Trusting in the Lord

Recently, my mother and I were talking about trusting in the Lord. She mentioned Jeremiah 17:5-8, which I later read and studied. It is a neat passage and I would like to share it with you:

(5) "Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. (6) For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitants. (7) Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. (8) For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.'"

I don't think we are often given such a clear contrast side by side of the consequences of trusting in the flesh versus trusting in the Lord. On one hand is a CURSE, and on the other is a BLESSING. The word used for "cursed" has been interpreted as meaning to bind (with a spell), to hem in with obstacles, to render powerless to resist.

It is far too easy to remove our trust from the Lord and try to rely on mankind or our own strength, but the grave consequences of doing so should make us think twice about it. It is a very serious thing! It's not just that we will be blessed if we DO trust in the Lord, we will be CURSED if we DON'T!

Also, I thought the similarity between Jeremiah 17:8 and Psalm 1:3 was fascinating. They are almost exactly the same! Psalm 1:3, which is referring to the man who delights in the law of the Lord, says,

"He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers."

On another note, what is the difference in Jeremiah 17:7, where it says "Blessed is the man whose trust is IN the Lord and whose trust IS the Lord"? I looked up some words and cross references, but couldn't figure out how they are different. I suppose essentially they mean the same thing, but I wondered if there was a different nuance to their meanings since it was stated both ways. To say "whose trust IS the Lord" seemed a little unusual and if there was something to be gleaned from it, I wanted to know what it was. :-)