Psalm 131
reading tonight is Psalm 131
and it’s three verses so verses 1 to 3 and just a reminder that
Psalm 131 is the third of a group of three in the Psalms of ascent.
Remember that Psalms 130 all the way to 134 make up the Psalms
of ascent or stair steps if you will but each group of three
fit together and so Psalm 129, 130, and 131 are this group of three we’re
in, so tonight the last one. And it says under its title,
A Song of a Sense of David. And King David says through the
Holy Spirit to us, oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes
are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted
my soul like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child
is my soul within me. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forever more. Amen. This is the word
of the living God. If you ask young people to memorize
verses of the Bible, they always go pick the short ones. And the
number one verse in the Bible to pick is Jesus wept, John 11,
35. That’s easy. And you may think
just in those two short words, it doesn’t say much, but it speaks
about Jesus’ love, his profound love for Mary and Martha, but
also for Lazarus. He’s standing at the tomb of
Lazarus and he mourns his death, but he also mourns the curses
that have landed on this earth. And so while we may laugh at
memorizing, Jesus wept, it is a short verse yet profound and
full of meaning. If you’re to memorize a psalm,
challenge a young person, memorize a Psalm. I can guarantee you
which one they are not going to memorize. And that would be
119. That’s right. But they might look at Psalm
117, just two verses. But Psalm 130 would also be a
good choice. It’s just three verses. But Psalm
130 is also good sound advice. And if King David did write this
Psalm, we have no reason to believe he didn’t, though some would
like to say that all the Psalms of ascent were written after
the exile when Israel returned from Babylon. to Jerusalem to
rebuild during the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, the 500s and the 400s. And so some will say, nope, not
King David. But this is a good psalm for
King David to have written. It’s a brief psalm with great
value. It’s maybe a good reflection
of King David, who was a great man with great accomplishments.
But as he reflected on his life late in years, he realized, when
I was young, I was young and restless and ambitious. But now
that I’m old and calm, I recognize what is good, right and true.
So King David speaks to us about a calmed and quieted soul. And twice he makes mention, for
emphasis maybe, that his calmness of soul was like being a child
weaned, a weaned child happy that mom is nearby and there
if needed content. This is a short psalm with a
long lesson to learn. That’s how one theologian puts
it. Another theologian, I think it
was Spurgeon, said this psalm is a short ladder that reaches
to the great heights. So maybe in just like John 1135,
Jesus wept. We would memorize a short Psalm
like 131, but both full of meaning. So let’s take just a quick peek
at some of the meaning of this passage. And I want us to look
at it in two ways. One way is young David, and the
other way is old David. And I think you’ll see the distinction
as we make our way through. So young David, young David,
would have been opposite of verse one. Old David says, Oh Lord,
my heart is not lifted up. But what do you think about young
David? His heart was probably lifted up. And then he goes on
to say, my eyes are not raised up too high. That’s old David
speaking. But what do you think about young
David? Well, He lifted his eyes high with great ambition. And
then old David says, I do not occupy myself with things too
great and too marvelous for me, but I’m sure old young David
did occupy himself with things too wonderful and too marvelous. What is he speaking of here?
In his old age, as old David reflects on young David, well,
young David could have dealt with pride. His heart was lifted
up. Maybe you’ve been in a position
where people admired you, they looked to you, and it was electric,
right? It was a charge, it was a high. People loved you, they respected
you, and so you felt that great lifting up of your heart. Remember
King David? Saul has slain his thousands,
but what did they sing? But David, his 10 thousands.
Oh my goodness. Wouldn’t that be something to
have sung about you? And so good looking young David,
uh, who slew Goliath, who took care of Israel’s enemies, uh,
could have dealt with pride in his young age, but he also could
have dealt with arrogance or haughty eyes. Oh Lord, my heart
is not lifted up. There’s the pride. But my eyes
are not raised too high. He and his youth could have had
haughty eyes. You’re the king. You’re the anointed
one. Who else was there in all Israel
that Samuel came and said, I want this one and took his flask of
oil and poured it on his head and made him king over Israel.
Wasn’t his brothers. And it wasn’t anyone else in
the land. And so David with all The folklore about him could
have been arrogant. He could have had haughty eyes.
