Latest / Reformed Thinking / Like a Weaned Child: Resting Humbly in the Lord (Psalm 131) | Charles Spurgeon

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Like a Weaned Child: Resting Humbly in the Lord (Psalm 131) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis,
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there's this expectation of absolute precision.
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Right. For sure it feels like
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mechanical engineering. Right.
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You fall off a bike, you break your arm, and the doctor just
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points at the X-ray. It shows that stark, jagged
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white line against the black. Background and they just point
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and say Yep, there it is, it's completely binary, broken or not
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broken. Which brings a lot of comfort,
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honestly. We like things to be visible.
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We want them neatly categorized with a specific name.
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But then you step into the world of spiritual diagnosis.
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Yeah, specifically when you try diagnosing the motives of the
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human heart, suddenly that pristine X-ray machine is, well,
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it's completely useless. It really is.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is honestly, it's
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just muddy. It's the absolute definition of
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diagnostic Muddy Waters. Trying to isolate pride or
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humility in the human soul is infinitely more complicated than
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finding a bone fracture. Because the patient actively
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wants to hide it. Precisely the patient, meaning
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you, the listener and me and everyone else walking the earth.
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We actively camouflage our pride under the guise of virtue.
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Well, welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today our focus is on running a massive, thorough analysis on an
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ancient piece of literature. We are doing a deep dive into
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Psalm 131 today. Yes, and we are utilizing
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Charles Spurgeon's classic commentary, The Treasury of
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David, alongside a huge stack of notes from historical
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theologians just to look at the actual anatomy of humility.
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And what's so striking about setting the scene here is the
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sheer brevity of the text. Oh, it's incredibly short.
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It is 3 versus long. Yeah, you could read it out loud
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in about 15 seconds, but. Spurgeon looks at this tiny
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passage and compares it to a Pearl that beautifully adorns
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the neck of Patience. He makes this brilliant
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observation about it. She is, he says.
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It might be one of the shortest psalms to read, but it is one of
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the longest to learn. Oh wow, that phrase alone stops
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you in your tracks. The longest to learn.
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He notes that it speaks with the vocabulary of a young child, but
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it contains the hard won experience of a mature man in
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Christ. It really requires a lifetime of
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crushing defeats and quiet victories to actually comprehend
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what's happening in those three verses.
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So as we unpack this, I think the most helpful thing you can
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do as a listener is to constantly bounce these ancient
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concepts off your own modern life.
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Like, ask yourself how you respond when your circumstances
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didn't you the comforts or the success you feel you rightfully
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deserve. Right, because that friction is
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the Crucible where true humility is either forged or abandoned.
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O Let's get right into the mechanics of this, starting with
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the context. There's a really brilliant
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observation from Samuel Cox regarding where Psalm 131 is
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physically placed in the text. Because it doesn't exist in a
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vacuum. Right, right.
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It immediately follows Psalm 130, and Psalm 130 is widely
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known as a song of forgiveness. It's the famous text that starts
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with Out of the Depths. I cry to you, Oh Lord.
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Yeah, it focuses entirely on the pardoning of transgressions.
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The author is drowning in guilt, begs for rescue, and receives
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grace. And then the very next breath,
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we step into Psalm 131, which is a song of humility.
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The theological link between those two stakes of being is
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absolutely critical. It is true forgiveness
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organically produces humility. It's like a chain reaction.
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Right. When a person realizes their
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sins are pardoned by free grace and not by any personal merit
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they managed to achieve, they naturally clothe themselves in
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humility. The sequence is highly
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deliberate. You do not get the genuine,
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quiet humility of Psalm 131 without first experiencing the
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total unmerited rescue of Psalm 130.
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I want to pause on that though, because logically you could
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argue the exact opposite. What do you mean?
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Well, it's a bit ironic, isn't it?
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Receiving a royal pardon? Being elevated to a status of
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total justification before the creator of the universe could
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theoretically make a person incredibly boastful.
