I Have Composed and Quieted My Soul
2004 : Week 46  |  Website Version  

Today’s message is Psalm 131 written by King David. Although it isn’t a long Psalm, it’s full of the Lord’s wisdom. In this Psalm, once again, David reveals a strong love of the Lord and a trust in Him that we should all share. Psalm 131 (NASB) reads as follows:
 
         1 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.
2 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.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.
 Psalm 131 (NASB)
 
We see that the Psalm is composed of three verses and three sentences; each verse is one sentence, so there is a simple symmetry to the Psalm. In the first verse, David lists four things he does not have:

In the next verse, David talks about what he has instead: a composed and quieted soul.

We cannot help but notice the contrast. David’s soul is at peace because he doesn’t have a proud heart, haughty eyes and a care to pursue great and difficult things. The suggestion is that we cannot have peaceful souls if our hearts are full of pride and a lust for great worldly endeavors. David, understanding this revelation from God, has divested himself of the pursuit of things the world thinks are important. He has moved towards a childlike state of joy and contentment in God.

While his lust for the world has gone and he has found peace, there is the suggestion that it may have been a struggle for David to reach that point. In verse 2 David states that, “Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.” The process of weaning a child can be a difficult one; there can be periods of great struggle. Think of the difficulties of teaching a baby to take solid food instead of being breastfed. The child doesn’t know any food but their mother’s milk, so it doesn’t want to give it up. In a similar way, David implies that it was a struggle for him to wean himself from earthly pursuits he was once comfortable with; they were all he knew.

Difficult as it may have been, David did wean himself off the world. In the Psalm, he shares how he did this:
  1. By taking responsibility for who he was and taking action to change
  2. With the help of God.
If we look again at the second verse, we see that David took action to quiet his soul: “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul…” The “I” indicates that David actively pursued the goal of composing his soul. This is a great lesson for us; it teaches us that, while God is in control, we still have the responsibility for who we are and what we do. David understood this responsibility. He wanted to be a better man of God, so he moved in that direction until he reached his goal.

Second, we see that David relied on God to wean himself from the world. He uses the imagery of a child resting peacefully against their mother to show his child like dependence on God in the process. While the Psalm’s imagery shows the child resting at the end of the weaning process, the implication is that the mother was there during the entire process. A mother will give the child comfort, encouragement and love in the most difficult of times. Similarly, God is always there for us.

What’s striking about David’s use of a child for imagery, is the reality that children lack the intellectual capacity to understand most of what occurs around them. Again, by implication, David is teaching us that we are in the same boat when it comes to our relationship to God; we simply do not have the mental capacity to understand everything about the Lord. As children fail to see all that their parents do for them, we to fail to see all of the Lord’s workings in our lives, but that doesn’t matter; the Lord always does what is best for those He has called and loved. If we rest at peace in our parents’ arms, why should we be less at ease in the arms of our loving God ‘from whom all good things flow.’

So we come to the wonderful conclusion of this Psalm. David understands that he is a child in the arms of a loving God, and there is no better place to be. God loves him and will not let him go. David’s soul is at rest in God, and he invites all of Israel to do the same:
 
         3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.
 Psalm 131:3 (NASB)
 
What is it that the Lord wants to wean from your life? What is that thing that you have steadfastly clung to, because you say you don’t know any other way? Do you remain like a child suckling at the breast of some worldly pursuit? The Lord has better food for you. The Lord wants you to move in a new direction, and the Lord wants you to grow in Him. How will you do this? Will it be difficult to give up what you know? Yes, it will be difficult: weaning always is, but you can do it. Like David, take responsibility for yourself and your actions, and believe in a God who will hold you in His loving arms through every step of the weaning process. One day, like David, you will be able to say, “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul…”

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you today and always…

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Psalm 131:2 (NASB)

2  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.

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