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.

Psalm 131

Unless you’ve nursed a child you can’t understand the intimate and visceral connection that exists between mother and child. A simple cry of her infant at just the right time can cause a mother’s body to produce milk. As the baby nestles into the crook of her arm he roots around using sight and smell to find the source of food. When the baby is only weeks old, still learning the steps of this dance with his mother, he is fidgety and frustrated until he successfully latches on.

This is not the picture that’s painted in the second verse of Psalm 131. Here we see the picture of a weaned child with its mother. But in order to understand the image of a weaned child it’s helpful to dwell on the negative image, the one of an unweaned child: fussy, hungry, and impatient.

Weaning represents an important stage of growth for the child. He is now no longer dependent on his mother for food. But that doesn’t mean he’s completely independent of her. It just means that his relationship to her has changed. He has learned to trust his mother and be content in her arms, no longer impatiently waiting to be fed. Calmly and quietly, he can rest knowing that she will provide.

How does this picture help us? If the weaned child with its mother is a picture of a soul who has found rest in God, how do we get there? Bookending this image are three things the psalmist doesn’t do and then a command of what to do. (I am indebted to Jim Hamilton’s excellent commentary for many of the following insights.)

Some Things are Beyond Us

One of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry is to use parallelism, a device that compares and contrasts in order to give meaning. The three things spoken of in verse 1 are actually three ways of speaking about the same thing. He says that his heart is not lifted up, his eyes are not raised too high, and he doesn’t occupy himself with things too great or too marvelous for him. Did you realize there are some things we are just not meant to understand? Proverbs 25:2 may declare that it is the glory of kings to search out the things God has concealed, but Deuteronomy 29:29 assures us that the secret things belong to the Lord. We may be able to peer into the far reaches of the galaxy and map the human genome but we are not God. We are not omniscient, nor omnipotent. But the temptation is to act like we are and to even assume God expects this of us. No. We are limited, time bound creatures made for dependence on our Heavenly Father.

The next time you are filled with anxiety about all the things you think you should be able to handle, or are overwhelmed by the news of the day that’s just a swipe away on your phone, say to yourself, “I am a limited creature and that is good.” (See this excellent book for more on that.) Question the expectations you place on yourself and the messages you receive through the media. Do they appeal to a desire to know everything and accomplish everything? Push back against that with the good news that you are not God! To constantly live in a way that denies this makes us like that unweaned child, always fussy and never trusting.

Hope as Trust

There are some things that are beyond us, things that we should be content not to know and not to be able to handle. That would unsettle us if not for verse 3 which says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”

We oftentimes say things like, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” or “I hope the Braves win the Word Series this year.” But meteorologists are often wrong, and don’t even get me going on the futility of hoping in Atlanta sports teams. But true, Biblical hope is not wishful thinking. It has deep roots in the character of a sovereignly good and loving Heavenly Father. It is a firm trust that God is who he says he is and will do what he has promised to do. Hope equals trust. Psalm 130 ends in a similar way. The focus there is on the promise of forgiveness, but it elaborates on the reasons why we can and should hope in the Lord. Notice how it focuses on the character of God: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” (Psalm 130:7)

An active hope and trust in the Lord adjusts our perspective. Instead of straining our eyes and hearts to figure out the universe and our place in it, the child of God who consistently sets the Lord before him, cultivating communion with him, realizes like David in Psalm 16:8 that God is at his right hand, he is near, and because of that he will not be shaken. Let us continually remind ourselves of who God is in comparison to who we are. Let us accept these truths as good. This will free us to exhale and settle down into the place of quiet trust, both today and forevermore when we enjoy our ultimate Sabbath rest in the arms of God.