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Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, you see this in Human
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Dynamics all the time. If someone gets selected for an
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exclusive scholarship or handed AVIP pass, they tend to look
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down on the people who didn't make the cut.
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Right, they say, look at my special status.
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Yeah, the king favors me. Yet the reality of divine grace
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achieves the complete opposite psychological effect.
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Why does it crush the ego instead of inflating it?
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Because the nature of this specific pardon highlights the
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absolute depravity that required it in the first place.
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Oh, right, that makes sense. It's.
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About the mechanics of human achievement.
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If you earn a reward through hard work, you have grounds to
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boast. You put in the hours, you reap
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the benefit. But if you are rescued from a
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state of total inability. Yes, if you are bankrupt,
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drowning, and someone else pays the debt and pulls you from the
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water, boasting is completely excluded.
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Because you contributed nothing to your own survival.
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Survival, except the desperate need for.
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It precisely Samuel Cox points out that a person of sincere
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nature will be even more humbled by the overwhelming sense of an
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undeserved forgiveness than by the memory of the sins
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themselves. Wow, so the grace humbles you
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far more than the guilt ever did.
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Guilt just makes you feel bad. Grace shatters your illusion of
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self-sufficiency. That is such a huge distinction.
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Guilt makes you hide, but grace actually resets your entire view
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of yourself. And that psychological reset
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sets up the historical backdrop for this Psalm perfectly.
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We're talking about David here. The shepherd who became king,
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right? Franz de Lich provides a
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historical framing for this text that brings it out of the
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abstract and into the dirt and sweat of reality.
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He suggests this text is an echo of David's mindset during a very
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specific, highly public event. Right.
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Yeah, the moment he danced before the Ark of the Covenant
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as it was being brought into Jerusalem.
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And the wardrobe details of that event are what make it so wild.
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David did not lead that that procession in his kingly attire.
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He wasn't wearing the crown, or the heavy robes of state, or
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the. Armor of a conquering general.
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No, He danced before the Lord in a common linen ephod.
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He stripped away all the visible markers of his earthly status.
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He reduced himself to the uniform of a common servant or a
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basic priest. And his wife Mikhail, who was
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the daughter of the previous King Saul, absolutely despised
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him for. It She looked out the window,
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saw the King of Israel leaping and dancing with the commoners,
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and the text says she despised him in her heart.
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She confronted him and basically accused him of acting completely
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beneath his royal dignity. She thought he was embarrassing
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the monarchy. And David's response is one of
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the greatest mic drop moments in ancient history.
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It really is. What did he say?
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He essentially fires back. I esteem myself still less than
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I now show it. Wow.
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Yeah, he was telling her. You think this linen ephod is
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undignified? You think I'm lowering myself?
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I view myself even lower than this.
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In the presence of the God who chose me over your Father, I am
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nothing. That interaction is the perfect
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visual representation of Psalm 131.
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But we have to understand that this mindset didn't develop
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overnight. If we connect this to the
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broader scope of David's life, his character was forged in the
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brutal fires of waiting and delay.
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The timeline details of his life are staggering.
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When you lay them out. Tell me about it.
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David was anointed as king by the prophet Samuel when he was
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just a youth. Probably a teenager, right?
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The oil was poured on his head. The divine promise was given.
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He was the designated monarch, but he didn't go to the throne
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room. He went back to the sheep.
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And eventually he endured A10 year persecution by the sitting
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King Saul. 10 years of running for his life.
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Hiding in the caves of a Dulum, scavenging for food and being
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haunted across the Judean wilderness like an animal.
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And the delay didn't even end when Saul died.
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No. Even after Saul was killed in
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battle, David didn't immediately take the throne over all Israel.
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There was an incredibly tense 7 1/2 year period of an incipient
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kingship in Hebron. He ruled only the tribe of
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Judah, while Saul's son Ishbosheth ruled the rest of the
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nation. It was a divided Kingdom.
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A constant state of low grade civil war.
