More essential than your handbag

“My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.”

Psalm 57:7 [KJV]

Have you ever noticed the difference between what men and women carry when they leave home? Men take keys, a phone and maybe a wallet. Women typically carry a bag.

This bag is a full emergency kit. Sad hair day? I have bobby pins, scrunchies and elastics. Emotional breakdown? Tissues. Bad breath? Mints from the last church all-night-of-prayer. Health need? Cough lollies, sanitary products, band-aids, ibuprofen, and epi-pens. Want to take notes? Biros and a faded shopping receipt. Anything else? Scissors and safety pins.

We apply this attitude to other areas of life and try to pre-empt every inconvenience or crisis. We worry about how we will cope physically and emotionally, and yes, also spiritually, during times of testing or waiting.

How could David write so confidently in Psalm 57:7, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise”? How could he be so sure his heart would remain steady and stable despite the crisis he was in? The inscription at the top of the Psalm says it was written by David when “he fled from Saul in the cave”. 1 Samuel 24 describes how David fled from a vengeful King Saul. Although Saul unwittingly entered the cave where David was hiding, placing himself in David’s power, David refused to kill Saul and take the kingdom. He was adamant this was not God’s will, and nothing and no one could persuade him otherwise.

What was David’s secret? In Psalm 57 and 1 Samuel 24, we see three temptations David faced, and two things that kept his heart committed to God’s will. Let’s look at each of these five aspects in turn.

The first pressure to act outside of God’s will comes from own emotions. We ‘want out’ of difficult situations because they make us angry, upset, fearful and sad, or because they cost us things like sleep, friendship, time and peace. None of us would blame David for ‘wanting out’ of his situation. He was a victim of injustice and slander (1 Samuel 24:9-10), betrayed by people whose lives he saved (23:12-13), isolated from his best friend Jonathan (23:18) and separated from family (22:1-3). He felt like an animal hunted by fierce lions and trappers (Psalm 57:4,6). Yet if emotions, rather than obedience, drive our actions, we will end up outside of God’s will. Our heart is self-deceptive (Jeremiah 17:9), so we cannot trust it. Instead, we need to commit to obeying God, and pray like David did, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

The second pressure point is what people say. We all – but women in particular – desire to please those we care about. Some Christians have a habit of ‘announcing’ that God has told them who you should marry, what job to work, where and how to minister, and 101 different things not explicitly stated in Scripture. When the ‘announcer’ is someone we love and/or respect, they can be incredibly persuasive. But David’s situation is a warning that people sometimes wrongly claim to know God’s specific will for you. 1 Samuel 24:4a records, “And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand”. Look David, they said, overthrow Saul, this is God’s answer to your prayer! To claim “Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken”, is a very serious sin (Ezekiel 22:28b). Yet we hearers also have a responsibility to individually seek the Father’s will, like Christ did (John 5:30) and test all counsel against Scripture (Acts 17:11).

The third area is the temptation to place too much weight on circumstances when identifying God’s will. Circumstances placed Saul in David’s power. However, David was not swayed from his commitment to honour the Lord’s anointed, because he recognised circumstances are only one aspect God uses to reveal His will. Many of David’s Psalms refer to the books of Moses, which record many instances of God’s judgement on rebellion against his leaders (e.g. Miriam in Numbers 12:7-11). Regardless of the favourable circumstances, God’s Word said no, so David said no. We must learn to say no too, and remain committed to seek God’s will through studying the Scriptures (Matthew 22:29), prayer (Matthew 26:41), godly counsel (Proverbs 19:20) and obeying God’s commands (Deuteronomy 30:15).

How did David stay committed to God’s will? He was convinced of two key attributes of God.

Firstly, David was confident of the Lord’s faithfulness. In Psalm 57:1b, David declares, “O God … my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge.” He praises the Lord, “For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds” (Psalm 57:10). Because God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9), His eternal Word (Psalm 119:89) is also a faithful revelation of His will. “All scripture,” Paul writes, “is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Every detail of His specific will for our lives will align with general scriptural instructions. God’s faithfulness also means that His will for each one of us is “good, and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). God loves us, actively seeks our best, and will work in our lives for good (Romans 8:28). Whether through joy, suffering or waiting, we can be “confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Secondly, David believed the Lord would and could perform what He had willed. God had promised David that he would be the next king of Israel (see 1 Samuel 16:1,13), and even Jonathan, the rightful heir, had told David, “thou shalt be king over Israel” (1 Samuel 23:17). Yet David refused to kill Saul, and or allow his followers to do so (1 Samuel 24:6-7), and he held to this position again in 1 Samuel 26:8-9. David was adamant he could not “stretch forth mine hand against [Saul], seeing he is the anointed of the Lord” (1 Samuel 24:6b). He was content to let God determine the timing of when he should be king, sharing the sentiment expressed in Psalm 75:7: “But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another”.  Compare David’s actions with Hazael’s, a man also told by a godly prophet that he would be his country’s next ruler. In 2 Kings 8:13-15, Hazael, after hearing Elisha’s words, promptly murdered the king of Syria and took the kingdom (2 Kings 8). When God’s promises seem yet unfulfilled, are we a Hazael, engineering circumstances to get what we want? Or are we a David, content to wait on the Lord, and reminding ourselves that our God most high (Psalm 57:2) will make everything in His sovereign plan come to pass?  “Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19b).

In summary, the most well-intentioned plans (or thoroughly stocked handbag), will not keep us steadfast when we are tempted out of God’s will by our emotions, what people say, and circumstances. It’s only when we focus on God’s faithfulness, and His power to fulfil what He has willed, we can truly say, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.”