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Psalm 131 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

• 0:00
  Please take out your copy of God's Word and turn with me to Psalm 131.
• 0:08
  We'll break today from our exposition of the book of Acts because it just didn't seem like the right Sunday to consider Acts chapter 24, which is Paul's trial before Felix.
• 0:20
  I read it at the beginning of the week and went, nah, I don't think it's what I needed today. I don't think it's what you needed.
• 0:33
  So we're going to look together at Psalm 131 in brief and in brief by design.
• 0:41
  It's my intention, although sometimes I intend and it doesn't work out that way, to be brief this morning.
• 0:46
  Before I read Psalm 131, let me remind you, beloved, this is God's Word to us.
• 0:54
  It was written for His glory and for our good.
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  And as such, we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and to obey its commands.
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  I begin in verse 1.
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  Oh, Lord, my heart is not lifted up.
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  My eyes are not raised too high.
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  I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
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  But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
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  Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
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  There is much unknown about the date or occasion of the writing of this psalm.
• 1:52
  Most scholars think that David was still in the courts of Saul in this time.
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  So we don't know exactly when.
• 2:00
  We don't know exactly the occasion as we do with many of the psalms.
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  But we do know, however, that David is its author.
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  And we do know that David was a man of great ambition.
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  He was a king, a husband, although unfaithful, a soldier, an administrator.
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  He was a poet.
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  David was a busy man.
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  He stabilized and built a kingdom.
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  He was troubled at every turn.
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  He had constant enemies everywhere he went.
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  He had ambition and a lot on his plate.
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  But despite all of that, all the things that were happening in his world, this psalm gives us a glimpse into the soul of a man who is at rest.
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  David was a man who had learned the secret of peace.
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  Are you at rest this morning?
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  Is your soul calmed and quieted within you today?
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  Or do you find yourself in a state of stress or anxiety or worry?
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  Is your soul noisy?
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  What is the source of this noise if you find yourself in that place this morning?
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  Our lives are certainly full of many challenges at every turn.
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  Our souls are encroached upon by some kind of trouble at all times.
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  I believe as a church we are experiencing a time of stress.
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  I sense that there's just this general angst amongst us.
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  If you don't know what angst is, it's the anticipation of doom.
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  And I think that's because we've said many goodbyes in the last couple of months.
• 4:05
  All good goodbyes, but great couples moving off to different places.
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  Wonderful people headed to the mission field.
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  And today we're saying a rather significant goodbye to the faithful leadership of Wes and the service of his wife Liz.
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  I don't think that we are at rest this morning.
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  We feel unsure of what will come.
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  We're not at peace.
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  I felt this.
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  Despite all of my encouragement to you, I felt this way.
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  In our lives, many things can be blamed for us not being at rest.
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  It's very easy to say, but of course I feel this way.
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  Look at what's happening to me.
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  But our uncalmed and unquieted souls, the lack of peace in our lives, David teaches us,
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  the blame does not lie without, but the blame rather lies within.
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  In his closing comments to the Thessalonian church, Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3.16,
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  Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.
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  The Lord be with you all.
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  Paul prays that God would provide peace, calmed and quieted souls at all times in every way.
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  No matter the circumstances, no matter what is happening around you, inner peace is possible.
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  So let's consider this matter together with three questions and the answers that David provides for us by the inspiration of God.
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  And let us recognize that we have some work ahead of us, right?
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  And if you're not feeling the pain of the loss of the Sheldonians this morning, you may be a guest with us this morning and you have no idea who they even are to us.
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  All of us, followers of Jesus Christ, need to be working toward being perfected in this area of our lives.
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  Like Charles Spurgeon said of this psalm, Psalm 131 is one of the shortest psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn.
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  So the questions for today are as follows.
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  Number one, why do we lack peace?
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  Why do we lack peace?
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  Number two, how do we have peace?
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  How?
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  How is it that we gain, that we have, obtain for ourselves peace?
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  How do we have peace?
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  And number three, who is the source of peace?
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  Number one, why do we lack peace?
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  Now let's not forget in Psalm 131 that we're looking into a moment of David's life in which he is at rest.
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  It's a glimpse, right?
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  It's a moment in time in which he's pinning this psalm to us and we're seeing him at rest.
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  In his writing, he is presently at peace.
