THE FIXED HEART
By: Marvin Mckenzie
Tags: Bible Study, Christian, Faith and Life, Christianity, Christian Living

Psalms 57:7 (KJV)

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

Psalms 108:1 (KJV)

A Song or Psalm of David. O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

Psalms 112:7 (KJV)

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

Among the most common uses of the work fixe or fixed is the idea of repairing or restoring a thing.

Friday my son came to the house and fixed my fence and a couple of leaking faucets.[1] I would like to have said he helped me fix my fence but I am not positive that would give an accurate picture of what happened. He fixed the fence. I supported him doing it.

The fence had gone into disrepair over twenty years of use. It’s been:

· Chewed on by horses and goats,

· Climbed on by grandchildren,

· Run into by me while pulling my trailer and finally

· Leaned on by cattle

until one morning I heard a loud popping sound and saw my calves running through my yard.

If I am to ever have any more livestock, I had to get the fence fixed.

I found it to be interesting that, as I began to study for this message, I almost came to believe that it was not proper English to use the word fixed in this manner.

Neither Merriam Webster’s 1828 dictionary nor the online version of Merriam Webster’s dictionary give to repair or restore a thing.

I think it was Cambridge Online Dictionary that redeemed my English.[2]

The Psalmist said, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.”

It seems to me a case could be made for having a fixed heart in the sense of a restored or repaired heart.

We enter this world under the curse of the sin nature and the presence of sin wounds our heart.[3]

We get,

· Cheated on

· Lied to

· Laughed at

· Stolen from

· Jilted

Disappointments, discouragements, and difficulties pile up so that we become bitter, angry and our hearts become grieved, broken and full of anger.

We can have:

· Hard hearts

· Black hearts

· Wicked hearts

· Broken hearts

But Jesus offers us a new heart.

So I can see a good case for asking God to fix our hearts.

But that isn’t what the word “fix” originally meant, and it is certainly not its primary meaning.

Webster’s 1828 dictionary gives it the definition, “Settled; established; firm; fast; stable.”

About the closest thing to really fixing my fence that Caleb did Friday is to nail down some boards.

To nail something down, that’s a legitimate part of the definition of the word.

The history of the word actually has more to do with planting something.

From this definition, and from the three verses in Psalms where the Bible speaks of the fixed heart, I want to preach to you three truths.

I. IT HAS ROOTS, SO IT SURVIVES DIFFICULTY

Psalms 57:6–7 (KJV)

They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

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

The Psalmist, who is certainly King David describes a very difficult time.

They were times of calamities

verse 1

They were times of reproach

Verse 3

He was among lions, spears, arrows and swords

Verse 4

He said they had prepared a net for his steps and digged a pit before him so that his soul was bowed down.

This was hard.

Ever had some hard times?

I think some of us are going through the most difficult times of our lives.

I have never heard so many pastors reference so often, how difficult things are right now.

I prayed for a list of preachers the other day and sent them a short text to tell them so.

I do not like getting groups texts.

Ones where they broadcast it to who knows how many people, but it looks like it is personal, so, whenever I send a message, I always send personal ones.

I did that a few days ago.

One pastor wrote back to say, “Amen. Got zero sleep last night and this morning I did my devotions and prayed for you”

Another one wrote to say, “Thank you for these words brother. I am in a situation today where I truly am seeking the truth. Not from a biblical standpoint but dealing with circumstances”

Another wrote back to say, “Thank you, my friend! I cannot remember a more trying time in my ministry. The prayers are much appreciated.”

I told you I think last week that Jack Trieber was almost in tears as he reported that he was not going to be able to open the college this semester.

He said that he had been in communication with one of his state representatives who said, “Pastor Trieber, I’ve never heard you discouraged before.” He told the Representative, “I’m not discouraged, I’m heart broken.”

I do hear positive reports from time to time, but even in them, it’s not the same.

One pastor wrote, “We never obeyed our governor and we are running 2/3rds our normal attendance.”

I know pastors are not the only people who feel like they are surrounded by, “…the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.”[4]

King David said, Psalms 57:7 (KJV)

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

Notice he says “my heart is fixed” twice.

He’d planted his heart deep, so those roots could find lots of fresh water.

He was going to survive this trouble.

But it wasn’t going to come from any shallow religious experience.

He needed to tap down into the very source of God.

I just want to say a short devotion and a simple prayer won’t get you through serious trouble.

I do not want to discourage you, nor do I want to criticize what you have been doing in your walk with the Lord.

