Steadfast & Steady

Psalm 108 & 109

Ps 108:1 “My heart is steadfast, O God,

I will sing and make music

With all my soul

4 For great is your love

Higher than the heavens

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

5 Be exalted O God

Above the heavens

And let your glory be

Over all the earth.”

When I read Ps 108 I hear the Mercy Me song "How Great Is Your Love".  I love it that they would put this psalm to music, almost word for word.  The message of God's Word alive and loud, awakening their harps and lyres. 

In contrast Psalm 109 is a Psalm of suffering at the hands of someone else, of being singled and sought out for harm.  No one seems to write songs about that kind of thing, but there are lots of blog posts out there, devoted to walking through this piece of wilderness.  Because community is messy. 

And yet the call to love one another deeply is strong.  

Loving deeply.  

Loving the difficult people.  

Steadfastly.  

Define steadfast.

Is my heart steadfast? 

If it means showing up everyday, then yes.

And yet I think I show up a bit fearful.  

It’s easy to throw your heart open to heaven, but harder to throw it open to community. It is safe to show the softness and vulnerability to my small world around me, carefully selected and curated. I think I guard my heart more today than ever. 

I’m convicted because we were created for community, and for us to make sing and make music with our hearts and our souls we have to allow God’s breath to blow through us and give sound to our song. Like breath blowing through an instrument.  If it didn’t have an outlet, it would become a balloon that would just continue to fill up.   Till it explodes.

So I wonder where we find the balance.

Between vulnerability and safety.

A friend of mine passed away a few months ago.

He was elderly and didn’t mind sharing his views about life.

He taught me a lot about what it takes to love the family of God.

He taught me what long love looks like, and hard love.

And yet it was easy because it just happened.

And I miss him a lot.

Which shows that even though it was hard I still have a lot left to give.

Even when I worry that it will cost too much.

And yet I will not bring a sacrifice that cost me nothing.

That’s the fine line.  

Ps 109:22 ”I am poor and needy and sometimes my heart is wounded within me.”

But so is everyone else’s.

Let’s hang onto that today.