PUT NOT YOUR TRUST

PSALM 146:3

Pastor Rick Jackson

Whom do you look to for fulfillment? For joy? For making life worthwhile? For personal worth? Many are the starry eyed youth I have talked to who thought their boyfriend or girlfriend was that one! Some look to others! Relatives, celebrities (can you spell "stalker"), political parties or figures. What saith the Scripture?

I. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PRINCES [Ps. 146:3]

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

II. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PARENTS [Ps. 27:10]

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

III. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PARTNERS [Pr. 19:13b, 21:9, 25:24, 1 Samuel 25:25-26]

…the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

IV. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PROGENY [Pr. 10:1, 15:20, 17:25, 19:13a, Dt. 13:6-8]

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.

A foolish son is the calamity of his father:

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

V. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PLEASURE [Ecclesiastes 2:1]

I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.

VI. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN POWER [Eccl. 4:13]

Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.

VII. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN POPULARITY [Jn. 2:23-25]

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

VIII. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PRIDE (self, accomplishments) [Pr. 16:18]

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

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Where then can we find fulfillment? Joy? Satisfaction in life? Personal worth? A purpose for living? Where? Where indeed? Go back to our text but this time let us read the whole Psalm.

Psalm 146

1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

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

4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:

7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:

8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

10 The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.