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  But if we take the positive statements of verse one and consider them in the negative, like we flip them on their head,
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  we can understand that the lack of peace comes from pride.
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  The lack of peace comes from pride.
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  Here's Psalm 131 verse one in the negative.
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  This is my writing, so please know.
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  This is not inspired.
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  But I'm flipping my understanding of Psalm 131 verse one over on its head to say this.
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  God, I feel proud.
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  I am looking to and desiring things that are beyond your intention for me.
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  I am occupied with matters outside of my control.
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  Now when we're wed this way, we can see that David's statements in verse one are against these ideas, the things I just said.
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  He is not these things, but if he were, he would not have peace.
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  If his life was characterized by pride in these ways, his soul would be in turmoil and it would be noisy within.
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  A life of self-exaltation and self-reliance and self-governance is not a life at peace because it takes on roles that are not ours to own.
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  They are too big for us.
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  At the level of appearing and at the level of acting.
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  Look at the way in which he combats this type of indwelling pride.
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  The level of feeling at the beginning of verse one.
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  Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up.
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  The phrase my heart here meaning his inner being, his thoughts, his desires, his emotions.
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  He did not think or feel too much of himself.
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  A lack of peace can come from considering ourselves greater than we really are because deep down we know our shortcomings.
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  Some people are not willing to admit their shortcomings, but we know it deep down that we fall short of the standards we set for ourselves.
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  And putting on a show to protect that standard, people's perception of us is exhausting.
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  It's peace robbing.
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  It's peace destroying.
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  So he attacks it at the level of feeling, this kind of pride.
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  He attacks this kind of pride at the level of appearance.
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  He says, my eyes are not raised too high.
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  This phrase is a reference to his countenance.
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  To the way in which he appears to others.
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  If he were to look to the way he looks or to things to make him look good, he would not have peace.
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  Contentment, true soul satisfying contentment, never comes from without.
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  It always comes by the grace God works within.
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  He also combats this peace robbing pride at the level of acting.
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  He says, I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
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  Did David act?
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  Of course he did.
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  He was a king.
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  We mentioned the many things that he was about the work of doing.
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  This is not a man who has abandoned life and therefore he's at rest.
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  This is a man very engaged in life, but he's doing so humbly.
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  He wasn't listless, but he did not act outside of his ordered purpose and sphere of control.
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  A person who is always at work trying to control matters that they cannot control will not have peace.
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  So, pride in this way, thinking too much of ourselves and therefore too little of God robs us of peace.
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  Not understanding and enjoying our place in the cosmos makes our souls noisy.
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  I want your bulletin quote that I provided for you today from John Calvin.
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  It's from that book I commended to you and offered to you, Heart Aflame on the Psalm.
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  And he wrote, those who, like David, submit themselves to God, keeping in their own sphere, moderate in their desires, will enjoy a life of tranquility and assurance.
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  So, this brings us to a second of our questions, which is, how then, how is it that we have peace?
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  If pride robs us of, if pride is the destroyer of peace, well then how is it that we are to have peace?
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  To be humble before God.
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  We do not feel or appear or act in pride, but rather from humility.
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  We do not think too much of ourselves and respond accordingly.
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  David says,
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  O Lord, my heart is not lifted up.
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  My eyes are not raised too high.
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  I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
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  Paul writes to the Roman believers in the first part of Romans chapter 12, verse 2,
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  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal, what?
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  Your mind.
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  By the renewal of your mind.
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  Beloved, we are dichotomous beings, right?
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  There is the external man, the physical man, and there's the internal man.
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  Don't complicate that matter.
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  Right?
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  The way we think is who we are.
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  And so as we think on the truth, we will feel the truth, be motivated by the truth, and act according to the truth.
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  In order to be at peace, we must think rightly.
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  David, you see, recognizes his place.
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  He's considered it.
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  And he can make this expression to God.
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  My heart is not lifted up.
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  My eyes are not raised too high.
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  I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
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  I know my place in the world.
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  He combats pride and puts on humility through careful consideration of what God would have him concerned with and what God would have him not concerned with.
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  So turn with me, if you will.
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  Please mark Psalm 131.
• 14:57
  We will come back to it, but to Philippians chapter 4.
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  I'd like to make this point further.
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  Remember, often when we think of Philippians 4, 4 through 6 typically, but I'm going to go on down through 9, we have in mind anxiety.
