Steadfast Love & Faithfulness

Six weeks after my husband and I were married, we returned home from a ten-day trip. We had left Charlie the Cat at home with friends who came every other day to give him fresh water and food. I felt bad asking our friends to clean Charlie’s litter box, so I didn’t. We also wanted to save money while we were gone, so we turned off the air-conditioning while we were away (bad decision for Oklahoma in late May/early June).

Upon entering our house, we smelled the litter box several rooms away. The hot house only magnified the smell. Then we discovered that Charlie the Cat had used my husband’s bean bag chair as a secondary litter box. Charlie had never done anything like that, but his box was overflowing, and the bean bag was probably seemed like a good alternative to him. We were both tired from our road trip, and we came home to a stinky mess. My husband was mad which doesn’t happen often. In my recollection he yelled, but I’ve never heard him yell since, so it was probably my perception. “I’m going to beat that cat!” Charlie the Cat cowered even if you gave him a hard look. He certainly didn’t need a beating.

With that one declaration, all those mushy love feelings when you first get married vanished. I snapped back, “You will not. I will take my cat and leave!” Aside from being totally ridiculous because I would have to go on foot carrying a cat in a city I had just recently moved to, my fickle heart reared its ugly head. Steadfast love and faithfulness to my husband was tossed aside in a heated moment to needlessly protect my cat which my husband never would have actually hit.

This is just one story from my life. I could never remember the abundant times I have been unloving or unfaithful to God and others. This side of heaven, I will continue to be unloving and unfaithful even when I don’t intend to. It would drive me to despair if I didn’t know the truth of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.

10 I have not hidden Your deliverance within my heart;

I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;

I have not concealed Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

11 As for You, O Lord, you will not restrain

Your mercy from me;

Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness will

ever preserve me! [1]

I would encourage you to back up and read Psalm 38-40 for the full context. David has been in distress and called on God for help. In Psalm 40:1-10, David praises God for deliverance, but by verse 12, we read that he is again in need of deliverance. I was drawn to vs 10-11 because they are a transition between praise for past deliverance and prayer for new deliverance. They reveal God’s character and how we need to cling to God, who He is, and what He has done both for praise and to trust Him in new trials.

According to WordPress, the ESV uses the phrase “steadfast love” 196 times in the Old Testament and 127 times in the Psalms alone. I couldn’t find counts in Scripture for God’s faithfulness, but it is expressed numerous times throughout Scripture as well.

I love the adjective steadfast describing love. Unlike our love, or faithfulness for that matter, God’s love is abiding, relentless, unwavering. It is not dependent on how often we sin or how many good deeds we do. It is the same Hebrew word used in Psalm 23:6 when David asserts that surely God’s goodness and mercy (hesed) will follow (hotly pursue) him all the days of his life. This is God’s steadfast love.

Paul David Tripp describes God’s faithfulness. “Peace is not found in the degree of our faithfulness to God, but in the utterly unshakable nature of His faithfulness to the commitment of grace He has made to us. . . His faithfulness is not a demonstration of how well you're doing; no, it's a revelation of how completely holy, righteous, kind, and good He is. He remains faithful even on your most unfaithful day." [2]

What is our response to God’s steadfast love and faithfulness? What do we learn from David? First in verse 10, we learn that we should remember the ways we have seen God’s steadfast love and faithfulness exhibited in our own lives and in the lives of others. Remembering leads to praising God for His steadfast love and faithfulness, and not solely praising Him in the seclusion of our own quiet time – “I have not hidden Your deliverance within my heart; I have not concealed Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness” – but we speak of it to others. We make God’s steadfast love and faithfulness known in the “great congregation.”

Why does it matter if we make God’s steadfast love and faithfulness in our lives known to others? It encourages and builds up others in the body of Christ. Someone else may be midst their own struggle and wavering in their faith. They too need to be reminded of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. God remains the same regardless of our circumstances. Declaring God’s steadfast love and faithfulness also helps cement the truth in our own hearts and minds. It may prompt conversations with others remembering, declaring, and praising God with you.

Second, in verse 11, we learn that remembering and being grateful for God’s past steadfast love and faithfulness emboldens our faith for new trials. This side of heaven, we will continue to face trials of all kinds. David faced new evils encompassing him and his iniquities overtaking him (vs 12). He petitioned the Lord again to deliver and help him (vs 13). He portrays himself as poor and needy (vs 17).

Yet, before he pens verses 12-17, David states, “As for You, O Lord, You will not restrain Your mercy from me: Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness will ever preserve me!” David is facing his new trials within the context of who God is and what God does. He prays with certainty in his new trials that God will not withhold mercy from him. God’s steadfast love and faithfulness will ever preserve him.

Clinging to these truths and his personal experience of God’s love and faithfulness, David can even pray for others in their trials. “But may all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” David is so certain of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness that he believes others can rejoice and be glad in God, and praise God themselves.

You and I are still poor and needy. We need God’s rescuing grace each day. We need His steadfast love and faithfulness for the times when we are unloving and unfaithful and times even when we are loving and faithful, for it is only by God’s mercy and grace and that we can reflect His character. And when we fail to reflect God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, God still sees us with Jesus’ perfect record of loving steadfastly and being always faithful in all things.

Reflection

1. What are some examples in your life of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness? Take time to praise God for His past and present steadfast love and faithfulness? Who can you share it with?

2. If you are currently facing a trial, what specific ways does God’s steadfast love and faithfulness encourage your faith in Him to grow? For example, if you are anxious about something, what do you know about God’s steadfast love and faithfulness that would counter your anxious heart. He cares for the birds and flowers. He will also care for you (Matthew 6:25-34). From our verses today, God will not restrain His mercy from you, and His steadfast love and faithfulness will preserve you.

3. Write out a prayer based on today’s verses. Include both praise and petition that reflect God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 40:10–11. [2] Tripp, Paul David. “May 3.” New Morning Mercies, Crossway Books, S.l., 2021.