Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3
Journal: Are you able to honestly pray this psalm? Why or why not? If you honestly pray this psalm, how do you
think it will take shape in your life?
What will your life look like?
What resistance do you feel to praying it? What is God saying to you through it today?
Reflection:
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do
not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a
weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time
forth and forevermore. (Psalm 131:1-3,
ESV)
I don’t know about you, but
every now and then I have a tendency to overestimate my own importance, to
somehow begin to believe that I am essential to things going well in the
world. It makes me unwilling (or unable)
to stop and take a breath because “if I don’t do it, who else will?” It is a skewed and flawed perspective to say
the least. For when we operate out of
our own need, rather than out of God’s deep desire, we are not really loving
people at all, but merely manipulating them.
They become pawns (objects) in our pathetic quest for self-importance.
The truth is that I am a
non-essential in the grand scheme of things.
God doesn’t need me at all. In
fact, God doesn’t need any of us. God
uses us not because he needs us, but because he loves us. He uses us because it gives us, and him,
pleasure. And when we finally begin to realize
that, we are finally able to be of real service to the kingdom; for then it has
stopped being about us and started being about him. In fact, as the voice of Jesus so beautifully
reminded us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, it is actually through our weakness and
powerlessness that his strength and power are most fully on display.
I think that’s why praying
this ancient prayer (Psalm 131) is so very important. It reorients us. It keeps our hearts from becoming too high (gabahh
in Hebrew) and our eyes from being too lofty (ruwm). It keeps us from thinking more of ourselves
than we should. It helps us to get over
ourselves a little bit. It keeps us from
getting too obsessed with our own little contribution to what God is doing in his
great big world. It keeps things in perspective.
When we are finally able to
honestly pray this prayer, we are finally to the point of being really useful
to God, because it has become about him once again and not about us. For ironically, if it doesn’t have to
be me, then it actually can be me.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: O Lord, how can I possibly calm and
quiet my soul like a weaned child with its mother if I do not fully trust that
you are God and I am not? Help me to
fully come to that realization this day.
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