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  Right?
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  Verse 6 says, do not be anxious about anything.
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  But we could see in that unrest.
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  Right?
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  This is the opposite.
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  This is the noisy soul.
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  This is the soul that's not at peace in verse 6.
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  And how is it that Paul instructs us?
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  What is it that we are to do to have peace?
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  Paul and David would have gotten along very well in this matter.
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  So beginning of verse 4, Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always.
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  Again, I will say rejoice.
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  And we see right there at the very beginning of verse 4, right?
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  A humility that finds itself finding joy, right?
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  Not in the circumstances of the world, but in God Himself.
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  Right?
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  Rejoicing in the Lord.
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  It's not a burden to Him.
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  He'll say it again.
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  Rejoice.
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  Find great joy in God.
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  He goes on in verse 5 to say, let your reasonableness be known to everyone.
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  The Lord is at hand.
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  So he's saying we are to reason, to know the truth, and then to take that truth that's known,
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  our reasonableness, and rightly express that truth, which is what?
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  What is the truth that we're to rightly express?
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  Right?
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  The Lord is at hand.
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  He is near.
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  We have His presence.
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  We can rejoice in the Lord because we have His presence.
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  And therefore, verse 6, not be anxious about anything.
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  Not be anxious about anything.
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  Not have noisy souls.
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  Uncalmed, unquieted souls.
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  And you need to see at the beginning of verse 6 that this is an exhortation.
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  It's a command to not be anxious.
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  And so, beloved, you need to understand that if you are anxious, if you find that you're worried,
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  if your soul is not at rest, it's sin.
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  Do not be anxious about anything.
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  But, halfway through verse 6,
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  But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
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  let your requests be made known to God.
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  So, this close God, this near God, this at-hand God, right, that we can rejoice in.
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  We simply make our requests known to Him.
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  Mixing in that, the thanksgiving that He has been good to us,
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  and He will continue to be good to us as He's promised.
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  And then verse 7 gives us the beautiful promise.
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  And not everywhere in the Scriptures do we have commands for right living,
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  and then promises that immediately accompany them.
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  Do you know that?
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  There's places in the Scripture where we are meant to live in a certain way,
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  and the outcome is not guaranteed of that way of living.
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  The thing that's coming to my mind as we've been doing counseling training together
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  is in 1 Peter, when Peter instructs women whose husbands are not obedient to the Word
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  to win their husbands without a word.
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  But there's no promise in the text that if you just prayerfully submit to Him,
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  He will become the leader that He's meant to be.
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  There's no promise of that.
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  But we have a promise here.
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  It's really precious when we find promises like this.
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  So if we're doing this activity, verses 4 through 6, Paul says,
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  And the peace of God, the peace that comes from God,
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  which surpasses all understanding,
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  will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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  But then he goes on.
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  Many of us stop at the end of verse 7,
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  But he goes on, verse 8,
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  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
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  whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,
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  if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise,
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  think about these things.
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  So set your mind on the things of God.
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  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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  Verse 9,
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  Which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,
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  practice these things, and then what?
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  The God of peace will be with you.
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  It's a beautiful, beautiful promise
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  as we find ourselves noisy inside.
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  So turn with me back to Psalm 131.
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  And look at the result of David believing the truth.
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  He believes the truth.
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  He's been thinking about the truth.
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  He's being transformed by the renewing of his mind.
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  And look at the result in verse 2.
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  He says,
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  I have calmed and quieted my soul.
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  By this activity of rightly understanding,
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  believing the truth, David says,
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  I have calmed and quieted my soul.
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  And then he uses a simile,
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  Like a weaned child with its mother,
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  like a weaned child is my soul within me.
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  If you don't know what a weaned child is,
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  it's a child that's no longer breastfeeding.
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  So taking off milk in that way.
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  We have no unweaned children.
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  Praise the Lord.
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  We have extra time in our day now.
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  John Piper says this of the result that David expresses to us.
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  This weaned child is a picture of contentment.
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  The unweaned child is frantically rooting around
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  and craves milk for his stomach.
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  Parents, we understand this, right?
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  What a child is like when they are desperately hungry.
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  The weaned child is simply enjoying the way it feels
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  to be in the lap of his mother.
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  He is satisfied.
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  And it is not about his stomach.
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  It's about his heart.
