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A Song of Ascents. Of David.
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.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Introduction
Introduction
This Psalm is number 11 of 15 in a section of Psalms, beginning in Psalm 120, called the Songs of Ascent.
It is believed that they were used when the Hebrews would ascend the 15 steps going up to the temple or when they would make the journey to Jerusalem for the 3 feasts.
There is a similar theme to the songs, hope. One writer says they “are animated by a spirit of courageous hopefulness in a time of trouble.”
We live in a time, similar to many other times in the church’s history, that could be called a time of trouble.
So much uncertainty and fear all around us.
The world looks around at its environment and circumstances for its source of contentment and rest, but we have a greater source of contentment.
One of the old puritans named Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a great little book called the “Rare Jewell of Christian Contentment” comparing the contentment that comes from your circumstances to the warming of your clothes by a fire”
To be content as a result of some external thing is like warming a man’s clothes by the fire. But to be content through an inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth that a man’s clothes have from the natural heat of his body. A man who is healthy in body puts on his clothes, and perhaps at first on a cold morning they feel cold. But after he has had them on a little while they are warm. Now, how did they get warm? They were not near the fire? No, this came from the natural heat of his body. Now when a sickly man, the natural heat of whose body has deteriorated, puts on his clothes, they do not get hot for a long time. He must warm them by the fire, and even then they will soon be cold again.
But this Psalm is about a kind of contentment, a kind of rest and quietness of soul that isn’t rooted in your circumstances.
This kind of rest that David is singing about is rooted in the unchanging God.
Our God will always be faithful to us.
In preparation for this message, I thought through my short time here (although it’s feeling longer every year) and all the things I’ve been through.
And it is amazing to think of the many times I have been at wits end over some dire situation in my life, I have been through some hard things.
I think it that is what maturity is, experiencing something and learning that God will be there in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of it.
And when the next adversity comes, remembering that He was there the last time, so He will be there this time, and the next, and the next.
And the more we go through, the more this becomes clear to us.
It’s like we are ascending steps of suffering on the way up to glory, and singing songs of hope the whole way.
One of my favorite passages, that I go to often when I talk about suffering is in Romans 5:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
There is this progression of learning that we go through and in the end we have more hope than we did before.
Why? Because God is faithful to us through Christ and every time we look to Him He provides, through whatever suffering we are facing.
And He takes this experience and turns it into more hope for the next bout with suffering.
David’s experience with God’s faithfulness through trouble was certainly no different.
That is how he could confidently write this song that teaches us that...
Our souls must find rest in God
Our souls must find rest in God
By Humbling Ourselves v.1
By Humbling Ourselves v.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.
A soul that finds rest in God is the soul of a humble person.
Our world is full of the noise of arrogance and pride.
It surrounds us.
Every one is special, every one’s opinion is right.
There is the pride of having in those that are superior, which comes out in boasting.
Then there is the pride of wanting.
This is from those who don’t believe they have superiority, but want it.
They believe that if they just had whatever is important to them, they would be good.
It is often easier to spot the pride of having over the pride of wanting, but both lead to unrest.
They both lead to feeling insecure, insignificant and out of control.
The arrogant person looks for ways to satisfy this need for security, significance, and control in 3 ways according to David.
Their feelings
psa131.1 “...my heart is not lifted up…”
The heart is the seat of the emotions, and David doesn’t lift his emotions up to a level that they control him.
We live in a culture that lifts up the feelings and emotions to a maximum level.
This, to our culture, is the ultimate path to happiness, to feel good about yourself, to feel good about your situation.
No one can correct you, or think differently about a topic that you feel strongly about.
If the wrong president is elected, our lives are ruined.
If we feel like we were supposed to be the opposite gender, we should pretend that we are the opposite gender.
We are the most sensitive and cautious generation about what we say that isn’t politically correct.
But has this made us any more satisfied with our lives?
No we are less satisfied now then ever.
Those turning into adults now are the most medicated, but the most depressed generation we have produced.
The world is telling them that they should follow their heart, but then their heart meets with this fallen world and their expectations are shattered.
Don’t get married, wait to have kids and don’t have too many.
You’ll be happy if you have things things, money, a career.
Everyone’s oppressed and a victim.
So much noise and foolish advice from others who are living their lives outside of the reality of God’s revealed will.
There is no surprise here that we live unhappy lives.
One of the things we must do to rest in God is to bring our feelings under the control of scripture.
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Those who humble themselves have God’s help to keep their emotions in the right perspective.
Their status
psa131.1 “...my eyes are not raised too high...”
David doesn’t look down his nose at others.
Even though he is the king and reigned over Israel on the way up to the height of the kingdom, he didn’t find his soul’s satisfaction in reaching the top.
He knew his position was given to him by God.
He taught his son, Solomon this truth as well:
There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift!
There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.
The arrogant are concerned about their status. They are concerned with how they appear to others.
There is no rest in constant anxiety about how you appear to others.
There is no rest in falsely believing that you made it to where you are by your own strength, and have to make it to where you want to be without anyone’s help either.
Their actions
psa131.1 “...I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”
This literally means, “I have not walked around in things too great and too marvelous for me.”
Trying to find satisfaction and security in the things we do by themselves will always lead to disappointment.
Frantically running from one thing to the next trying to do more and more.
Our culture tends to look for happiness in the next thing.
