Bible Commentaries
Psalms 57

Verse 7

MY HEART IS FIXED

‘My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.’

Psalms 57:7

The earnestness with which these words are spoken shows that he who said them knew what it was to have an ‘ unfixed’ heart. And who has not felt the wretchedness of an ‘unfixed’ heart?

And what is the result? As respects yourself—failure. Life has been a failure. Of how many of you might it be said, ‘Life is a failure’? How could it be otherwise? What can ever prosper, without ‘fixedness’? What is ‘fixedness’? And how is ‘fixedness’ to be obtained?

To make ‘fixedness of heart’ there must be four things.

I. You must, first, have a definite view of truth.—It is not many who have been at the pains to make to themselves a clear system of their religion.

II. But it will not go the whole way; for look, secondly, there must be a distinct principle of action, and that principle which will gather up a man, and give him fixity, is this: ‘God is his Father. Of His own free, infinite grace, God loves me. And He has pardoned me, and He has accepted me in Christ. Why He should have done this, I do not know—only He chooses to do so, and so it is. And His love is one. He has given me tokens of it, which can never deceive me. And I love Him, and I am happy in it, and my soul is at peace; and it goes back again to Him who loved it, and washed it, and made it His own.’

III. But, thirdly, there must be a singleness of aim.—As that which gathers itself up to one point—by the very drawing of its parts to the common centre—grows strong and immovable, so it is with the Christian; he has made up his mind long ago that there is only one thing really worth living for, and upon that one thing he is centring all he is and all he has. What is it? What is that one high scope, where all desires meet, beyond the world, far away in eternity?—The glory of God. ‘I am living for the glory of God; I am living for Him who lived and died for me.’

IV. And then, as the moving principle is one, and as the guiding aim is one, so the path becomes one, for there must be straightness of course.

And these four elements—a definite view—a distinct principle of action—a single aim—a straight course—these make in a man’s mind that state to which his conscience can bear him witness, and say, ‘My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.’

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘The fixed and stable heart, like the Eddystone Lighthouse amid the tumultuous sea, is only possible when it is welded to the eternal rock. Oh, that our hearts may be ever fixed on the glory of God, waking up all that is within us to sing and give praise! What exuberant ecstasy there is here! Can this be the harried soul which a little while ago was crying for the shelter of God’s wings? Waking with the dawn, it awakes the sleeping music of psaltery and harp, as when one bird in the spring woodland starts its morning lay and sings until the copse is one great orchestra. The happy soul makes its joy contagious.’