A Quieted Soul

Psalm 131
A Song of Ascents, of David.

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.

David associates a proud heart and haughty eyes with getting involved in great matters or things "too difficult for me". Knowledge of "great matters" puffs up the brain -as the apostle warns- but love builds up. David addresses God saying, 'Lord, this is not the facade I carry around to show others, this is who I am inside.'

How often we are tempted as Christians to try and understand everything, particularly politics. David was himself the King of his nation, a head of state. It must have been highly tempting for him to try and find assurance in policy arrangements, alliances, and involving himself in great matters and things too difficult for him.

World conflict can seem so great that a person can overlook the conflict within his own heart. And this is not difficult to do.

The quieted and composed soul of David is like the quiet and composed child who rests against his mother. Such a child has learned to understand that although the food does not come from his or her mother directly, their mother has prepared it in her love and such a child can rest in peace with their mother.

How easy it is to foster an unweaned soul, to think that unless God intervenes in a dramatically obvious way that He has little care or concern for His children.

David closes his Psalm calling on Israel to trust in the Lord in the most immediate moment and to trust in the Lord eternally without interruption. The ways of those who think upon great matters or things too difficult arrive at conclusions once they have tried to take all things into account, but no human being understands all things ... and the requirement to understand "all things" comes with a terrible delay. When such a person pretends he has arrived at such a conclusion he always looks back with unsteady thoughts -asking if he thought it through correctly. At the first sign of trouble he abandons everything.

The trust of the weaned child is immediate, and it does not protest at the first sign of conflict. It is deep, it is continuous, and it is full of peace. How excellent to have the soul of a weaned child.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.