I’ll find happiness in the next job. When the kids get out of diapers or go to school or leave the house.
I’ll be happier at the other job, or when I finally retire.
David said, “no.” I don’t need to look any where else.
He was commited to humility.
Pride is one of the most natural things for the flesh to engage in, and we must decide not to seek satisfaction through our feelings, our status, or our actions.
In order to truly find rest in God we must humble ourselves.
When we humble ourselves we discover our satisfaction comes from someone outside of ourselves.
By Finding Satisfaction in God v.2
By Finding Satisfaction in God v.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.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
The alternative to pride in verse 2 is wonderful peace and a calm and quiet soul.
Notice the focus on his soul, his heart, his deepest inner person.
It is peace and calm and quiet all the way down to the bottom of your person.
No more frantically running around looking for approval or security in your feelings.
No more wading through the endless noise of whats going on around to find satisfaction.
And we have the master song writer writing such wonderful pictures of what this is like for him.
This weaned child is a picture of contentment.
The unweaned child is frantically rooting around for the breast and craves milk for his stomach.
He will not be satisfied and doesn’t have the maturity and understanding that his mother will not let him go hungry.
His mother will reach down and pick him up and satisfy his real needs, but he can’t understand this, so he screams in discontentment with his situation.
He will not be quieted until he gets what he thinks he wants, even if it is detrimental to his health.
But the weaned child.
The weaned child is simply enjoying the way it feels to be in lap of his mother.
He is satisfied.
He has learned that his mother will take care of him and provide what he needs.
And it is not about his stomach.
It’s about his heart.
Through the Bible Day by Day: A Devotional Commentary, Volumes I–VII $171. “Out of the Depths” (Psalm 130)
Clearly he had not reached this position without effort. He had found it necessary to still and quiet himself, as a nurse quiets a fretful babe. There had been a time when he was fed at the breast of the world’s consolations. The weaning had been hard, but he had learned to get all from God and to draw on his sustaining grace.
This is a picture of David’s restfulness, contentment, satisfaction, joy, peace in the secure, loving presence of God.
How do we know that?
All it says is his soul is calmed and quieted, like a child with his mother.
How do we know he is referring to contentment in God?
We know it because of verse 3: “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”
It would be unreasonable to think there is no connection between verse 2 and verse 3.
If verse 2 has nothing to do with God, why summon the people to hope in God, or as the word is often translated, wait for God?
But there is a connection: Since I have found my contentment, my calm, quiet soul-satisfaction by turning to the Lord, and resting in his power and grace and wisdom, therefore I now call all Israel, “Join me in this! Put your hope in him.
Find your rest in him.
Calm your troubled heart in his presence.
Quiet your soul by resting in the promise of his presence.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is a short, but very important psalm.
It is illustrated extremely sharply in the gospel of Matthew ch. 11
From prison, John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to make sure He was the messiah.
Jesus confirmed that He was by telling them of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.
Then Jesus lamented that the people were unrepentant, that they wouldn’t listen to John or Christ.
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
Then Jesus brings woes to the unrepentant cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.
Notice what he says about Capernaum.
And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”
These are some very strong words for a city where Christ spent a lot of time and performed many miracles.
What was causing their unrepentance?
Pride.
mt11.23 “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?
No matter what Christ did their, the people of the city would not humble themselves and repent.
They stuck their noses up and hardened their hearts in pride.
This leads us to a question. Why would Christ go their then? And why wouldn’t he have performed those miracles and great works in Sodom if they would have repented?
He answers that next in the following verses.
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
This passage makes it clear. Because it was God’s gracious will, or, as it could be translated, his good pleasure.
This is tough! This is difficult!
Not to understand, but to accept!
We puff our chests out at this.
But when we do, we commit the same sin as Capernaum, pride and arrogance.
Just like David at the other difficulties of life, we need to keep our emotions in check with scripture, hold our eyes down, and not try to occupy our selves with things that are too high for us.
We don’t have the capacity to understand it all, but we know the One who does understand it all and we trust Him.
Maturity is knowing this and resting in the lap of God.
Then we come to the last passage of chapter 11.
And Christ expounds on David’s little song.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Come to Christ and rest!
Come and be weaned from your anxiety and doubt and fear, and lay in His lap and look up into His eyes in love like a little child!
When you don’t understand what’s happening around you, trust that He does.
This almighty Lord of heaven and earth, who’s providence and sovereignty order the world, is gentle and lowly in heart.
And He calls you to rest in Him.
Stop striving under the heavy load of fear and doubt and take his easy yoke.
We may go through some extremely rough times, but He will be there to carry every load you cast on Him.
There was a missionary named John Paton who went to the New Hebrides in Pacific in the 1800’s.
The natives were cannibals and were hostile toward him.
One night they decided to hunt him down.
There was someone with who he could barely trust, that told him to climb a tree and he would lead the hunters down the wrong path.
He climbed that tree not knowing if this person was telling the truth or if he was just making him an easy hunt.
He wrote this about that night in the tree:
The hours spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship.
Later he was able to have a ministry and saw converts.
He wrote this about the first time they took the Lord’s Supper:
“At the moment when I put the bread and the wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the elements and the seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus Himself!”
Brothers and sisters, may we find the same peace and rest in the arms of our savior the John Paton did!
rom15.13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”