But I do want to encourage you to dig deeper.

Separate from things that are worldly and spend more time doing things that bring your soul into communion with God.

· Bible reading and meditation

· Prayer

· Writing, journaling your communion with the Lord

Psalms 1:1–6 (KJV)

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Concerning the fixed heart,

II. IT STANDS TALL, SO IT IS STRONG AND CONFIDENT

Psalms 108:1 (KJV)

A Song or Psalm of David. O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.

Psalm 108 ends with the following,

Psalms 108:11–13 (KJV)

Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

Though he has enemies, trouble and difficulties, he is not afraid.

· God would help him in trouble

· God would help him to valiantly

· God would tread down his enemies.

Notice first of all

A. He had been chastened of God

Vs 11

Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?

This life is supposed to be a period of refinement, correction and molding into the image of the Lord.

Do not expect that to be easy.

Just as he did in the life of Job, expect that God will use adversity, enemies and even the devil, to bring about that refining.

When it is over, you will come forth as gold.[5]

B. He had rejected the help of men

Vs 12

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

In my estimation this is one of the most necessary things I see in modern Christianity.

We have had so many resources for help we haven’t ever needed to rely upon the Lord and many of us do not know how.

We have no experience doing it

We think god helps us by putting us in the path of the help of man.

I had a conversation with a missionary last week. He was complaining about how broken the current system of missions support is.

I tried to remind him that.

1. It is always easy to pick on the things we think are hard

2. People work their whole lives to get to travel around the country and visit new places (something missionaries complain about)

3. Missionaries have the most reliable form of support today than in any time in history

4. Anabaptist missionaries often thought support was being given the skills and tools they needed earn a living on the field.

It was either Hudson Taylor or David Livingston who worked for a doctor in England while they studied in theology school. The doctor they worked for was forgetful and often would not pay him his salary.

He decided to ask God, to remind the doctor and never to remind him personally.

He reasoned that if he could not trust God to tell the doctor, who saw him every day, to remember to pay him, how could he ever trust God to tell the churches back home, whom he would not see in person perhaps ever again to send him his support.

I’m just saying we haven’t had to exercise much faith probably in the last 150 years. So not many of us know how to do it.

C. It was God who would tread down the enemy

Vs 13

Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

This is an interesting verse.

Through God we shall do valiantly.

So the people of God are going to do something. And it is going to be valiant.

· It’s going to be effective

· It’s going to work

…for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

The people of God will not tread down their enemies. God will do that.

It’s not us who accomplishes anything. It’s always God.

When Jesus returns in Revelation 19, the armies of heaven follow Him. But He conquers his enemies all by himself.

Brother Tad sent me a message thanking me for allowing him to preach last Wednesday. He said, “I’m thankful you’re doing a great work in the PNW!”

I responded to him, “Well, I am working in the PNW. If anything great is happening that’s God.”

I was thinking the other day, my whole ministry has been a series of failures on my part, followed by rescue on God’s part.

I am not going to list them right now but over and over again I have stepped out by faith, found out I was absolutely incapable of doing what I set out to do, so God did it for me.

And then I realized that is what I had set out to do all along. Before I ever went to Bible College, I heard Jerry Falwell say that we ought to climb out on a limb so far that, if God doesn’t hold us up, we will fall for sure.

All of these years, I’ve kept climbing out on limbs and God has kept saving me on them.

And I am happy to live the rest of my life keeping at it.

The most pleasant memories in my life are not about the things I have done, but about the ways God has saved me from the things I have done.

Finally concerning the fixed heart

III. IT IS OBVIOUS, SO IT GIVES GLORY TO GOD

Psalms 112:7–10 (KJV)

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.

He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

From verse 11 I see that the man with the fixed heart

Is generous

He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor

Is righteous

his righteousness endureth for ever

He is Christlike, he is godly

Is reputable

his horn shall be exalted with honour

The horn has to do with his authority and power.

People know him to be a man of dignity.

And notice this,

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved…

His reputation is not only among his friends, but also those who are wicked.

He brings glory to God in all the venues of his life.

And it all goes back to his fixed heart.

Not just that he says, “I will not move from my faith.”

But that he has purposely planted his roots deeply in the things of God.

Conclusion

So I want to ask you today, How is your relationship with God?

Is it fixed, rooted, real?

Is it genuine?

Can you speak with the Lord?

Can you trust the Lord without leaning on a person to hold you up?[6]