Psalms 131
Chuck Smith on Psalms 131
Verse by verse, taught on Sunday nights: the C2000 series, 1979 to 1985, and the C3000 series, 1985 to 1999. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
Sunday Nights, 1979 to 1985 (C2000)
Verses 1–3
LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things that are too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever (131:1-3).
Lord, I am just a simple person. I am not complex. I don't try to deal with those matters that are above me or beyond my capacities in order that I might look sophisticated or wise or whatever. God, You know I'm just a simple person. My heart isn't haughty. I'm not... I don't look loftily at people as though I am something. I know, God, the truth about myself. I know I am nothing. I'm just like a child, Lord, like a nursing child. My hope is in You forever.
Sunday Nights, 1985 to 1999 (C3000)
Chapter introduction
Let’s turn to psalm one hundred and thirty-one as we begin our study tonight and we will be going through psalm one hundred and thirty-five.
We are still in what are known as the psalms of ascents, those songs that were traditionally sung by the pilgrims as they came to Jerusalem for the holy feast days to worship the Lord. Thus the worship of God, the temple of God, Jerusalem is always more or less the center of the psalms. They are focusing in on the worship of God in Jerusalem at the temple or during the feast days so that becomes the focus of these psalms. David, that king who inspired so many of the songs and wrote so many of these songs, comes into play in the singing of these songs also. Psalm one hundred and thirty-one happens to be one of those psalms of David.
The worship of God should always bring us into the consciousness of God and the overriding providence of God. Coming into the consciousness of God and the reign and the rule of God should then in turn bring me into a proper perspective as I look at the situations of life. Our problem is that we so often lose the true perspective. Losing sight of God our problems and the world problems loom so big that they become insurmountable. I become stressed and frustrated because the problems are so great and I don’t see any solutions or answers. Thus as I come to worship God it should always bring life into perspective, my problems into perspective.
Verse 2
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself (131:2).
So the psalm of David, one hundred and thirty-one, is really a psalm that deals with that standing there before the Lord, worshipping the Lord, becoming conscience of his greatness and of his power and how that it brings such peace to my own soul. It takes away all of the fussiness and all of the fretfulness that I might feel, the anxieties, the stresses and I get things into perspective. So in verse two David said, “I have stilled and quieted my soul”. That’s a more correct translation than in the King James. I think that some of the modern translations have translated that and it’s a more accurate translation.
I have stilled and quieted my soul. That should always be the consciousness of having been in the presence of God, worshipping God, there should be a stilling and a quieting in our souls. That beautiful peace that comes in the presence of God knowing that God is on the throne, God is in control and God is going to take care of things.
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child (131:2).
That’s speaking of that perfect contentment, that confidence, that trust and that peace of a weaned child. No more fussiness and no more fretting. There is that growth, maturity and transition.
David though is speaking as an adult. The characteristics that lead towards this kind of blissful experience is found in verse one.
Verse 1
LORD, my heart is not haughty, (131:1)
The absence of pride. Though God had exalted David tremendously, made him king over Israel, as you read the story and the life of David there is a beautiful absence of pride. David never forgot his roots. He never forgot that he was just a shepherd and that God was the one that took him from the following after the sheep. God was the one that had elevated him and placed him in this exalted position of reigning his people. It never ceased to just awe David, that which God had done. Looking at where he was at what he was he realized God has done this. I’m nothing, I was just a shepherd and yet God has put me here.
When God told David of the covenant that he was going to make with David, that there would never cease to be a descendent of David sitting upon the throne; the promise that the Messiah would come through David, David was totally overwhelmed. He went in before the Lord and said, “Lord you took me from following after the sheep and you made me the ruler over your people. If this was not enough yet you have spoken of me of yet a great while to come. What can I say?” He was silent before the Lord.
I don’t of anybody who was more capable of expressing praise to God and thanksgiving than David. This guy was so articulate. Whenever I need help in praising God or in expressing my thanks to God I always turn to the psalms because David set the model. One of the most articulate men capable of expressing those things to the Lord that I like to express but I can’t think of them. So I turn to the psalms and I let David sort of model for me in his praises and in thanksgiving to God. This fellow who was so adept at praise yet when God laid out the future, told him what he was going to do David was speechless. When Savonarola said, “When worship reaches it’s ultimate words are impossible”. You just sit there in silence, in awe of the goodness and of the blessing of God.
David wasn’t haughty nor prideful. Remembering his roots he realized he was what he was because of what God had done. We need to realize that. Paul said, “What do you have but what you have received from God? If God gave it to you then why do you boast as though it was something of you?” he said, “Don’t think more highly of yourself than you are; think soberly for God has given to everyone this measure of faith”. It’s the work of God. It isn’t really the work of God because I was something or I was worth while, it’s the work of God because of his glorious grace towards me. Thus you stand and you have the right evaluation of yourself.
