Psalm 21: Steadfast

This past Sunday, my Mom had the opportunity to share at her church about a trip that she will be taking to Asia and Australia over the next couple of months. She will be reuniting with friends that she was a missionary with in the Philippines over 50 years ago and seeing the fruit, the bountiful fruit, that has come forth from the seeds the Lord used her and many others to plant, in what I’m sure, seems like a lifetime ago. She shared that her call from God began in Bible college, when a professor quoted John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go forth and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” It was a verse that was familiar to her, that she had read and heard others read on more than a few occasions, but at that moment, as the professor quoted it, the living and active Word of God, dived into her heart and became her witness that she indeed was chosen.

What exactly does it mean to be chosen? We hear of it often, we’ve all heard John 15:16 quoted in some form and it’s both comforting and challenging to think of being chosen by God. The comfort comes in knowing that we have not earned His attention or His affection, but then comes the challenge, chosen for what? Chosen for service, for action, for ministry, what have we been chosen for? That thought takes us back to the very human idea of being chosen, or worse yet, not being chosen. When we were children and teams were being picked, we chose according to ability. When we got a little older and started asking or being asked on dates, we chose according to appearance. When it was time to find a college or a career, we chose according to interest and desired income. Most of our choices have to do with benefits, we have chosen according to how our choices can most benefit us. Could that be what God has done? Is that what He is doing? Is He choosing us according to how we can impact His kingdom? Fulfill His desires? Accomplish His tasks? Are we chosen to benefit God?

In Psalm 21:7, David wrote, of both himself and the coming Messiah, “For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.” The word that we translate as “steadfast love” in this verse is the Hebrew “checed”. It’s a word that has a depth of meaning. Sometimes it’s translated as lovingkindness, sometimes as mercy, sometimes as kindness, but it always carries with it a sense of a singular choice that is constant, a decision that is continual, a commitment that won’t be changed or taken away.  The Moody Bible Commentary says that this word “indicates God’s covenant love, His faithful and continual expression of what is best for those who are His own . . .” 

We are chosen for love. We are chosen for salvation, for redemption, for adoption. We are chosen for an eternal relationship with God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. From that love relationship comes many things, obedience, servanthood, ministry and so much more, but none of those things are what we were chosen for. Before David was anointed king, killed Goliath, a mighty warrior or even the psalmist of Israel, he was chosen by the love of God. From that love David became a man after God’s heart, he followed God’s leadership, he succeeded and failed, he obeyed and disobeyed, but he lived in God’s love.

David went on to write, the steadfast love of the Most High is the thing that keeps him from being moved. It’s not anointing that holds our hearts in place, it’s not a sense of call or purpose, it’s a confidence in love. David didn’t hold firm because he knew God had made him king, he writes here that he held firm because he knew that God had chosen to love him, and that choice would never be forsaken. Many of us are looking for strength, for hope, for validation and for confirmation in what we do for God, in the task we think we were born to complete. David is telling us, we weren’t chosen to complete a mission, we were chosen to be loved.

My Mom was chosen by God. He took her to the Philippines as a missionary in her early adult years. He led her home to be a wife and a mother, a teacher, friend, neighbor, sister, aunt, grandmother and so many other things. He used her in many ways, but He chose her for love. I’m so excited that my Mom gets to go back to the place where so much of her life began, so that she can see that it was His love that led her to the mission field and His love that led her home. It was His love that joined her to my Dad and His love that gave her my brother and me. It was His love that has ordered all her steps and now His love is going to give her a glimpse of what He has done with every year she put in His hands. In truth, none of us accomplish much, but if we live in and for God’s love, there is no limit to what He can accomplish. Fruit that lasts doesn’t come from great work, it comes from trusting in God’s great, no, His steadfast love.