Biblical Influence & Life Application: Trust does not come from the head but from the heart. It is not the result of reasoning; it is the result of believing.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.^{^[1]}

Trust in the Lord completely, not in your own understanding.

Verses five and six are the best known and most memorized verses of Proverbs. In fact, they are the life verses of many believers. These two cherished verses describe a life of total dependence and commitment to God. This is what our Heavenly Father wants of us, His dear children—all who truly follow Him. He longs for us to be completely dependent upon Him and to have utter confidence in Him. This is what it means to trust.

The object of the wise person’s trust is the Lord (Yahweh, Jehovah): the covenant-keeping God, the God who cannot lie (Tit. 1:2; He. 6:18). At this point—where this father emphasizes keeping the commandments of God—he instructs his son not to focus his trust in the law of God but in the God of the law. God is trustworthy because of who He is. Yahweh is His personal name. It is the name by which He revealed Himself to Moses and to the children of Israel (Ex. 3:13–15).

Trust does not come from the head but from the heart. It is not the result of reasoning; it is the result of believing. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” (Ro. 4:3; also Ga. 3:6; Jas. 2:23). But when Abraham leaned on his own understanding, he failed miserably. According to his understanding, God could not provide for him in the famine (Ge. 12:10–20). God could not give him a son when he and Sarah were far past the natural age of childbearing (Ge. 16:1–4). Abraham’s lack of trust—the result of leaning on his own understanding—still has major implications in the world approximately 4,000 years later.

Trust is an all-or-nothing proposal: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.” Partial trust is not trusting at all. Either God is trustworthy, or He is not. If He cannot be trusted with all, He cannot be trusted at all.

To lean (sha’an) on means to support yourself on something or to rely on something. Thus, the admonition here is that we should not rely on or depend on our own understanding. We have to make a choice: we can follow our own understanding or trust in a God who is greater than our understanding.

What we have to recognize is that our understanding is not trustworthy:

Ø Human understanding is darkened by our nature of sin, spiritual blindness, and hard hearts.

Ø “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ep. 4:18).

Ø Human understanding is limited. God’s understanding is far higher.

Ø “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor?” (Ro. 11:33–34).

Ø “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8–9).

Ø Human understanding is often contrary to God’s wisdom. Common sense is good, but God’s ways do not always parallel the common sense of human beings.

Ø “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Co. 1:25–29).

Acknowledge God daily in all you do: He will guide you and show you the way (v.6).

This is seen by some commentators as the contrast to leaning on your own understanding (v.5). Certainly, all believers should acknowledge God in their ways. We should consult Him when making plans and seek His counsel in every matter. But as Mr. Delitzsch points out, the Hebrew word (yada) “is not fully represented by ‘acknowledge Him.’” This is the word that means to know intimately and personally. It describes experiential knowledge (1:2). It is the knowledge David spoke about in his counsel to Solomon at the end of His life:

Ø “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever” (1 Chr. 28:9).

Our trust in God grows as we learn more and more about Him. The more we know God, the closer we draw to Him, and the easier it becomes to commit our ways to Him. Trusting God cannot be separated from intimacy with God. These three …

• trusting Him

• leaning wholly upon Him

• knowing Him intimately

… are the mechanics of a life that is totally committed to Him. If we live such a life, we are assured of this promise: He will direct your paths or make them straight.

What does this mean?

In Old Testament times, roads were rough at best and dangerous at worst. Travel was exhausting and perilous. When a king took a journey, some of his servants would go ahead of his caravan to smooth the rough places and remove the obstacles on the road. They would make his paths straight.

This image is used of John the Baptist’s role in relation to the coming of Jesus:

Ø “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (Is. 40:3–4).

It is also what God promised to do for Cyrus:

Ø “I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts” (Is. 45:13).

This is what God does for the people who trust in Him—who lean wholly upon Him. He will go ahead of us and smooth the road. He will remove all the obstacles in our way so we can reach the destination He intends for us. This does not mean, however, that there will be no difficulties, interruptions, or deterrents along the way. It means that God will be with us and help us to rise above everything in our path that threatens to trip us up or throw us off course. We, in turn, have to put ourselves in His hands. We have to trust and lean upon Him wholly.^{^[2]}