Psalm 108: 1, 4, 13 (ESV)
My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being! For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.
I grew up in a Texas Longhorn family. My parents met at the University of Texas in Austin and two of my three siblings attended, as well. I probably learned to make the “Hook ‘em Horns” sign on my right hand before I learned to write. Additionally, and especially, I came to love the University of Texas fight song, aptly entitled, “Texas Fight.” Do you remember any of the fight songs from your youth? Perhaps you still sing one on game days. I heard it before the game when the football team would take to the field and after every touchdown or 3-point conversion. It was meant to charge up the troops for battle. To celebrate victory. To intimidate our foes.
Psalm 108 has much the same effect. It is actually constructed of two previous psalms— Psalm 108:1-5 comes from Psalm 57:1-11, and Psalm 108:6-13 comes from Psalm 60:5-12. Its message is so important for God’s people that the Lord saw to repeat it, and thankfully so. We need to be reminded of the fact that through Christ, we are on God’s team, so to speak. He is our coach. He is our star quarterback. He is our Heisman Trophy winning running back as well as our All-American defensive tackle. He wrote the playbook and knows all the tricks of the opposing team…and He is undefeated since the dawn of time. His fight song is not wishful thinking, but rather, a prophetic cry of fact.
Steadfast is a powerful word. The Merriam-Webster definition gets us pretty close to the mark when it comes to its central place in today’s psalm:
- firmly fixed in place: IMMOVABLE
- not subject to change
- Firm in belief, determination, or adherence: LOYAL
The synonyms are also a great reminder of why these words are repeated in the Psalms: constant, dedicated, devoted, devout, down-the-line, faithful, fast, good, loyal, pious, staunch, steady, true, true-blue. Our hearts can be steadfast only because of God’s steadfast love (v. 4). When any sports team walks onto the field of battle, their confidence is determined by their talent as well as their past achievements. But unlike God, a human sports team can have a bad day. Their star player can get injured. They can lose momentum. The other team can play above itself and pull off the upset. None of these things are even an option for God.
As you move into another new day, let this “fight song” be on your lips. As you face another treatment or another day in the valley of the shadow of death, remember whose team you are playing for. As you struggle to hold onto hope, and maybe even your faith itself, remember the heart of your Father which is eternally steadfast for you. Spurgeon’s commentary on verse 13 soars with a rhetoric we all would do well to add to our fight song:
“Faith is neither a coward nor a sluggard: she knows that God is with her, and therefore she does valiantly; she knows that he will tread down her enemies, and therefore she arises to tread them down in his name. Where praise and prayer have preceded the battle, we may expect to see heroic deeds and decisive victories. Through God is our secret support; from that source we draw all our courage, wisdom, and strength. We shall do valiantly.”