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  This is a picture of David's restfulness,
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  contentment, satisfaction, joy, peace,
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  and the secure, loving presence of God.
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  The weaned child no longer looks to the mother
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  simply as a source of food,
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  but as a source of comfort,
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  as a place to rest.
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  It's a powerful simile that David is using.
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  David renounces self-exaltation
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  and self-reliance and self-governance
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  and trusts God with his identity
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  and his provision and his direction,
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  which brings us to the final verse of this short psalm.
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  And the final question,
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  which we have answered in part already,
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  who is the source of peace?
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  Who is the source of peace?
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  Recall that in verse 2,
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  David says,
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  but I have calmed and quieted my soul.
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  And so why draw out this connection?
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  Who is the source of peace?
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  And I'd say to you, the God of peace.
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  How do we arrive at that?
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  Because in verse 3, he says,
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  O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
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  Having experienced the peace of God,
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  he's now calling to the people of God
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  to also experience the peace of God.
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  Hoping in the Lord.
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  And so it's not inaccurate for David to say,
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  but I have calmed and quieted my soul
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  because the Christian life,
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  the life of sanctification,
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  involves God's work and our work.
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  We must work.
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  We must pick up the truth
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  and we must consider the truth.
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  We must meditate upon the truth.
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  And then when we believe the truth,
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  and in this case,
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  our soul is quieted
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  and we have peace,
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  we praise God for the way
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  that He works truth within us.
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  This is not a thing the natural man does.
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  This is a thing that the spiritual man does.
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  God comes alongside of us
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  and works perfection within us.
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  So, David having experienced this peace that comes from God
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  calls the people of God to also hope in Him.
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  Here, in David's appeal, a call to you.
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  I read this, right?
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  O Nathan, hope in the Lord from this time forth
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  and forevermore.
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  He calls Israel by name.
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  And if you have believed in Christ,
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  He calls to you
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  and He calls you to hope in the Lord.
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  Now, part of the people of God.
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  Now, Psalm 131 is paired
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  and rightly paired with Psalm 130.
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  Psalm 130 was most likely also written by David
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  and expresses trust in God's mercy.
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  It is aimed at helping those who have trusted in Christ
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  to see themselves as forgiven people,
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  as God's people forgiven,
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  granted the right to enter God's presence
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  because of His mercy.
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  It finds its author on the other side of peace.
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  Right?
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  So, this is pre-peace.
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  I don't think these psalms were written in this order,
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  but they're paired together for this reason
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  in the original manuscripts.
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  On the other side of peace,
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  but looking to God for it.
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  So, you may find yourself in this place this morning.
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  You may relate more to the David, we think,
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  of Psalm 130
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  and less to the David of Psalm 131.
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  How is it that we move from one to the other?
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  Right?
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  This consideration of the truth.
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  Who is it that we hope in?
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  So, let me read for our benefit.
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  Psalm 130, beginning of verse 1.
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  Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
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  O Lord, hear my voice.
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  Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.
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  If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
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  O Lord, who could stand?
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  And the answer is no one.
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  But with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared.
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  I wait for the Lord.
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  My soul waits.
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  And in His word, I hope.
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  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.
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  More than watchmen for the morning.
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  O Israel.
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  Here it is again.
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  Hope in the Lord.
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  For with the Lord there is steadfast love.
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  And with Him is plentiful redemption.
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  And He will redeem Israel from all His iniquities.
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  Right?
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  Because of God's great mercy, He will save His people.
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  So, we have great reason to hope in Him.
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  So, in times of trouble, whatever those troubles may be,
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  when our souls are not calmed and are not quieted,
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  we can look to the God of our salvation and hope in Him.
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  We can be humbled by His great mercy toward us.
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  We can trust God with our identity and our provision and our direction.
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  We can know that God is for us because we are His people.
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  And therefore, we can have peace.
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  So, let me ask again.
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  Are you at rest this morning?
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  Is your soul calmed and quieted with you in this day?
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  Or do you find yourself in a state of stress or anxiety or worry?
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  Is your soul noisy this morning?
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  I hope you can join with me by the close of our service and with David in saying,
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  Oh, Lord, my heart is not lifted up.
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  My eyes are not raised too high.
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  I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
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  But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother,
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  like a weaned child is my soul within me.
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  Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
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  Let's pray together.
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  Let's pray together.