A Word in Season: The Steadfast Heart (Psalm 57:7)

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I wonder how you would feel if you were being hunted across the country like a wild animal.

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Without proper training and equipping, you would probably be in a flat spin, in a desperate panic, you wouldn't know where to turn.

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You've got no refuge, you've got no strength, you don't know what you're going to do. David felt something of that pressure in Psalm 57, where he records his experience of hiding from King Saul in a cave.

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Now David was the Lord's anointed, by this time he was a tried and tested man of war, he had a promise that the kingdom would ultimately be his, but at this point in time, there's a great gap between God's promises and God's providences, and David feels himself in deep distress.

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And so, without any other refuge, he comes to God to be his refuge, be merciful to me your

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God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you, and in the shadow of your wings,

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I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by. David says that out of the experience of having been deeply distressed.

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Later in the psalm, he'll talk about his soul being among lions, among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

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People have prepared a net for him, who have brought him to a low condition, his soul is bowed down, a pit has been dug before him.

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Everything seems to militate against David, and you can properly imagine that there would be distress and fear, perhaps panic, that David would not know which way to turn.

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And yet, toward the end of that psalm, in verse 7, David uses this language.

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My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast, I will sing and give praise.

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In the midst of this swirling, whirling turmoil, in the midst of this profound distress, in the midst of this panicked situation, when his very life is in danger, when he's being hunted like a beast,

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David is able to say, my heart is steadfast, my heart is fixed, my heart is established,

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I will sing and give praise. Now where do you get such stability in the midst of such trouble?

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It is by crying out to God for mercy and making the Lord God your refuge.

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David brings himself into a state where he is ready to worship with his eyes fixed upon the

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God of his salvation. He is going to sing and give praise because his heart is fixed.

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I don't know how you will gather today, if you're able to do so, to worship the Lord. Perhaps you're kept away by something that is deeply distressing.

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Perhaps there are things that cause you to panic and to cry out to God.

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Perhaps you're going to a church building, but you're going there and you've got burdens to carry and there are real troubles of soul upon you.

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It may be that there are things that are coming into your life that you don't know how to cope with. It may be that there are people who are assaulting you or undermining you.

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There may be all kinds of attacks around you and against you from within and from without.

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And you may feel that the promises of God and the providences of God are very far apart for you at this point in time.

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But if you are going to a merciful God, if you are going to make his wing your refuge, if you are going to come under his shadow and rest in his grace, then you can come with a steadfast heart and you can go with a steadfast heart.

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Perhaps you need to fix your heart for the purpose of worship, to sing and to give praise, to come with a soul that, despite the fact that it has been brought low, nevertheless you are ready to offer the praises to which

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God himself is entitled. And you will come because you know who your God is, you know what he is like, you know of what he is worthy and you will render that to him.

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Or perhaps you need to go to worship in order for your heart to be fixed. You need to go and put yourself under the word of God.

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You need to go and get yourself amongst the saints of God. You need to go and hear the truth of God.

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You need to go and sing truth or speak forth the praises of God in some way in order that your heart may become yet more steadfast.

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When our hearts are directed toward God, when our souls are fixed upon him, then the turmoil and distress that is around us in every other place comes into perspective.

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My heart then is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise.