Skip to content ↓

Put Not Your Trust in Presidents

Put Not Your Trust in Presidents

Tomorrow is sure to be quite the day. The whole world will be watching as Americans head to the polls to elect a new president, finally bringing an end to what has been one of the longest, nastiest, and most divisive election seasons ever. Whoever wins tomorrow will face an especially difficult challenge as he or she tries to prove worthy of the challenge ahead. No matter which of the candidates wins, a great number of people will be left gravely disappointed and more than a little disconcerted. Today I want to offer perhaps just a little bit of hope from across your northern border.

Just about a year ago, Canadians elected the Liberal Party of Canada to a majority government, making Justin Trudeau our Prime Minister. (A majority government means one party holds the majority of seats in parliament, allowing them to push through any agenda.) He became Prime Minister at a time when Canadians were eager for change—change toward a more liberal and licentious future. He was not the prime minister most Canadian Christians had wanted. As part of his campaign he had promised to legalize marijuana, he had said he would push forward with less restrictive euthanasia laws, he had even told prospective members of parliament they were not welcome in his party if they were pro-life. To no one’s surprise, the first year of his mandate has seen him push this progressive, liberal agenda. Next up is creating new laws related to gender identity and gender expression.

When I realized that Trudeau had been swept to power with this majority government, I was pushed to despair. A rush of gloom overtook me as I considered what it meant that Canadians had chosen this man, this party, this agenda. Little fears began to nag at me—fears for myself, for my children, my grandchildren, my church, my country. I can see where agendas like his must lead, and it doesn’t lead to safety or comfort for people who wish to honor God. Truly, it doesn’t lead ultimately to safety or comfort for anyone. Through biblical eyes I can see how his agenda brings harm to our nation and its people.

But an important realization began to draw me out of my despair. I found myself pondering the well-known words of Psalm 146:3-4 where the psalmist writes, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” I had no intentions of putting my trust in this new Prime Minister. But these words still spoke to me. They still comforted me because the psalmist admits his (and our) temptation to find hope in men, to put our trust in princes, presidents, and prime ministers. We know better. We know the futility of trusting in men. We know there is no salvation in men—men who were created from dust and who to dust shall return. But still we are prone to try to find our hope in them.

My temptation is not only to root hope in politicians but to root despair in them as well.

What really helped me was to understand that there are two sides to this temptation. My temptation is not only to root hope in politicians but to root despair in them as well. I will be tempted not only to find too much joy in the election of the person I voted for, but also to sink too far into despair in the election of the person I did not. Whether I soar too high or sink too low, I am declaring that I have put my trust in a man more than in God. I have forgotten that, ultimately, it is God who rules over and through earthly rulers. Too much excitement for my favored candidate or too much despair for the one I dislike—both are symptoms of the very same problem.

The psalmist gets this. He gets it and pushes back by declaring that our hope is to always be anchored in God: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” In the rest of the psalm he explains why God and God alone is worthy of our confidence: He is the one who created the world, he is the one who formed humanity, he is the one who sustains all that exists, he is the one who keeps faith, who executes justice, who provides for our needs, who brings the wicked to ruin. He is the one who rules through good rulers and bad ones, through the ones I would have chosen and the ones I just can’t stand.

“The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD” (Psalm 146:10)! Whoever is elected tomorrow, whoever has a mandate to further his or her agenda, it is the Lord who reigns. It always has been and it always will be.


  • A Batch of New Books for Kids

    A Batch of New Books for Kids (and Teens)

    Every month I put together a roundup of new and notable books for grownup readers. But I also receive a lot of books for kids and like to put together the occasional roundup of these books as well. So today I bring you a whole big batch of new books for kids of all ages…

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (March 28)

    A La Carte: The case against the abortion pill / What I’ve learned about grieving with hope / Heartbreaking deception: teen girls, social media, and body image / Could podcasts save the church from stupidity? / Count it all joy / and more.

  • What God Wants You To Forget

    What God Wants You To Forget

    We are never far from reminding God of our credentials, of providing him with a curriculum vitae that lays out all we are, all we have been through, and all we have accomplished for his sake. We are never far from making the subtle turn from grace to merit, from what is freely given to…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 27)

    A La Carte: New music / Millennials and GenZ / Scotland’s new hate crime law / Cate Blanchett, Easter is for you / Why the Reformed pray for revival / What truly happened to Jesus on the cross? / and more.

  • New and Notable Books

    New and Notable Christian Books for March 2024

    As you know, I like to do my best to sort through the new Christian books that are released each month to see what stands out as being not only new, but also particularly notable. I received quite a number of new titles in March and narrowed the list down to the ones below. I…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 26)

    A La Carte: God delivers from the suffering he ordains / The beautiful partnership of family and church / The end of religious liberty / On whales, menopause, and thanks to God / Ordinary women, extravagant gifts / and more.