The person who is proud is blind. I’m certain that we often think more highly of ourselves than God does. Have you ever been disappointed in yourself? Have you ever wondered how could I have done that? That is so ridiculous, how could I have done that? I have been disappointed in myself many times but God has never been disappointed in me because God knew I was weak al the time. I was disappointed because I thought I was stronger than I really was. When I stumbled I was so disappointed but God wasn’t he knew I was frail, that I was but dust. It thought I was a rock but I’m dust and he’s dusted me a few times. I’ll tell you there is nothing like a dusting to take away the pride, “Woe is me. I’m undone. I’m a man of unclean lips; I dwell amongst the people”.
If you are filled with pride then you are also filled with this inner turmoil. It goes with pride. Striving, you’ve got to constantly be striving to prove that you are all that you think that you are, that you are as good as you think you are and you want people to think you are. There is always that pressure, that striving to prove. You can never say that you are like a contented child that has been weaned.
nor mine eyes lofty: (131:1).
I don’t have a driving ambition trying to get to the top. David didn’t struggle to get on the throne. He left that completely in God’s hands. He didn’t form an army to overthrow Saul, he didn’t create an insurrection among the ranks of Saul’s men but he was content to let the Lord work out his purposes.
We have many examples in the Bible of men who were not content to let the Lord work out his purposes. Take the case of Jacob. God wanted to give the blessing to Jacob. God intended that blessing through Jacob that the race would come. Esau the twin brother was to be set aside, he would become the father of the Edomites but it was through Jacob that the line will come to bring the Messiah. God chose that, chose Jacob. Jacob knew that that was the purpose of God.
Somehow he felt that God couldn’t accomplish his purpose unless he helped God out. He wasn’t satisfied just to wait on God and let God do it. He had to disguise himself as his brother, he had to go in and deceive his father and get the blessing, which created that animosity between him and his brother and his descendents and his brother’s descendents. The Edomites were pretty much perennial enemies of Israel until the Edomites of course ultimately, according to the prophecies, disappeared from the face of the earth.
Abraham, that great father of the faith, had the promise of God that he was going to give him a son through which all of the nations of the earth would be blessed. As he was getting older, approaching a hundred, his wife said, “Honey, we better help God out. Obviously we’ve tried for so many years and it’s not going to happen. So you take my little servant girl Hagar and you go in unto her and let her become sort of a surrogate mother”. Hagar was to become a surrogate mother. “When the child is born I’ll be right there. I’ll be the midwife and take the child and it will be as my child”. God can’t work out his purpose so now we are going to help God out.
Whenever you start to help God out it always becomes stressful. We discover that God doesn’t really need our help. He can work his purposes without our help. It’s that person who is content to just leave it in God’s hands. If God wants me to be king he will work it out. I don’t have to press for it, I don’t have to have this ambition and all these schemings and planning and conniving that creates all this unrest. If God wants to do it God can do it.
We find David willing to wait for God to work out the purpose.
neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me (131:1).
It’s interesting how often we strive seeking to know the unknowable. God said, “My ways are not your ways for my ways are beyond your finding out”. He told us that. They are beyond your finding out. Think of all the strife you have gone through trying to find out what you can’t find out. Why did God allow that to happen? Why did God do it that way? Why did this happen to me? If I’d only done this or that maybe...we spend so much time with this “If I only” and with the “why’s” trying to find out what God said you can’t find out exercising ourselves in matters that are too high for us. In doing that, you can’t have contentment, you can’t have peace.
Because David wasn’t prideful, because he wasn’t filled with a driving ambition and because he didn’t exercise himself in those matters that were beyond him he was like a child that was weaned. He was satisfied and contented to leave things with God.
Surely I have behave and quieted myself, as a child (131:1).
Now David gives an exhortation.
Verse 3
Let Israel hope in the LORD (131:3).
There’s the key. Put your confidence, your trust and your hope in the Lord because unless the Lord does do it, all of your efforts are in vain anyhow. In the modern application it would be “Let us hope in the LORD”.
Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever (131:3).
This is now what should take place when a person comes to the sanctuary of God to worship God. He should come into the consciousness of the greatness of God, the power of God, the glory of God and the loved of God. Putting your hope in the Lord you should experience just that peace and contentment as you lay the whole burden and the whole issue over to the Lord. You know it’s great sitting here to say, “Praise the Lord. Take it Lord. I give it to you” but you pick up before you leave the door tonight if you are half-way normal. Having cast your cares upon him, leave them there don’t pick them up again. It’s from now to forever.