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So here is where I have to push back, or at least ask the
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question that any modern person would scream at the text.
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Go for it. How could a man who was
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literally anointed by God to be king wait that long without
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taking matters into his own hands?
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Without forcing the issue, yeah. He had the divine mandate.
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He had multiple documented opportunities to assassinate
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Saul. He sneaked into Saul's camp
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while everyone was sleeping. He could have ended the 10 year
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nightmare with one thrust of a spear.
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He could have taken the throne by force and most people would
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have said he was just fulfilling prophecy.
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How does someone possess that kind of restraint?
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It feels almost passive to a fault.
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I get that it looks passive to a world that equates action with
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control, but it's actually the highest form of active faith.
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Really active faith. Yeah.
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He left it entirely to God to remove Saul, and later he left
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it to God to remove Ishba Chef. He refused to manufacture the
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fulfillment of God's promise. Oh wow.
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And this posture continued his entire life.
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Much later, during the rebellion of his own son Absalom, a man
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named Shimei came out and threw rocks at David.
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And cursed him publicly, yes. David's military commanders
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offered to go cut Shimei's head off, but David stopped them,
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saying that God might have ordered Shimei to curse him.
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He fled his own capital city of Jerusalem rather than fight his
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own son. His entire character was defined
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by an absolute, unrelenting submission to divine Providence.
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He don't view the promise of the kingship as a blank check to
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seize control of his circumstances.
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He viewed it as a promise God was obligated to fulfill in his
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own sovereign timing, using his own methods.
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Delicious notes that resignation to God's Providence and total
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contentment with whatever was allotted to Him for that
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specific day were the distinguishing traits of his
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character. That historical reality of
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constant, agonizing waiting forces a man completely inward,
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and that brings us right into the opening words of the text
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itself. Verse one begins with this heavy
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declaration. Lord, my heart is not haughty.
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Spurgeon describes this opening line as a solitary colloquy with
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God. It isn't a public speech.
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No, it isn't meant for human ears.
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It's an internal, fiercely private conversation with the
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Creator and. We have to grasp the danger of
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making a statement like that. A person can easily fool a
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crowd. Oh, totally.
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You can adopt the quiet mannerisms of humility.
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You can speak softly. You can defer to others in
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meetings. And you can receive the applause
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of men for your apparent meekness.
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Human beings are easily manipulated by external
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performance. But appealing directly to
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Jehovah, the God who alone searches the internal motives of
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the heart, is a highly serious, almost terrifying matter.
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Spurgeon warns that a man should be very slow to do this, for God
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is not to be trifled with. Making an appeal to the
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omniscient requires a pristine conscience.
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It's the difference between issuing A carefully crafted
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public relations statement and willingly hooking yourself up to
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a polygraph test. Administered by an omniscient
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being who knows your subconscious better than you do.
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I love that analogy. It raises the sticks of the
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verse. And Spurgeon uses this
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incredibly vivid analogy of the spring to explain why the heart
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matters so much. He says the heart is the center
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of for human nature. It is The Fountainhead.
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If pride is located there, it defiles absolutely everything
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else, just as a thick layer of mire in an underground spring
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causes mud in all the subsequent streams that flow from it.
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If the source is contaminated, the water is contaminated.
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That is a brilliant way to understand human motivation.
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If your heart is haughty, then your charity is haughty.
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Your prayers are haughty, your acts of service are haughty,
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even your apologies are just a disguised form of pride.
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Perhaps a way to manage your reputation?
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Because if the spring is muddy, you cannot purify the stream by
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painting the banks of the river. Right.
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Think about someone who gives a massive multi $1,000,000
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donation to a hospital. On paper, it's a glorious act of
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philanthropy. It saves.
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Lives. But if the core motivation the
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spring was entirely about securing a legacy, getting their
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name in massive bronze letters on the side of the building.
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And ensuring their rivals feel inferior.
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Yeah, then the ACT itself in the eyes of God is just muddy water.
