1 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.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalm 131 is one of those short Psalms that cuts right to the heart of the matter. David sings about how his heart is not lifted up. He is not full of pride, and therefore, he doesn’t go around getting involved with things that he is not prepared to do anything about. Instead, he quiets his soul. He rests in his station. As a baby being nursed, he has the sole focus on the things at hand. Since he has his focus in the right place, his hope is not displaced.
The teaching here is such an important word. It has been said that the human machine while smart and capable, was not meant to handle the information overload that the instant access to endless information of social media grants us. It can be difficult to look at what is going on in the world and not have a reaction. There are cottage industries around this. With little way of fixing the idea many still grow audiences by having hot takes and reactions to all the hubla in the world, rather as much as they can.
As a Blogger, I can and probably have fallen prey to this kind of thinking, though I try to keep my focus on the realms of faith and that which directly affects Christians. But this is a good work for all of us. How many times have you come across an article, a story, a conspiracy, and that new information has stolen your peace? We have probably all lost sleep over an issue that we are not, in any way prepared to handle or even do anything about.
We have all spent too much time fretting over issues that do not only not affect us, but that we probably do not even have enough information to really even speak to. Sometimes it is difficult to sleep when your mind is full of worry, or even full of empathy for something that you couldn’t possibly change. Even as good Christians, we go to the Lord in prayer, but should the gas prices in Eastasia be our concern?
The Psalm is a great reminder that even David, who was a King, mind you, had to make this distinction between what was his business and what was not. I imagine that for a King it would seem like much more than the normal person’s affairs were his concern. Yet he learned how to focus on the right things. Even as a King, he knew that there were some things that were above his pay grade, and probably not even his business.
If a King can recognize this, how much more should the average Joe?
Part of this realization is that much of what we give our anxieties to is simply God’s domain. God will handle that war on the other side of the world. God will deal with that storm approaching the city. God will deal with the violence in that city across the nation. God will address all the victimization and corruption that seems to be endlessly all around. God knows who the next president will be. That is the point: trusting in God. Do we?
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it? (Amos 3:6)
37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? (Lamentation 3:37-38)
See, this is just a part of living by faith. Part of faith is trusting God with His world. We are not supposed to be taking on more than we can handle knowing that He is actually handling it. It is not simply that God can, but that God is already at work in more than our little brains can fathom.
Once we do that, only then can we rest in Him. Only with the proper fear of God, can we simply be, like a baby having his dinner. Without our eyes properly focused on the Lord, and allowing Him to rule, will we find that hope? Hope is discovering that the Lord has this. Now, if we can pray knowing that the Lord does, we might be growing a little bit in this direction. But God probably doesn’t need us to remind Him of our restlessness at having entered into information overload. The Lord wants us to keep to our land and rest in Him
Can we do that?
I know I still need help in this area. We all need to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. What I wouldn’t suggest is simply sticking your head in the sand. That might make you sleep better, but that also has the pitfall of not engaging with the fallen world we are called to love and minister to. Find the balance and rest in the Lord, and I will try too.
thanks
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