Psalm 131: Childlike Faith

Psalm 131

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.

How are we ought to approach the Lord? Should we come at him like an employee to a boss, expecting a paycheck? Should we come at him like a friend to another friend, expecting that we are both equal? No. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells us that unless we approach the Lord like a child, we will not inherit the kingdom. In Psalm 131, the psalmist fleshes out what that looks like for us. Let us look at it briefly this morning.

In Psalm 131, we find the psalmist exclaiming how he refuses to lift up his heart to God. Rather than insisting that God give him what he desires or answer all of his questions, the psalmist goes to God in humility and trust, knowing that he is undeserving of even being in the LORD's presence. Unlike Job, the psalmist did not look for answers to all of his questions but rather trusted that the LORD was taking care of the things he did not understand. In his approach to God, he rebuked his natural pride and arrogance and replaced it with silence. Truly we ought to do the same when we go to the God of the universe.

Yet in the second verse of this psalm, we find an analogy for how this way of approaching God is played out. The psalmist tells us that the way we ought to approach God is similar to a child approaching his mother. A weaned child knows that his mother is the place to go for whatever he needs. Whereas an adult thinks that he can take care of himself, a child is fully aware that he can't, so he fully expects his mother to take care of him. Furthermore, a weaned child is too young to ask questions. He does not wonder where his food comes from or how he is protected, he just simply trusts that he is. Likewise ought to be our relationship with God. Although we don't know the answers, we ought to go to God in faith, trusting that he does know what is best for us. Like a child who helplessly goes to his mother realizing that without her he would not survive, so we ought to go to God. We do not go to him as if we deserve something from him, but rather as one who is helpless without him, like a child looking to its mother.

You see, many of us approach God as a means to an end. We see God as a tool that can help us to get what we want. However, that is not what the psalmist is advocating for here. A child may want food, protection, and comfort, but ultimately he knows that all of these things are found in his mother and in his mother alone. Likewise, we must find everything we need in God and God alone. We do not approach him as a means to get comfort, protection, and grace; we approach him because he is all that we need! We approach him in a posture that says, "I would rather be in a storm and with you than in a sunny day without you." Just as a child would do anything to not be separated from his mother, so ought we to cling to Christ.