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The action is disconnected from virtue because the source is
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contaminated with self exultation.
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Spot on. And this requires us to reckon
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with the deceitful and desperately wicked nature of the
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human heart. We are remarkably good at lying
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to ourselves about why we do things.
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Spurgeon asks A rhetorical question.
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Who can possibly know the heart unless taught by the Spirit of
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God? We have an infinite capacity for
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self deception, so to thoroughly search oneself facing all the
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dark ugly corners of your own ego and then confidently declare
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an absence of haughtiness before the judge of all the earth.
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That is a massive statement of spiritual maturity.
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It means David had invited the glaring illumination of the Holy
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Spirit to examine his motives, and he found them resting
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entirely God's grace, void of self promotion.
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OK, I have to bring up an objection here, something Thomas
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Manton addressed centuries ago. Let's hear it, because it's the
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exact thing a skeptical listener is thinking right now.
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Doesn't saying I am not proud sound incredibly suspicious?
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Yeah, it sounds a lot like the Pharisee in the New Testament
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who stood in the temple and prayed, thanking God he wasn't
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like other men. Not like the extortioners, the
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unjust or the tax collectors. Isn't David guilty of pride in
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the very act of declaring his own humility?
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It feels like a paradox. Look at how humble I am, is the
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ultimate proud statement. It's a totally valid objection,
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and Manton addresses that dilemma masterfully.
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He provides 2 key defenses for David's opening line.
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What's the first one? First, he points out that
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David's words act as a necessary vindication against vicious
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calumnies. David was living under a
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constant barrage of slander. Oh, right.
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Saul's courtiers were terrified of David's popularity, so they
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constantly accused him of aspiring to the throne.
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Painting him as a treasonous, ambitious rebel who was trying
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to stage a coup. And the slander started early.
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Years prior, before he even fought Goliath, his own oldest
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brother Iliad explicitly taxed him with pride.
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That scene in the Valley of Elah is crucial context.
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David just shows up to bring cheese and bread to his brothers
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who are terrified of the giant. And David hears Goliath defying
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the armies of God and asks what the reward is for killing him.
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And Eliab, the older brother who was passed over for the
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anointing, just snaps out of me. He says, I know thy pride and
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the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down, that
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thou mightest see the battle. Eliab completely misjudged
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David's righteous indignation, chalking it up to an air
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teenager wanting a front row seat to bloodshed.
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He projected his own ambition onto David.
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Exactly so. David had to clear his name not
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just to soothe his own bruised ego, but for the honor of God's
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chosen servant. Because if the King of Israel is
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seen as a grasping, manipulative usurper, it reflects poorly on
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the God who appointed him. Right.
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He makes his appeal to the highest possible court, knowing
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that human courts were already biased against him.
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And what was Manson's second defense?
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Second, Manton argues this declaration functions as
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necessary instruction for Israel.
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This was written by the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
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It's a didactic tool. It's teaching God's people the
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required posture of a believer. It isn't David bragging about
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his stats, it's David providing A blueprint for the faithful.
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That makes perfect sense. It's a defense attorney
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presenting evidence of innocence, not a narcissist
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listing their virtues. Moving past the internal state,
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the text transitions to the external.
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The next phrase in the verse says Norm mine eyes lofty.
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We move from the hidden heart to the visible face and then
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Michael points out a brilliant connection here.
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He says that pride has its seat in the heart, but its principal
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expression, its primary billboard, is the eye.
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What the heart desires, the eyes inevitably look for.
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The eye is the most honest mirror of the soul.
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You can control your hands, you can moderate your tone of voice,
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but your eyes betray you. Michael catalogs the way
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Scripture pairs phrases together to build a complete picture.
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We regularly speak of sin and misery as a pair, or holiness
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and happiness. In that exact same way,
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Scripture consistently pairs the proud heart and the haughty
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look. Lofty eyes are universally hated
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across all cultures. What's fascinating is that even
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incredibly proud people absolutely hate the haughtiness
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of others. Oh, for sure.
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A proud look is actually listed in the book of Proverbs as the
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very first of the seven things that are an abomination unto the
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Lord. Because it places the creature
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in the posture of the creator, Yeah.
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Spurgeon makes this highly perceptive psychological
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observation about how lofty eyes operate in a social setting,
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though. He notes that genuinely haughty
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men often avoid the manners that are natural to the proud simply
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to escape the ill will of their fellows.
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They realize that acting visibly arrogant makes them unpopular.
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It hurts their business, and it alienates allies.
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So they modify their facial expressions.
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They learn to fake it. And that creates what we call
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the pride, which apes humility. It's a sinister mutation of
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pride. This kind of pride deliberately
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casts its eyes downward, speaking softly and acting
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deferential, knowing full well that contemptuous glances give
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away the game. There is no worse more toxic
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pride than claiming A humility you do not possess.
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It is a manufactured lowliness designed entirely to win human
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approval, which means it's just another convoluted form of self
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exultation. It's a performance art.
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You are pretending to be small so that people will tell you how
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great you are for being so small.
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We see this constantly today. It's the classic social media
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humblebrag. Oh totally, Someone posts a
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highly curated photo of an award they won, but the caption is all
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about how they feel so unworthy and just lucky to be in the
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room. The words say humility, but the
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entire exercise is engineered to draw attention to their success.
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Matthew Henry provides a sharp contrast to this performance by
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detailing Davidde actual posture.
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Henry says David had neither a scornful look toward those below
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him nor an envious, aspiring look toward those above him.
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He possessed the posture of the humble publican in the parable,
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the man who stood afar off and wouldn't so much as lift up his
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eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, asking for mercy.
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David was completely satisfied with his station.
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He wasn't looking down in disdain, and he wasn't looking
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up in envy. And that concept of being
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satisfied with your station raises an incredibly important
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question regarding ambition, which is precisely what the text
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addresses next. The final part of verse one says
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neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too
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high for me. This is where we hit the tension
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of human capacity. Spurgeon provides some
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incredible historical foils for David to illustrate what it
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means to exercise yourself in great matters.
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David did not thrust himself into the priesthood.
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He was a king, not a priest, and he respected that boundary.
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Contrast that with King Saul before him.
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Saul panic before a battle when the prophet Samuel was late.
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Instead of waiting, Saul unlawfully assumed the role of
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the priest and offered the burnt sacrifice himself.
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It cost him his dynasty. And then look at King Uzziah
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after David. Uzziah was a wildly successful
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king, but his success made him proud.
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He forcefully entered the temple to burn incense on the altar,
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directly violating God's law. 80 brave priests confronted him,
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told him to get out, and he became furious.
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And right there in the temple, leprosy broke out on his
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forehead. He lived the rest of his life in
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isolation. David, however, minded his own
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business. He knew his sphere and stayed in
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it. Those historical examples
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perfectly illustrate the theological principle that
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Joseph Addison Alexander draws out of this text.
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The principle is this. God has secret purposes and
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sovereign means for their accomplishment, in which man is
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called to acquiesce, not to cooperate.
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We have this burning desire to be in the war room with God,
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helping him draw up the. But there are hidden things that
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belong exclusively to the Lord. We are not meant to figure
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everything out. We are designed to manage the
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universe or even to fully comprehend the intricate
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machinery of Providence. We are meant to obey the
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revealed things and leave the secret things to the sovereign.
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So how does this play out for us practically?
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Let's bring this down to the ground level.
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Think about the specific vanity Spurgeon identifies here.
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He talks about the person who despises a small work, thinking
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it is entirely beneath their intellect or their talent.
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This is the person who demands to be trusted with five talents
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immediately. They refuse to be a quiet light
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among poor everyday neighbors, demanding instead to be a star
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of the first magnitude admired by massive crowds.
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We see this in the corporate world everyday, the entry level
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employee who thinks they should be giving strategic advice to
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the CEO on day one. And they refuse used to do the
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basic administrative work they were actually hired to do.
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That is misplaced ambition masquerading a zeal.
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It sounds spiritual or driven, but it's actually a refusal to
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accept the boundaries God has established for your current
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season. And God exacts a very natural
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righteous retribution on this mindset.
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Those who insist on being everything usually end up being
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nothing. When a person tries to handle
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matters too great for them, whether that's a theological
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mystery they cannot solve, a leadership position they aren't
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ready for, or a financial risk they cannot sustain.
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They strain and injure themselves, they lack the
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structural capacity for the weight they're trying to carry,
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and eventually it crushes them. Michael provides a beautiful
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quote from an 11th century theologian, Anselm, that
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captures the perfect posture in the face of these great matters.
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Anselm prayed. I do not seek to understand that
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I may believe, but I believe that I may understand.
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That is such a massive paradigm shift.
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It completely encapsulates the refusal to pry into unrevealed,
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lofty things. It prioritizes faith over
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complete intellectual comprehension.
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Saying I don't need to see the blueprints of the universe
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before I trust the Architect. That prayer is the intellectual
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equivalent of not exercising oneself in things too high.
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We rest in what God has spoken rather than demanding.
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He explains in all His sovereign ways to us before we grant Him
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our obedience. It's the admission of our own
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finite nature. Which brings us to verse 2.
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This is the emotional core of the entire Psalm, and frankly,
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one of the most vivid images in all of ancient literature.
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David Weitz Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a
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child that is weaned of his mother.
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My soul is even as a weaned child.
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Solomon Gessner, a historical scholar, points out a
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translation nuance here that changes the tone completely.
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Oh, right, the phrase translated as surely I have is actually an
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oath. It's in a separation.
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Yes, it is a forceful, almost violent statement.
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It implies A thorough, intentional imposing of silence
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on the soul. It isn't a casual natural
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calming down like drifting off to sleep.
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It's an intense, determined subduing of the inner life.
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It's David putting his hand over the mouth of his own complaining
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spirit. The village preacher hints in
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our source material use a wild comparison to illustrate just
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how difficult this is. They note that taming A literal
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tiger or calming the hurricane wind is easier than quieting
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one's own petulant, clamorous spirit.
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A quiet soul is not natural to us.
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The factory setting of the human heart is noisy, demanding,
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anxious and restless. To show the sheer agony of this
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process, William J lays out the weaning analogy in excruciating,
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almost painful detail. Think of the infant.
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The infant has known only one source of comfort, one source of
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food, since birth. Suddenly the mother denies the
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breast the instant cries, sobs out his heart and genuinely
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believes the mother has turned cruel.
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The child cannot comprehend nutrition, it only understands
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deprivation. And the mother pities the child.
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She sees the big tears, she sees the stretched out hands.
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She feels the intense distress of her baby.
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But she must persevere. If she gives in to the crying,
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the child will never eat solid food.
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The child will never grow. The temporary agony is required
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for long term survival. Which brings up the most painful
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question of all. How does God accomplish this
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spiritual weaning for us? How does He get us off the milk
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of worldly comforts that we are so desperately addicted to?
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Yeah, he does it by embittering the world to us.
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He actively removes the things we love, or he substitutes other
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food that we initially hate. The commentary notes the brutal
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reality of this process. Our lovers deceive us, our well
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planned paths are hedged with thorns, and our earthly comforts
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Pierce us through with sorrows. The very things we relied on for
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our joy, our identity and our security suddenly become sources
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of immense pain. The business you built from the
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ground up fails. Your physical health
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inexplicably declines. The friend you trusted
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completely betrays you. The promotion goes to someone
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else. God makes the breasts of the
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world bitter so that we will finally stop nursing from it.
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But I have a crucial question about the result of this
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agonizing process. What happens at the end of the
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crying fit? Because logically you would
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think the child would run away from the mother.
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The mother is the source of the denial.
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The mother is the 1 causing the pain.
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Does the child reject her? Does the believer turn their
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back on God because he'd remove their comforts?
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The Hebrew imagery clarifies this in the most beautiful way
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imaginable. The text says the child is
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weaned on his mother, not from her.
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This is a vital, life changing distinction.
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After the sobbing stops, after the exhaustion sets in, the boy
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eventually finds solace by burying his head in the very
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bosom that just denied him the milk.
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He does not run away to find comfort elsewhere.
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He draws closer to the source of his frustration.
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He rests in the very place of his privation.
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Wow. He finds comfort in the person
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of the mother rather than the provision of the milk.
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The relationship survives the denial of the transaction.
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This signifies a massive spiritual shift.
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It means resting in God, even when God flatly denies us the
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earthly comforts we crave. It's the moment we stop loving
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God just for what He gives, and we start loving Him simply for
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who He is. We find our peace in His
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presence even when His hands are empty of the worldly blessings.
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We originally threw a tantrum. That is such a delicate balance,
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and Charles Bradley makes a vital distinction here that we
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have to discuss. He contrasts true weedness of
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soul with mere disgust with the world.
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This is an essential point to clarify.
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Because a lot of people act like they are over the world, but
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it's really just a cynical world weariness.
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They are just jaded. Bradley says if you alter or
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ennoble the world, if you suddenly made the world a
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better, more rewarding place, the proud mind that currently
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despises it would suddenly court it all over again.
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Right. Disgust.
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What? The world usually comes from
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being burned by it, not from transcending it.
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Think of the wealthy sensualist who has bought every luxury,
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tasted every pleasure and drunk the world's cup entirely dry.
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He sits in his mansion and says I have not a wish left.
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I wouldn't put out my hand to reach for anything.
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It is all meaningless. They're bored.
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They have worn out their physical and emotional
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affections through sheer overindulgence.
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That isn't spiritual maturity, that's just exhaustion.
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It's a deadening of the nerves, not a weaning of the soul.
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True weanedness, on the other hand, preserves the appetite.
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The child is weaned, but the child is not dead.
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The child still humbers, but it is quiet without the old food.
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It feeds on other things. The soul still pans for
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happiness. It still desires joy, but it no
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longer seeks to satisfy that hunger in worldly things like
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riches, honors, or self righteousness.
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The desire for joy remains completely intact.
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The object of that desire has just shifted entirely to God.
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James Vaughn's sermon notes refine this concept even
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further, addressing a massive misunderstanding about
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submission. When people hear about this
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level of detachment from the world, they often assume the
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Christian is supposed to have 0 desires.
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They think it means losing your individual will entirely,
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achieving a sort of passive mystical annihilation of the
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self where you just float through life not caring about
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anything. Vaughn emphatically refutes
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this. A completely apathetic,
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desireless state is the exact opposite of true obedience.
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God does not want us to annihilate our will.
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A decided active will is what makes a strong character.
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I need to ask you to untack that a bit more, because in Christian
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circles, submission sounds an awful lot like giving up your
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will entirely. If I am submitting to God,
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aren't I erasing what I want? How is subjugation different
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from annihilation? Vaughn points to the ultimate
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perfect example to explain this Jesus Christ in the Garden of
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Gethsemane. Jesus sweat drops of blood and
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agony and prayed not my will but thine be done.
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Notice there were two distinct, highly active wills mentioned in
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that prayer. My will and thy will.
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Jesus had a genuine, robust human will that naturally and
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appropriately recoiled from the physical and spiritual agony of
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the cross. He didn't annihilate that will
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will. He didn't pretend he wanted to
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suffer. He subjugated his will.
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So true weaning is having a strong desire but possessing an
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instantly perfectly subjugated will.
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It's the practice of repeatedly bringing your very real desires
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to God and then actively choosing to conform to the
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Father's will when the two conflict.
