Steadfast and Singing

“My heart is steadfast, O God!
    I will sing and make melody with all my being!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn!
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
    I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
    Let your glory be over all the earth!” Psalm 108:1-5

“Your statutes have been my songs
    in the house of my sojourning.” Psalm 119:54

“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
    and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
    and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
    and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
    or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” Daniel 4:34-35,37

There’s little more spiritually invigorating than awakening the dawn with praise. When Creator God’s fiery splendor breaks through the silent darkness before dawn, synchronized with my welling heart of gratitude and praise, the glory is untouchable, magnificent. Soul strings of harp and lyre and heavenly melody mingle with divine love and faithfulness beyond the heavens.

But why is it, as the sky fades to pale day, that the sky seems to lower, the magnificence of praise fades to mediocre, and the groundswell of song grows hushed and timid? Do emotions fall so quickly to wanting ‘signs’? Is steadfastness stuck only in the spectacular? (John 4:48; 7:21)

God’s worthiness never wanes. His love, faithfulness, and glory abide above the heavens and over all the earth and nations, day in, day out. His throne cannot be shaken, His dominion never diminished. He is exalted, and deserves to be exalted. So how does the song remain?

The psalmist has great resolve. Outside looking up, or in his house, or along his sojourning, he ‘wills’ to sing, make melody, awaken the dawn, and give thanks. The humbled king Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven and reasonably, willfully blessed the Lord. Praise is a practice, a determination of the will surrendered to God’s omnipotent greatness.

“O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free;
a heart that’s sprinkled with the blood
so freely shed for me:

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
my great Redeemer’s throne;
where only Christ is heard to speak,
where Jesus reigns alone:

A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
believing, true, and clean,
which neither life nor death can part
from him that dwells within:

A heart in every thought renewed,
and full of love divine;
perfect and right and pure and good —
a copy, Lord, of thine.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart,
come quickly from above;
write thy new name upon my heart,
thy new best name of Love. ~Charles Wesley (1742)

Would we seek this steadfast heart? Would we endeavor to repeat the refrain of praise to our King?

Glorious Lord, write Your steadfast, loving nature on my heart, that I would freely, consistently, sing to Thee with all my being.