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Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the plots of evildoers. They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent; they shoot suddenly, without fear. \u2026 But God will shoot them with his arrows; they will suddenly be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn. All people will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done. (Psalm 64:2-4, 7-9)

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The central assertion of this psalm, not included in our verses today, is that \u201csurely the human mind and heart are cunning.\u201d

There are any number of reasons to distrust our politicians, our church leaders, our business leaders, even many reasons to distrust our own neighbours, family members, and fellow church members.\xa0 It seems like we increasingly do distrust others.\xa0 Maybe not always the people that we directly know who are in our lives, but certainly those who are a few steps removed from us\u2014like when we think of leaders we\u2019ve never met or group people into abstract cohorts like \u201cliberals,\u201d \u201cconservatives,\u201d \u201ccorporate leaders,\u201d \u201cthe media,\u201d or whatever other labels we might use.

This psalm uses the terms \u201cthe wicked,\u201d \u201cevildoers,\u201d and \u201cthe innocent.\u201d\xa0 Obviously these evildoers are the ones we would distrust, and reasons are given.\xa0

But what about all the people who fear God by the end of the psalm?\xa0 Whose team are they on?\xa0 Are they the innocent or the wicked?\xa0 Hmm, maybe there\u2019s a bit more going on than meets the eye.

It is the human mind and heart that are cunning.\xa0 Not just the mind and heart of the wicked evildoers.\xa0 We are all wicked.\xa0 And eventually God\u2019s justice meets us all too.\xa0 Those who sharpen their tongues like swords will be judged by their own words. \xa0Those who shoot arrows of cruel words are shot by the arrow-word of God.\xa0 And so all those wicked ones who shoot off their lips without fear will see the word of the Lord act in judgement against them, which by the psalm\u2019s end leads all people to the fear of the Lord.

So can we trust one another, even ourselves?\xa0 Yes and no.\xa0 In the Gospel of John, John says that \u201cJesus would not entrust himself to [the people], for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.\u201d\xa0 Indeed. \xa0So who did Jesus entrust himself to then?\xa0 The Father alone, that\u2019s who.\xa0 And that is the call for us as well.

Every institution, group, and individual person will eventually let us down.\xa0 Because none of us are righteous.\xa0 The only one we may truly entrust ourselves to, is God.\xa0 But, having placed our trust in God alone and having a clear-eyed view of ourselves and our fellow-folk, we can then learn to love and trust one another more appropriately.\xa0 We do it in a way that doesn\u2019t place undue burdens of expectation on fallible people, but that recognizes that disappointment, sin, confession, and forgiveness will all be part of our walk together.\xa0 But it\u2019s a walk we can make in good faith, because the God in whom we trust has first provided for, loved, and forgiven us.\xa0

That\u2019s what shot through our world and hearts when God took aim and fired off the arrow of His Word.\xa0 His Word is Jesus Christ.\xa0 His Word is forgiveness.

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