The Vanity of Horses

Psalm 33

This psalm is without title and has no author attached to it. It is a psalm that encourages the congregation to sing praise to the Lord. The "word of the Lord" is a phrase and/or idea that appears repeatedly through out the psalm. The second stanza describes the quality of the word of the Lord as right and true and the third stanza describes the power of the word of the Lord in creation and sustaining his creation. The rest of the psalm draws its conclusion from the fact that the word of the Lord is powerful: therefore the plans of the wicked will be foiled, the nation who trusts in God is blessed even in the face of famine, war and death.
The section of the psalm that draws my attention is the second last and last stanzas. The psalmist recognizes that there is a power bigger than that of a large army, there is strength stronger than that of a mighty warrior on a war horse. Only those who fear the Lord and trust in his unfailing love will experience the full blessing and protection of the Lord. The conclusion of the psalm is that the nation will trust in and wait for God, with the plea: "please don't let us down."
I can certainly resonate with that last plea. It adds to the humanity of the psalm: Lord, I trust you completely... mostly. I know that I don't live with a complete trust in the Lord. At best he is my plan A but I am always working on plans B, C, and D just in case. The things I rely on are my own abilities, mostly my strategic planning and my communication skills. But there are other things I trust as well: do I need some money? I have credit cards or lines of credit to supply my need. And this is where I get confused: I recognize, most of the time, that God gave me certain abilities so when I use them to solve a problem am I trusting in my own ability or in the Lord? Would the psalmist have turned down a large army or mighty warriors on fighting horses saying that he trusted in the Lord to provide or would he have concluded that the army he had at his disposal was the Lord's provision? I don't think the psalmist is saying that he wouldn't use horses if he had them but is acknowleding that there is a power greater than that of the horse. So, I don't think it is wrong for me to use my abilities, skills and resources as long as I continue to recognize that those resources have been given to me by the Giver of all good things and that my skills in strategy are only a spark compared to the blazing intellect of the Lord, that my ability to communicate is overshadowed by the one whose very word is right and true, whose very ability to communicate didn't just create ideas or explain concepts but created the very world and universe. As long as my heart is rejoicing in him and not in my abilities, as long as I trust in his holy name and not my own skills I believe my heart is right.