A reflection on Psalm 118:8-9 and Ephesians 6:12

There’s a video that made the rounds a while back — a father teaching his preteen daughter about trust. He had her do the classic trust fall: close your eyes, fall backward, and trust that someone will catch you.

She fell. He stepped back.

“I said don’t ever trust boys,” he told her, not entirely sorry.

A few days later (or at least, with a change of clothes to suggest as much), they tried again. She was hesitant. He promised he wouldn’t let her fall this time. She closed her eyes, started to lean back — and he stepped to the side again.

The lesson was blunt, maybe even a little cruel. But it raises a question worth sitting with: Where are you placing your trust?

Better to Trust in the Lord

Psalm 118:8-9 puts it plainly:

“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.”

That covers a lot of ground. “Man” means people — all of us, ourselves included. “Princes” means governments, institutions, the systems we’re tempted to believe will keep us secure.

The truth is, people will let you down. Governments will act when it benefits them and stop when it doesn’t. Armies, wealth, strength — all of these will fail you at one time or another.

But the Lord never will.

We Like to Handle the Small Stuff

Here’s where it gets personal. A lot of us are fine trusting God with the big things — the major life decisions, the crises, the things too heavy to carry alone. But the small stuff? We’ve got that handled.

Or so we tell ourselves.

But when you trust yourself over God, you’ve become the “man” in verse 8. You’re putting confidence in human strength — your own — and that’s exactly what the psalmist warns against. It doesn’t matter how big or how small the issue is. Trust the Lord with it.

The Real Battle

Ephesians 6:12 shifts the perspective entirely:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

We think we’re fighting the people who stand in opposition to us. We’re not. The real battle is against forces we can’t even see — but the Lord can. And He will bring you through.

So Don’t Trust Kings. Don’t Trust Princes. Don’t trust armies.

Don’t trust anyone or anything above the Lord. Not the government. Not your own strength. Not the people around you. All of those things will fail you at one time or another.

The Lord never will.

Where have you placed your trust?

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast has provided some encouragement and helped you develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.