He could have looked down on others who were not the king,
who were not God’s anointed. And then there’s ambition. I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me. Think about all that David
did. He enlarged the borders of Israel. He fought off all of God’s enemies. He, in a sense, in his life,
worked out the holy will of almighty God, for God finally, after settling
his people in his inheritance, the promised land, was going
to build a city for himself, where God would dwell among his
people. His name would be called upon
at that place, at Jerusalem, at Mount Zion. And David was
the one who would build that great city and win it from the
enemies of almighty God. Young David, had pride, he had
arrogance, he had ambition. And isn’t that like the modern
world? You talk about what you want
for your children. You get them born, and the next
thing you do is you get them into the right preschool. Then
you get them into the right elementary school, the right middle school,
the right high school, and then the right college. Now we’ve
got to send them to the right master’s program. And then what
do we hope for when they’re finally fully educated and in debt up
to the hilt in their mid to late 20s? What do we hope for? They’ll
get a good paying job. And what do we tell our children?
all the years we’re raising them. Now I’m thinking of a non-christian
perspective, but the worldly perspective, what do we tell
them? You can set your sights on anything. You can reach for
the stars and what can you get? You can have the stars if you
want them. And so that’s what we, uh, the worldview we teach. And so it’s a wonder, isn’t it?
That, uh, young people these days are arrogant and they want
to conquer the world. And when they get out of college, they
don’t want to make four and five figures. What do they want to
make? six and seven figures. Well, unless they’re an NBA top
20 draft pick or NFL top draft pick, that’s not going to happen.
But we have ambition. We have arrogance. We have pride. And we want to capture the world.
And what do we spend most of our life doing until we can’t
anymore? Working and earning and building
and pursuing. And is it wrong to work? No,
it’s actually right to work. Is it wrong to earn? know it’s
good to earn so we can support our families and give to the
church and help those who are in need. But in this modern world,
we go, go, go, and we get, get, get. We have visions of grandeur,
and we keep on and keep on and keep on. And young David probably
rather enjoyed some of this. He spent 10 years running from
Saul. He spent another seven years at Hebron ruling Israel
from the city, not Jerusalem. And then he spent the rest of
his kingdom building and building and building until it could not
grow anymore. And so old David in his old age,
after he’s, uh, what might we say, uh, he’s gotten over himself. He’s learned a few things, he’s
gotten wise. And so he looks back and says,
oh, when I was young, my heart was lifted up, but not anymore,
Lord. When I was young, my eyes were raised too high, but no
longer. When I was young, I occupied
myself with things too great and marvelous for me, but not
any longer. And then he goes on into verse
two and says, I have calmed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned
child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. He’s speaking here of trusting
God. Holy. Trusting God completely. Not
holy as in God is holy, but holy as in completely. The whole of
his trust is with God. And he gives a picture of a child.
A child would have been weaned, maybe in the Hebrew context,
by the age of three, four, five. But that child would know because
he had been with his mother all those years and had had every
need met by her. That as he now grew into maturity,
even though mom was nearby, he could make it on his own. All
the psychology, all the studies show how wonderful it is when
children can grow up near who? Mama, right? Mama’s with them
through the baby stage, the infant stage, through the toddler stage.
And we get them raised up a little bit where they can go out on
their own. And so that’s what he’s speaking
of here. When a child becomes mature enough to trust and to
make their way in the world because mom has been by their side, that’s
what King David is feeling. He’s feeling that whatever God
ordains is right. He’s feeling that whatever God
provides will not disappoint. I don’t know about you, but there
are things in life that unsettle us. Maybe it’s a visit to the
doctor and a health diagnosis. Maybe it’s you’re 65 years old
and you were hoping to retire at 66, but the stock market took
a little dive. Maybe something that you had
brought you great peace has now become unsettled and unsure,
and you can’t sleep at night. You wake up early in the morning.
This is a good Psalm to say, if I trust God wholly, If I trust
him completely, I can have a calm and quiet soul, even though the
world seems to have fallen apart. And even though some of the major
components of your earthly security have given way, God is to be
trusted. But then there’s a third message
from this psalm. It’s not David just looking back
on his youth or considering his ways now, but in verse three,
He encourages the church. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forever more. We get a picture in the
later life of King David where he’s in his bed, he’s cold, and
they send people in to get him warm. They put him under the
blankets. But can you imagine what’s going
through David’s mind in the last days of his life? How many people
he’s fought? How many warriors he has killed? How many political decisions
he’s had to make? How much strife he’s had from
all the women in his life? How much trouble he’s had from
his own children? How much trouble has come upon
his household because of his own sins, particularly with Bathsheba?
And on and on his thoughts must go. Could you imagine lying in
David’s bed? Well, your circumstances may
be different from his. He may have gone through much
more than you have or ever will. But you can come to the same
position of humility, the same position of faith, and the same
position of resignation before Almighty God. And notice it took
him a long time to get there. What do we think when we’re young?
We’re invincible. We can do it all. Nothing’s going
to stop us. And if something stops us, we
just get back up and keep going. But as you get a little older,
you realize that strength and that vitality is not quite there,
not quite the same. And so what’s a good place to
land? Well, it’s to land resting in God and in him alone and not
in our own strength, but in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s look to God in prayer. Lord, bless us with the peace
that David speaks of here. Let us have the peace which passes
all understanding, that guards our hearts, that rest in Christ.
Help us, we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.