and experience of life is to deliver us from the fascination of what seems, and to get our conduct and relationships swayed and charactered and toned by what is. This, indeed, is presented in Eastern religions in extravagant forms. But we never need refuse to accept a truth, because somebody, somewhere, has exaggerated it into a mischievous untruth. Creatures conditioned by senses, and placed in sense-relations, as we are, must live in a world of appearances; we can only know what our senses present to us, and they can only present the accidents of things. Reflection, working on the things which the senses offer to us, gradually helps us to the apprehension of that which is—the substance and reality of things. The psalmist here is expressing this fact of life in one of its forms and relations. Man is always disposed to trust in his fellow man, and especially in those of his fellow men who may occupy positions of authority and power. We all incline to trust in man, especially in princes; we can see them. We have sense-estimates of them. We can sensibly apprehend what they can do for us. We fly to, and lean upon, human helpers in every emergency of life.
I. LEANING UPON MAN MAY BE GOOD. It is not necessary to think or speak as if men were always untrustworthy. True, there is always an element of uncertainty in man, and an absolute reliance is not possible. But it would be wholly untrue to say that men always fail us. We have all proved, over and over again, how loyal, constant, and faithful the friends of our life have been. Some of the purest and most satisfying joys we have ever had in life have come out of our human fellowships. The psalmist is therefore true to fact when he speaks of something better, and implies that this confidence in man may be good.
II. LEANING UPON GOD MUST BE BETTER. Just what advancing life and experience bring home to us is that the unseen is the real and permanent. And the very heart and essence of the unseen is God. All reality is unseen; it takes on appearance for the sake of the senses. We are passing on into the unseen, and we reach rest and satisfaction in the measure of our apprehending the unseen as we move towards the consummation. It is better to keep in the sphere of the “real.” It is better to “trust in God.”—R.T.
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Cross-References
Jeremiah 17:5 (KJV)
5 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
Psalm 62:8 (KJV)
8 Trust in him at all times; ye people,
Pour out your heart before him:
God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Isaiah 31:1 (KJV)
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help;
And stay on horses,
And trust in chariots, because they are many;
And in horsemen, because they are very strong;
But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel,
Neither seek the Lord!
Psalm 62:8–9 (KJV)
8 Trust in him at all times; ye people,
Pour out your heart before him:
God is a refuge for us. Selah.
9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie:
To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 118: 8-9
8 It is better to trust in the Lord, then to have confidence (d) in man.
9 It is better to trust in the Lord, then to have confidence in princes.
(d) He shows that he had trusted in vain, if he had put his confidence in man, to have been preferred to the kingdom, and therefore he put his trust in God and obtained.
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Closing Thoughts
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV
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