Pastor's Blog

God’s Heart Center

Psa. 112:7 - …his heart is fixed, (KJV)

Here we find the psalmist vouching for another. This brief phrase, pregnant with thought, is a testimony to personal character. The psalms are full of such testimonies, given on the witness-stand of life, given on behalf of anonymous individuals whose lives are deemed worthy of imitation. What prospective employer would not relish finding the words “his heart is fixed” on a letter of reference. Company loyalty never had it so good as when one could say of its employees, “Their hearts are fixed!” But had the first word been “my” instead of “his” we would no longer have a character reference, but rather a pledge of allegiance.

Ironically, the more we protest our own loyalty the more fickle our heart shows itself to be. It is the mark of shallow people that they must most loudly proclaim their loyalty that they least know the instability of their hearts. Just a few hours before Peter had three times denied association with Jesus, he proudly proclaimed, “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I” (Mark 14:29). The one who has most fully come to trust in Christ has come to least trust his own heart. Concerning his own heart, he is in sympathy with the prophet Jeremiah who confessed, “The heart is deceitful above all things … who can know it” (Jer. 17:9)? It is far better when the strength of our character is affirmed by what others see in us than by what we see in ourselves. 

Let us note that our heart is worthy of affirmation when it is “fixed.” If the prophet is right and the deceitfulness of our heart defies detection, then it is in need of repair. When a heart is “fixed” it has been repaired. For the heart that is continually hiding is the heart that has something to hide. The deceitful heart engages in deceitful tactics, dodging, avoiding, eluding and concealing. It is a heart that is broken and distrustful of the healing touch. How could the psalmist testify to the healthy condition of his friend’s heart had he not been witness to the healing work that had taken place in it? He was there when the heart was in a bad way. He saw the result when the Lord opened and repaired a heart that before had been closed to His healing touch.

When a heart is “fixed” it cannot be moved. Hearts that have felt the deepest pain of betrayal can most appreciate the security of commitment. Where there is a lack of commitment there is immaturity. A wayward heart is an immature heart. In the psalmist’s character witness to our anonymous friend, he observed a heart that had matured to the highest level of commitment. Possibly, our hero was not a perfect man. He may have been one who had seen it all, had done it all. Maybe he knew what it was to inflict on others the pain of betrayal. Wherever his heart had wandered, it would wander no more. He knew the shallowness of a heart that bounced from one attachment to another. He wanted something deeper in life, something that could only come from a heart that is “fixed.”