Psalm 131: Quieting the Soul

The Journey
Quieting the Soul
Psalm 131

Introduction: The image of mother and child in this psalm is a powerful one and especially appropriate on Mother’s day. It is a picture of a relationship where contentment, peace and rest are primary. While most of the time we think about God as Father scripture does not shy from using pictures of women to express something about God’s nature and God’s desire. On our journey to God we need to realize what God ultimately desires for us; that is to be with Him. Along with that we need to realize what can frustrate God’s purposes for us.

Spring is such a wonderful time of year. People get out in their yards and the gardens begin to bloom. We have two rose bushes on the south side of our house and every spring Diane cuts them way back from all the growth the previous year. You don’t have to cut them back if you prefer thorny branches rather than beautiful flowers. But pruning is essential if you want healthy blooms through the summer. If a rose bush gets too large the quality of the blooms decreases. This psalm is about the same type of thing in our lives. The journey we are on is about growth but sometimes grow is in the wrong direction, sometimes we need to decrease in one area in order to bloom in another.

I. Living Large
We travel with a purpose and yet there are things on the path that hinder and can even stop us in our tracks. The imagery of this psalm suggests two opposite problems. One source is the infantile dependence that we see in a child before it is weaned. The child is interested in the mother as a source of food.

The psalmist is not interested in mothers and infants but about our relationship to God. Everyone starts out as an infant; we know that even if we don’t remember that time of our lives. Infants are the most selfish creatures on earth, they are helpless and everything revolves around them. Fortunately we don’t stay at that point. We grow, develop, learn, and move from infantile dependence to a measure of independence and self-sufficiency. Children who at one time depended on parents for everything begin to relate to those parents not as dependents but as equals. I think most parents look forward to the day when they can relate to their children as adults.

Our spiritual lives move in a similar trajectory. We are born as spiritual infants into God’s family. In the beginning people serve and minister to us but we learn and grow and begin to serve and minister to others. But sometimes our relationship to God remains stuck. Many people see God as the one provides, the one they turn to in trouble. Their relationship with God is about what they get from the relationship. When things are good then God doesn’t receive much attention but when something is needed then God comes back into the picture.
Somehow, I think God wants more from his relationship with us. The spiritual journey we are on is about growth and change. God wants to become more than just a source of blessing, help in times of trouble. The picture of a weaned child sitting contentedly with her mother, not demanding anything but simply happy to be with the mother is a picture of what God desires in our relationship with Him.

But it is the other side of this picture that is the real focus for the psalmist. This is the picture of the haughty and proud person who refuses to come to God. This is the more serious affliction and one that is epidemic in our society. Unbridled ambition is the way many people live their lives. The heroes, the people held up as successful, are praised for their ambition and unwillingness to take a back seat to anyone or anything.

In sports the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs is seen as a way to greatness. Athletes will give years off their lives to achieve momentary sports greatness, to be an Olympic champion or to win a championship. Even when people are caught cheating for many there is still admiration because they were willing to take a chance for greatness.

The phrase, “living large” has come to characterize what many people desire, to live like royalty, or like a movie star, or like the super wealthy. It drives everything from “American Idol” to the lottery. I mean, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” What a no brainer, everyone is that answer. To live large is to be large, or so we think. It is easy to point a finger at the sports and entertainment industries but we are all susceptible. We have goals in our careers. Preachers gravitate to bigger churches; business people strive to make more money, be more profitable. Parents want their children to be successful and liked by their peers. Of course not all ambition is deadly to our spiritual journey but how do we know when we have gone too far down that road?

This is, of course, the original problem according to Genesis. The hook that gets both Adam and Eve is, “you will be like God,” Genesis 3:5. The key in this passage is knowledge and we know how important that is in the Information Age. Later in Genesis at Babel people unite so that as a group they can become like God. “Living large” characterizes both stories.

II. The Quieted Soul
“My heart is not proud,” the psalmist writes. How troublesome pride is to the spiritual journey. There are plenty of warnings about pride and arrogance in scripture. James quotes Proverbs when he writes,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6
Why does God oppose the proud? It is not that God is somehow threatened by our success, beauty or excellence. It is that the proud person fails to give God what he desires, a relationship with us. Pride in some ways is an insurmountable barrier because it keeps us from the quiet soul that finds contentment in God.

I love reading and learning. I see myself as an intelligent person but I know there are a lot of things I don’t get and will never get. But God doesn’t love me because I am intelligent or because I understand the Bible or theology. He doesn’t love me because I am good enough. He loves me because I am his child. The thing that allows me to get close to God is a humble heart, a quiet soul that has ceased to strive but finds contentment in God. In a sense this psalm is like pruning shears. Gardeners trim back bushes like roses because what they desire is not a big bush but beautiful flowers. If you soul is not quiet then ask your self, “Why?”

Luke provides us a commentary on this psalm in one story. Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha. Listen to the story in Luke 10:38-42. Jesus said it to Martha but he also says it to us, “Only one thing is needed.” A quiet soul that is content to be with God.


Livonia Church of Christ: May 14, 2006