Blessed are the Humble
Psalm 131
PSALMS OF ASCENT
#Blessed are the Humble
A song of ascents. Of David.
My heart is not proud, LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great
matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted
myself,
I am like a weaned child with its
mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.
While Psalm 131, written by King David, is one of the shortest Psalms to read, Spurgeon warns that it is one of the longest to learn. Eugene Peterson again calls it a maintenance psalm as it gets rid of that which looks good to those who don’t know any better. He unequivocally declares, “we need pruning,” recalling the words of Jesus in John 15:2: He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. David Powlison wrote extensively on Psalm 131 and reminds us that both Jesus and David were kingdom-builders who achieved huge things in the midst of commotion and trouble. “They experienced pressure, joy, heartache, outrage, affection, and courage.” His conclusion: “inner quiet comes in the midst of actions, relationships and problems!”
It is Powlison who penned anti-psalm 131, to show the opposite of the life of faith.
Self,
my heart is proud (I’m absorbed in myself),
and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people),
and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.
So of course I’m noisy and restless inside, it comes naturally,
like a hungry infant fussing on his mother’s lap,
like a hungry infant, I’m restless with my demands and worries.
I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.
I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life, that I resembled anti-psalm 131 more than the one penned by David. As Psalm 131 is basically about Christian maturity, about growing in grace and about developing as a child of God, it is clear why Spurgeon said: It is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn.
David begins Psalm 131 with “Yahweh, my heart is not proud,” and I do not look down on other people, neither criticizing nor judging them. One cannot help but be reminded of David’s season of fleeing King Saul. Anointed to be the next King of Israel, David waited patiently on the Lord and His timing. He was content with his situation, not grasping something that was not yet handed to him in spite of being tempted to do so on at least two occasions.
As one scholar put it: “The proud person looks, compares, competes, and is never content.”
Yet, David explains his contentment in verse one by moving from the humble condition of his heart to include his mind, refusing unruly ambition to lure him to fantasized grandiose plans, as Peterson puts it. Similarly, Spurgeon wisely remarked: “The great destroyer of good works is the ambition to do great works.” And before him the wise King Solomon said: Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 4:6)
King David understands that he doesn’t need to know it all and so should we. In his letter to the Romans, Paul declares, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” When God confronted Job at the end of his trial, Job humbly confessed: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know!”
But if we are not to be proud and arrogant, what are we to be? Peterson warns in his Long Obedience in the Same Direction that having realized the dangers of pride which really boils down to the sin of thinking too much about ourselves, we are now in danger of another mistake, thinking too little of ourselves. The flip-side of pride is low self-esteem, self-pity, self-hatred, timidity, fearfulness, fear of failure and rejection. Peterson talks about doormat Christians and dishrag saints, people who weepily cling to God in an almost neurotic dependency.
King David’s image of a successfully weaned child describes an altogether different child, one sitting upon the lap of a mother, not embracing her with the thought of food and immediate satisfaction, but one embracing her for love, closeness and companionship. I like how one commentator wrote: the weaned child comes to realize that the denial of one of the mother’s gifts does not mean denial of the mother’s presence. He comes to love the mother herself instead of the gift received from her.
The phrase is repeated for emphasis and thus we MUST pay attention. While the process of weaning may seem strange and terrible to the child, it is necessary for the child’s development. In the same way, God wants us to mature. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. (1 Corinthians 13: 11) The writer to the Hebrews repeats this sentiment, Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:13,14)
May God indeed guide each one of us through His Holy Spirit, to silence the noise coming from Satan, sin and self, screaming at us from every billboard and screen. In this constant battle, it is important to remember that God knows what we need before we ask him. God desires from us childlike trust. For this reason, the following sign really appealed to me:
Good Morning!
This is God,
I will be handling all of your problems today.
I will not need your help.
So, relax and have a great day!
How wonderful to know that there is perfect peace and contentment for the child of God. We only need be still before the Lord, practice humility and learn contentment. And then finally, we need to live in hope. This picks up on Psalm 130: 7 where the psalmist wrote: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” Unfailing love or lovingkindness is the beautiful Hebrew word Chesed, that reminds us of His covenant identity.
It is interesting that David who began this psalm by addressing God: “O Lord!” now closes the psalm by addressing God’s people, “O Israel!” I love how one commentator explained that when we stop looking at ourselves and start looking at the Lord instead, we will then start seeing how we can help and encourage others.
My prayer for you and I is to confess our pride before God, to repent of our proud attitudes towards others, to let go of the need to know and understand everything, to practice humility, learn contentment and live in hope. AMEN. Have a blessed month!
