December 17, 2025 3:00 am
Jeremiah contrasts the self-assured humanist who trusts in man with the one who places his trust in God, highlighting the futility of relying on human strength and the blessings of trusting in the Lord, who is the source of true strength and salvation.
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Welcome to the Days of Praise podcast, a daily devotional by the Institute for Creation Research. Cursed or blessed. Thus saith the LORD Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. and whose heart departeth from the Lord. Jeremiah 17, 5.
Jeremiah provides for us a striking contrast between the self-assured humanist and the one who has placed his trust in God. The man who looks to his own abilities or those of others to save him in time of trouble is cursed. His existence will be one of futility, just as is that of a parched desert plant. Why? because his heart departeth from the Lord, the source of strength and salvation.
Jeremiah uses a play on words here. The words for man in our texts are different. The first means warrior or strong man, and the second a normal man. The warrior who should be strong is cursed because he trusts in one who is weak, in this case in any other man's wisdom or might or even his own strength when overestimated. What sense is there in that?
In contrast, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord. He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and shall not be careful or anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Why? Because His hope the Lord is. We see this man.
one who might be considered strong, trusting solely in the true strongman, the Lord. It is a tragic fact that even many Christians fall into the mindset of the autonomous humanist and attempt to live their lives, even the Christian life, under their own power. Do we trust in our own feeble power or in the Lord? Every heart, whether humanist or Christian, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
Make no mistake. I the Lord search the heart. He knows our inner motives. Let us recommit ourselves to trust in the Lord and make Him our hope. If you've enjoyed today's devotional, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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