"So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have taught you today, even you"
You can put your trust in a lot of things: money, family, skills, false gods, yourself, power, politics, and so on, and all these things will fail, but not the Lord. These other things make a lot of sense in their context and seem persuasive in their reasonings but don't be fooled because the only thing worth trusting in completely is the Lord – both in this life and in the one to come.
trust
This is the Hebrew word mibtah, which means trust or reliance upon. The idea is that people can put their confidence in whomever is being trusted. Solomon is proclaiming that when he is teaching wisdom, he is teaching people to trust God that He will support someone who seeks after wisdom and that He is really the Being who set up the rules of the universe. And, therefore, the way that He says life should work is the way that it works.
Faith in God is absolutely crucial to the well-lived life. Faith means to do what God says to do. If God says that a certain way is the way to live your life, then you do it that way. If God says to do a particular thing, then do it that way. Faith relies on God to give the solutions that work and to complete any gaps on the back side.
Everyone is living a life of faith. They are relying on a certain thing or truth or god or person to be right and to work. Solomon says that Yahweh the Lord our God can be trusted, and He has a comprehensive plan for life and that the goal of a life of wisdom is a life trusting God and His way of living.
God is constantly asking us to believe Him for something. What is He asking you to do this week? It always involves a change or stretch or trust to accomplish. It often is something we don't want to do, but we clearly know that He wants us to do it. A life of faith is one that trusts and moves in God's direction constantly. It is this kind of life that pleases God and releases the power of God.
Listen to the New Testament: Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believethat He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz