"But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him..."
-Psalm 103:17a (ESV)
Steadfast. In my personal reading of the Bible recently, this one word has stood out to me.
Steadfast. Normally, when I read the bible it's not single words that stand out to me, but entire phrases, sentences, verses, and passages; rarely is it single words that leap off the page and draw my focus to the epicness of God. Yet, recently this one word has screamed at me from the pages, reaching not just my knowledge filled head, but going deeper, stabbing into the emotion filled heart. In the ESV, steadfast occurs a total of 4 times in 22 verses. when a word is repeated, it is an essential word worth paying attention to. For me personally, this word has stood out because of what it means. According to Webster's Collegiate dictionary, 11th edition, steadfast is an adjective that, in this context means:
a. Firmly fixed in place: immovable.
b. not subject to change.
The reason steadfast has stood out to me? In Psalm 103, steadfast always precedes the word love.
Think about the implications of this. Since God's love is steadfast, God's love is a love that is: (as I write this, my heart is dancing inside of me! :D) IMMOVABLE.
I know I wrote that definition in all caps, but the amazingness of what that means is almost impossible for me to express. God's love is immovable, it can't be budged. And for a sinner like me, that is an incredibly comforting thought. The second definition of steadfast is equally epic. Because God's love is steadfast, it is not subject to change. Think about that for just a minute. When I run away from God, his love is not subject to change, when I do what I know I should not do and seek to satisfy the flesh and the old sinful nature His love for me (and you!) never changes. My love for God is not steadfast, I fall, I trip, I stumble, and I flat-out reject God sometimes. But God's love for me is not like my love for Him, as his love is immovable, and not subject to change. I never cease to be amazed by all the things I find in those moments of reading the bible, the things that cause my heart to rejoice in the majesty of my God. It is comforting to know that my God does not love me the way I love him. My life isn't always an easy one, but I have the steadfast love of God to sustain me on the way. That is a fact that causes my heart to dance, so I can say with the Psalmist:
"Bless the LORD, O my soul, all that is within me bless the his holy name!"
-Psalm 103:1 (ESV)
Truly Blessed,
Matt
(Numbers 6:24-26)
