My Heart Is Steadfast

Note: The following is adapted from a devotion I shared at the CYPU Winter Conference at the end of 2012.

Psalm 57:5-11
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
6 They have prepared a net for my steps;
My soul is bowed down;They dug a pit before me;
They themselves have fallen into the midst of it.  Selah.
7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!
8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
9 I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among the nations.
10 For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens
And Your truth to the clouds.
11 Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.

Today I want to tell you about a man I used to know named Brad. Brad was a man with a troubled past who came to our church several years ago, and I can't read or sing this psalm without thinking of him. Psalm 57 was his favorite Psalm, and he loved to sing 57B. Whenever we were singing favorite Psalms at church, I would automatically start turning to 57B when he raised his hand. Sitting in front of him in church, I could hear him “making a joyful noise,” even if he wasn't the most talented singer.

One of the main reasons he loved this Psalm so much was that it related to his life so well. His life had been full of troubles. He had fallen into the pits of sin and had been ensnared in the traps of this world. A common way to catch an animal in ancient times was to find an animal trail and prepare a booby-trap so that an animal that stepped on a certain spot would be ensnared in a net or a claw, unable to escape. The Bible talks over and over again about snares of death and becoming tangled in the snares of sin. One example is Psalm 141:8-10: 

 

8 For my eyes are toward You, O God, the Lord;
In You I take refuge; do not leave me defenseless.
9 Keep me from the jaws of the trap which they have set for me,
And from the snares of those who do iniquity.  
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I pass by safely.

 

As an alcohol and drug addict, Brad knew the feeling of being entangled in sin. Again and again, he fell into the traps of wickedness. Finally, his soul was so “bowed down” from his sin that he had nowhere to turn but to the Lord.

God worked in his life, and Brad began to be freed from his addictive entanglements. He could sing with the Psalmist in verses six and seven of the 124^th Psalm: 

 

6 Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. 
7 Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper;
The snare is broken and we have escaped. 
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

The Lord is the only one who can save us from our sin and from ourselves. Brad was able to say with David in verse 9: “I will give thanks to You, Lord, among the peoples...for Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens.” 

I could end Brad's story here—it'd be happier and easier that way. Unfortunately, his story doesn't end yet. Until now, I've been talking about the hope that salvation through Christ gives us in escaping from sin, but the Bible also gives warnings about backsliding—falling back to sin after being saved. Sadly, this is exactly what happened to Brad. After many months of serving the Lord (not without struggles, of course), he went back to his previous sinful lifestyle. He came back to church a few times after that but has rejected our attempts to re-connect with him. He has turned his back on the Lord and is no longer in the visible church.

What are the applications which we can take to heart from Brad's story and Scripture? Specifically, how can we keep from backsliding?

• It's difficult to dwell on sad stories like Brad's, but we are nevertheless called to ponder our own faithfulness. Your youth, your upbringing, or your pastor doesn't make you immune to struggles and temptations. Sadly, Brad's case isn't all that rare in the church. We would do well to take to heart the words of Paul's exhortation in II Corinthians 13:5: "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!"
• Watch your influences.  Assess whether the people you spend time with encourage you in your walk with God. Be vigilant and examine what you put into your mind—the movies you watch, music you listen to, and books you read.
• Make your faith your own. Don't merely ride on the coattails of your friends' or your parents' faith.  Follow the command of I Peter 3:15 and "sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you."
• Beware the slippery slope. One small decision leads to a small consequence, which leads to another choice, which eventually leads to huge consequences. Before Brad completely rejected the Lord and His people, he failed to attend church services. Backsliding doesn't start when you renounce your faith or when you do a “really bad” sin. It starts with seemingly small decisions—like skipping daily devotions or church—but ends with enormous consequences.
• Love God's Word. Be in the Word daily, being refreshed with Scripture as you would water. How many days in the past week did you eat food?  How many days in the past week did you feed on God's word?  Deuteronomy 8 tells us that God gave the Israelites manna every day to teach them “that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” God was teaching them that, just as they relied on Him daily for food, they must rely on Him daily for spiritual nourishment.
• Love God's people. Look around you. You're surrounded by people who love the Lord. That's a huge part of the church. The church is a community of believers for accountability. If you love God's people, you will become more like them and will desire Christ-centered fellowship with them. You won't desire to turn away from the Lord and hurt those people.

We should long to sing the words of Psalm 57:7:  

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!”