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It's an active muscular obedience, not a passive hollow
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emptiness. It's the strength to look at the
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circumstances and say I desperately want this cup to
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pass for me, but I actively choose your plan instead of my
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escape. That requires infinitely more
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character and spiritual fortitude than simply not
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wanting anything at all. The weaned child still wants to
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nurse, but yields to the mother's better judgement.
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That brings us to the final verse, which features a massive
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sudden shift in perspective. Verse three.
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Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever.
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We move from the intensely private, whispered confession of
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verse 1, Lord, my heart is not haughty, to a loud public
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declaration meant for the whole nation.
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This narrative shift is the glorious culmination of the
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weaning process. Once the internal struggle is
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complete, once the tantrums have stopped and the self is finally
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subdued, a man naturally and lovingly turns his thoughts
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outward to others. David loses his obsession with
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himself and his care for Israel. His private, agonizing victory
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in the dark becomes a public encouragement in the light.
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Spurgeon's logic on this transition is brilliant.
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He says there is room for the largest hope when self is
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entirely gone. As long as you are obsessing
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over your own pride, your own ambitions, and your own comfort,
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your hope is extremely fragile because it is tied to temporary
30:37
things. But because David has given up
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the things that are seen, the earthly ambitions, the need to
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control the timeline, the addiction to worldly comforts,
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he is now completely free to value the unseen treasures.
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And once he finds that solid, unshakable ground, he cannot
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keep it to himself. He exhorts all his friends, his
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kinsmen, and his entire nation to live by the same eternal
31:01
hope. Adam Clark provides the
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theological foundation for why this public hope is so secure.
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Why should Israel hope in the Lord?
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Clark argues they can hope because Jehovah possesses
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specific, unchanging attributes. He is wise to plan, he is good
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to purpose, and he is strong to execute.
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You can place your absolute trust in a God who operates with
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infinite wisdom, perfect goodness, and sovereign
31:25
strength. And notice the timeline.
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This hope isn't just a temporary fix to get you through a rough
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Tuesday. It is from henceforth and
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forever. The weaning process moves the
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child from a temporary stage of nursing, which was always meant
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to end, to a permanent stage of mature fellowship with the
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father, which never ends. It lifts the believer out of a
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circumstantial, fragile existence into a heavenly
31:45
reality. To bring all of this together,
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we began with the rigorous, terrifying self examination of
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the hidden heart and the visible eyes.
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We looked at David's refusal to harbor secret pride or display
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performative humility, and his absolute refusal to grab for
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control that wasn't his. We move through the painful,
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necessary weaning process where God actively embitters the world
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to us so that our strong human will can be subjugated to His
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sovereign plan. And we concluded with the
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beautiful result, A rock solid, eternal hope that stops looking
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inward and expands outward to lift up the entire community.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you with a
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completely different angle on this entire process.
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We spend so much of our lives exhausted by the pressure of
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modern culture. We are constantly told to build
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our personal brand, to be the main character of our own story,
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to hustle, to manifest our destiny and to manage every.
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It's a crushing amount of weight, but look at what Psalm
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131 actually offers. It offers the incredible,
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breathtaking freedom of insignificance.
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When you finally stop exercising yourself in great matters, when
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you finally accept that you are not the architect of the
32:51
universe, you are allowed to drop the burden of self
32:54
management. The most exhausting thing you
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will ever do is try to be your own God.
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The weaned soul is free because it has finally embraced the
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relief of being small in the arms of a God who is massive.
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Think back to that broken X-ray machine we talked about at the
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start. Sometimes the pain you feel, the
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confusion of your current circumstances, isn't a sign that
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something has gone terribly wrong.
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Sometimes it is the exact evidence that the Great
33:20
Physician is healing a pride you couldn't even see, freeing you
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from a weight you were never meant to carry.
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Thank you for joining the session of Reformed Thinking.
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Examine your own heart, embrace the grace that makes you small,
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and carry that quiet hope as you go about your day.