Verse collection
Bible verses about trusting God
Fourteen verses on trusting God, shortest first. Most of them were written by people who were being hunted, besieged, or waiting for an answer that had not come.
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Trust in the Bible is not a feeling you wait for. It is closer to a decision about where to put your weight, made before the ground has proved itself: David commits his way to the LORD while his enemies are still pursuing him, and Jeremiah describes the trusting person as a tree in a drought, still green. These verses are short because trust is usually exercised in a sentence, said under your breath. Every verse below is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible with a line of context. Pick one, learn it in about five days, and it will be ready the next time you have to let go of something you cannot control.
Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be achieved.
A proverb traditionally attributed to Solomon. The Hebrew verb behind commit means roll, as in rolling a load off your own back and onto someone strong enough to carry it.
O LORD of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!
The last line of a pilgrim song by the sons of Korah, written by people who longed for God's courts. After all the longing, the psalm ends on the person who simply trusts.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.
David, writing in old age, in a psalm built around the word fret. The instruction is two steps, commit and trust, and the outcome is God's job, not yours.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
From the psalm Jewish families sang at Passover, and so likely one Jesus sang the night before He died. Refuge is a stronger word than trust: it is where you run.
But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation.
David asks How long, O LORD four times in the opening verses of this psalm. Then comes the turn, and it turns on the word but. The trust is stated before the rescue arrives.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but loving devotion surrounds him who trusts in the LORD.
David after confessing his sin, in a psalm that begins with the blessing of forgiveness. The picture is of loving devotion surrounding the one who trusts, on every side.
Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
David, in a psalm of thanks for victories won. To know God's name is to know His character, and the verse says that is what trust grows out of.
Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
A prayer for the king before battle. Chariots and horses were the best military technology of the day, and David names them so that the contrast cannot be missed.
I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
No author is named for this psalm, and no circumstance. That may be why it fits so many: refuge, fortress, and a personal my God, all in one breath.
The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.
Nahum's whole book announces the fall of Nineveh, and this is its one tender line. The God who judges empires is the same one who cares for the person who trusts Him.
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
David, in a psalm he sang after God delivered him from Saul. A shield is only useful if you get behind it, which is what taking refuge means.
But I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.
David, with enemies at the gate, saying You are my God out loud. Jesus quoted the fifth verse of this psalm from the cross, and my times are in Your hands belongs beside it.
Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.
A morning prayer of David, and one of the church's traditional penitential psalms. He asks to hear of God's love first, and only then for directions.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.
Jeremiah, writing to a nation about to be conquered. The verses just before describe the person who trusts in man as a shrub in the desert; this is the other tree, and worth learning whole for a year of drought.
Word counts use this site's counting rule in the Berean Standard Bible. Each reference links to the verse in its chapter, because a verse understood in context lands better than a verse alone.
A verse for when you have to let go
Trusting God is rarely tested when things are going well, which is why it helps to have a verse already in place before the test comes. The five-step method takes a few minutes a day: hear the verse aloud, say it while more and more words hide themselves, and finish by reciting it from just the reference. Start with Proverbs 16:3 or Psalm 37:5; either is yours in a few days, and both can be said in a single breath.
Questions
What does the Bible say about trusting God?
The Bible presents trusting God as an action rather than a mood: committing your way to Him (Psalm 37:5), taking refuge in Him rather than in people or power (Psalm 118:8, Psalm 20:7), and saying so out loud when the outcome is still unknown (Psalm 31:14-15). Jeremiah 17:7-8 describes the person who trusts God as a tree planted by water, still green in a drought. The trust is usually expressed before the rescue arrives, not after.
How do you trust God when you cannot see what He is doing?
The psalms model it by stating the trust first and the feelings second. Psalm 13 asks How long, O LORD four times and then says But I have trusted in Your loving devotion, before anything has changed. Psalm 143:8 asks to hear of God's love in the morning and then asks for directions. Practically, that means choosing a short verse about trust, saying it when the uncertainty is loudest, and letting the words hold the position your feelings cannot yet reach.
What is a short Bible verse about trusting God to memorize?
Proverbs 16:3 is twelve words: Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be achieved. Psalm 37:5 is fourteen: Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it. Psalm 118:8 is also fourteen words and contrasts refuge in the LORD with trust in man. Any of these can be learned in a few days with a few minutes of practice each morning.
Half remember a different verse?
The words don't need to match exactly, just type what you remember.