| I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself. |
| —Psalm 89:2 |
I remember the day that my mom, my sister, and I walked down our country road to an old house not far away from our farmhouse. No one lived there anymore, so Mom took us for an exploration of the first floor. Once we left that front door on the way out, Mom told us that we were never allowed to again enter that house. The floors not only showed wear, but they were very unsteady and quite unsafe. We could not trust that they would hold us up.
Instead, when we went exploring, my sister and I would stay outside of that house in the yard. In the spring, we picked lilacs and roses off the bedraggled bushes on the outside. Not long after, at least as I recall, the old place mysteriously burned one Halloween. No, we did not start the fire!
That mental picture, from long ago—of shaky floors and a rundown old house—reminds me of a few people I’ve known. These are individuals who promise they will send me this or that, or attend an event to which I invited them, or get me the information I need. Like that old house that has lost its usefulness, these individuals can be expected more often to disappoint than they can be trusted to fulfill their promises.
Thankfully in every way, our God reveals His character as trustworthy, solid, sure, steady, and firm. What He says, He will do. Who He says He is, He is. We can take God at His word. He is fully trustworthy in all circumstances. To depend on Him and His written Word gives us stability in a changing, uncertain world. Into the places He takes us, we can put down our full weight and trust Him.
Not only does God exhibit the traits of never-failing strength, but He also expects us, His people, to exhibit the same character traits. What we say we will do, we must do. What we promise, we must fulfill. What we speak, must always be depended upon as truth.
In Psalm 15, David gives a picture of integrity and shares the characteristics of an ideal worshipper. Of such person, David says, as recorded in Psalm 15:2, 5:
he keeps his oath even when it hurts … He who does these things will never be shaken.
Oh, yes, we stay away from dangerous, shaky floors. They do not stand up to even normal wear, let alone the windstorms of life. Can we be trusted to represent the enduring, true, solid ways of our eternal God? May He give us His grace to do so!
