The Hold Fast tattoo symbolizes staying tough and digging in the place where you’re at. This means staying in the position you are in, stopping whatever you’re doing, and getting away in nautical terms.  The main purpose of this HoldFast symbol was for people who worked as ship deckhands. It was a sign of good luck for them, and it encouraged them to maintain a good grip especially when the weather and the sea are trying to loosen it.

As defined by the Farlex Online Free Dictionary: Holdfast means to hang on to something: the intent to refuse to stop believing in something such as a theory, principle, religion, etc: She knew that whatever happened in her life, she would hold fast to her religious beliefs.

I think the seaman’s definition is far better than the second one. Let me borrow a phrase from my devotional book, Wisdom for Today, where the author of today’s wisdom borrowed a phrase from an old football announcer who started every game with the words “let me set the picture for you”. Here is the picture that I want to show you, and it comes from the book of Samuel and the book of Psalms.

David, the future king of Isreal, spent a whole lot of time running for his life from Saul, the paranoid, rebellious, current King of Isreal. He has his chance at one point, to take Saul’s life, end the chase and become the King himself. After all, he had been anointed by Samuel, God’s true prophet as the King, and the only thing that was stopping him from wearing the crown, was this crazy man, laying on the floor of a cave.

“Now’s your opportunity!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today the LORD is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.’” So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul’s robe and left it on the ground next to him.

David didn’t kill Saul. Even though he knew he was to be the next King of Isreal and ought to be King already, he would not lift his hand against him. David held fast against the temptation to fix this himself. He knew that God said he would do that so David, steady as a rock, remained obedient to God regardless of the circumstances he found himself in. David, to use a more common word, had Integrity. David was not a perfect man, just like you, and I, he was a sinful person, with doubts, suffered anxiety, and got angry, but still, he had integrity.

David’s kind of spiritual integrity is something we should want because it means that our goal in life should be the same as David’s, that our decisions will always lead us back to God and be obedient to Him. David wrote a very powerful Psalm while running from Saul. In that Psalm, David pleads with God to put his heart to the test. Really? That is a bit surprising. He wanted God to test him. I don’t think I can do that, and if I did, it would be a multiple-choice test. But that is not how God would do it, our decisions in life are either right or wrong and are not fill-in-the-blanks.

I have been tested, not because I asked to be, but because tests just come (like a kidney stone attack in the middle of the night), and when they do I hope that God finds himself in the center of my heart and that regardless of my circumstances, like David, I am holding fast to Him.

Psalm 26

Of David.

1 Vindicate me, Lord,
    for I have led a blameless life;
I have trusted in the Lord
    and have not faltered.
2 Test me, Lord, and try me,
    examine my heart and my mind;
3 for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love
    and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.

4 I do not sit with the deceitful,
    nor do I associate with hypocrites.
5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers
    and refuse to sit with the wicked.
6 I wash my hands in innocence,
    and go about your altar, Lord,
7 proclaiming aloud your praise
    and telling of all your wonderful deeds.

8 Lord, I love the house where you live,
    the place where your glory dwells.
9 Do not take away my soul along with sinners,
    my life with those who are bloodthirsty,
10 in whose hands are wicked schemes,
    whose right hands are full of bribes.
11 I lead a blameless life;
    deliver me and be merciful to me.

12 My feet stand on level ground;
    in the great congregation, I will praise the Lord.

Here is a story about a time when someone had to really Hold Fast!