Psalm 131

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Keeping a Quiet Humble Heart

• Songs of Ascent Practices of
• the Lifelong Journey Series 12
• Psalm 131

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• Psalm 131 ESV
• A Song of Ascents. Of David
• 1 O 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.
• 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
• like a weaned child with its mother
• like a weaned child is my soul within me.
• 3 O Israel, hope in the LORD
• from this time forth and forevermore.

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HUMILITY A SECRET GATEWAY TO REST CONTENTMENT

• Humility is the obverse side of confidence in
  God,
• whereas pride is the obverse side of confidence
  in self.
• John Baillie

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HUMILITY A SECRET GATEWAY TO REST CONTENTMENT

• Pride is the obverse side of confidence in self.
• Pride is the default mode of a depraved human
  heart.
• Pride is promoted by the worldly values as a
  desirable quality, such as ambition.
• In the end, pride brings restlessness
  discontentment.
• Humility is the obverse side of confidence in
  God.
• Humility is a result of experiencing Gods
  righteousness grace (Psalms 129 130).
• Humility is a primary self-description of Jesus
  on himself Take my yoke upon you and learn from
  me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
  will find rest for your souls.
• - Matthew 1129
• In the end, humility brings rest contentment.

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HUMILITY A SECRET GATEWAY TO REST CONTENTMENT

• Psalm 131 is a confession of a seasoned pilgrim
  David who has learned to keep a quiet humble
  heart in his spiritual pilgrimage to God.

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THREE THINGS WE MUST DO TO KEEP A QUIET HUMBLE
HEART

• We must choose to humble ourselves BEFORE GOD.
• O 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. (v.1)

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THREE THINGS WE MUST DO TO KEEP A QUIET HUMBLE
HEART

• We must choose to humble ourselves BEFORE GOD.
• Humility begins in heartour eyes and behaviors
  are reflections of our hearts (pride is the
  unattended condition of our hearts).
• Our hearts must be checked before God otherwise,
  our humility is prone to be ostentatious (vs.
  self-forgetful).
• True humility is NOT weak, faint-hearted, timid,
  fatalistic nor cynicali.e., a genuinely humble
  person takes risks and aspires to impact the
  world for Gods glory.
• Unruly ambition is aspiration tainted by pride.

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• Anti-Psalm 131
• Self,
• my heart is proud (Im 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 Im noisy and restless inside it
  comes naturally,
• like a hungry infant fussing on his mothers lap,
• like a hungry infant, Im restless with my
  demands and worries.
• I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody
  all the time.
• David Powlison
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THREE THINGS WE MUST DO TO KEEP A QUIET HUMBLE
HEART

• 2) We must trust and submit to Gods weaning
  process for our maturity.
• But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
• like a weaned child with its mother
• like a weaned child is my soul within me.
  (v.2)

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THREE THINGS WE MUST DO TO KEEP A QUIET HUMBLE
HEART

• 2) We must trust and submit to Gods weaning
  process for our maturity.
• The psalmist learned the secret of rest and
  contentment. How? Through humility, he has calmed
  his heart and quieted his ambitions.
• But his humility has been a work of God as
  wellhe had been weaned by God. Weaning starts
  with disappointment but ends with contentment.
• What is the child being weaned from? Not from the
  mother but on motherbut from the comfort of milk
  for solid/better food.
• So, when God takes something from us, it weans us
  from the world self so we can seek God himself.

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• Be still, my soul the Lord is on thy side.
• Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
• Leave to thy God to order and provide
• In every change, He faithful will remain.
• Be still, my soul thy best, thy heavenly Friend
• Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
• Katharina von Schlegel (1752)

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THREE THINGS WE MUST DO TO KEEP A QUIET HUMBLE
HEART

• 3) We must wait restfully and hope in the LORD.
• O Israel, hope in the LORD
• from this time forth and forevermore. (v.3)

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THREE THINGS WE MUST DO TO KEEP A QUIET HUMBLE
HEART

• 3) We must wait restfully and hope in the LORD.
• The result of humility is the freedom from
  self-absorption which leads us to genuine concern
  for others.
• We ought toand will want to, if we experience
  this sweet freedomshare our secret of rest and
  contentment with our fellow-strugglers.
• The learned-lesson of the weaning process is to
  wait restfully for a deeper satisfactionto hope
  in God himself.
• When to hope in God? It begins now lasts
  forevermore!

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• There Is Another Way!
• The experts in our society who offer to help us
  have a kind of general-staff mentality from which
  massive, top-down solutions are issued to solve
  our problems. Then when the solutions dont work,
  we get mired in the nothing-can-be-done swamp. We
  are first incited into being grandiose and then
  into intimidated into being infantile. But there
  is another way, the plain way of quiet Christian
  humility. We need pruning. Cut back to our roots,
  we learn this psalm and discover the quietness of
  the weaned child, the tranquility of maturing
  trust. It is such a minute psalm that many have
  overlooked it, but for all its brevity and lack
  of pretence, it is essential. For every Christian
  encounters problems of growth and development.
• - Eugene Peterson

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PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIFE

• Humble yourself BEFORE GOD.
• Deal with the pride and unruly ambitions in your
  heart.
• Choose humility by dying to self.
• Live before Godgive up all motives to impress
  people.
• Trust and accept GODS WEANING PROCESS by
  quieting your soul.
• Expect momentary discomfort, disappointment, and
  irritation as growing pains.
• Learn to calm your heart and quiet your unruly
  ambitions.
• Wait, rest, and put your hope in God now!

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• Praying the Songs of Ascent 12 Psalm 131
  MSG
• A Pilgrim Song
• 1 God, I'm not trying to rule the roost,
• I don't want to be king of the mountain.
• I haven't meddled where I have no business
• or fantasized grandiose plans.
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• 2 I've kept my feet on the ground,
• I've cultivated a quiet heart.
• Like a baby content in its mother's arms,
• my soul is a baby content.
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• 3 Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope.
• Hope now hope always!

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