Psalm 131 (NLT)
Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord— now and always
At first glance, this is an odd little psalm as David compares himself to a child that has weaned off of its mother’s milk, but it contains a plethora of rich meaning for followers of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon remarked that, “It is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn. It speaks of a young child, but it contains the experience of a man in Christ.” David certainly had learned much from a life of ups and downs…failures and successes…pride and humility. We should glean what we can from all that he experienced.
David learned to reject both pride and haughtiness. Pride leads us to think more highly of ourselves than we should (Rom. 12:3) while haughtiness takes that pride and turns it into a pedestal from which we look down at the people around us. David had been anointed the next king of Israel but had to spend several years in humble submission and even exile before the crown would rest on his head. When he sent his men off to war, he abused his power and took another man’s wife, eventually having that man killed in an attempt to cover his tracks. And just when he thought he had gotten away with it, he was publicly confronted by the prophet Nathan and exposed for the conniving murderer he had become and eventually, his power was undermined by his own son. David’s pride and haughtiness were driven from him, but it was not a painless process (Jas. 4:6).
Additionally, David did not set his eyes on higher and higher levels of success but learned to be content with whatever the Lord allowed him to achieve. On two occasions he had the ability to kill King Saul and take the throne, but he chose to trust in the Lord’s providence rather than taking advantage of every opportunity that came his way. There is a fine line between sinful ambition and working to be the best in the name of the Lord (1 Cor. 10:31) and trusting Him with the results. Are you striving to bring glory to God, or to yourself? “It is … difficult to recognize unruly ambition as a sin because it has a kind of superficial relationship to the virtue of aspiration—an impatience with mediocrity, and a dissatisfaction with all things created until we are at home with the Creator, the hopeful striving for the best God has for us” (Peterson, cited in Boice).
“Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself” (v. 2a). Instead of proud pursuits, David determined to find satisfaction and serenity of soul, content with God and His works. Those who feel constantly driven to do and achieve more in their relationship with God should learn some of what David here learned—to be content in the fact that God loves us no matter what we do, good or bad. That is why he can compare himself to a weaned child who no longer craves its mother simply for what she can immediately provide, but draws near to her for love, closeness and companionship. Additionally, as Spurgeon recognized, “Blessed are those afflictions which subdue our affections, which wean us from self-sufficiency, which educate us into Christian manliness, which teach us to love God not merely when he comforts us, but even when he tries us.”
“O Israel, put your hope in the Lord— now and always” (v. 3). We can only learn and live the lesson David sang of in this short psalm if we set our hope in the LORD, and in nothing else. Nothing or no one else gives the same assurance. “The last verse rouses us from contemplating David to following his example and that of his greater Son: not through introspection but through being weaned from insubstantial ambitions to the only solid fare that can be ours. ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work’ (Jn 4:34)” (Kidner). Let us all seek to do our Father’s will with great humility and while resting in His good plans and providence to experience the contentment He has set aside for each one of His children.
