Read the entire Psalm two time.
1My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
2But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.
- Read verse 1. What can you draw from David’s character in this verse? How do you see him preserving his humble heart?
- Now, read Job 42:1-6. Job was a man who, like David, was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”(Job 1:1) Job experienced an exhaustive series of deaths, illnesses, losses, and betrayals. These trials filled Job with moments of doubting and questioning the Lord. We hear his heartfelt response to God in chapter 42. (Dust and ashes represent a state of humiliation)
- How do you see David and Job approaching the loftiness of the Lord and the “things too wonderful” to know? Do they take it upon themselves to know all things? Both men, in fact, do not even ask for God to reveal the “great matters” and “wonderful things” to them. How often do you get frustrated when you cannot determine what God is doing in life? How about when you cannot understand death, or struggle, or defeat?
- What is the first word you see in verse Psalm 131:2? This verse sets up a contrast to verse 1. Instead of being proud and concerned with great things, David does what?
Stop and consider this for a moment. - What image does he use to describe the state of his soul?
- One commentator says, “As a child who has successfully gone through the troublesome process of weaning and found contentment, so David has been delivered from all the self-seeking, and had found contentment in the Lord” (Life Application Study Bible: Charles Ryrie). How incredible!
- God wants us to look back on the things that were once so hard for us to let go of, and be able to say, “I do not require those old ways, and I find contentment in God alone.”
Applying It:
What old ways has the Lord weaned you from? What areas of your life require further weaning? Take a moment to quiet your soul. Know that you can depend on Him to wean you off of the things we use to love before you knew Him. He will become your souls contentment. Seek Him.