¹O Lord, my heart is not proud nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me.

Academics, armchair theologians, and the average thinking Christian wrestle with understanding and reconciling God’s sovereignty and humankind’s free will. Young seminarians struggle with predestination, election, and eternal judgment. Why is there suffering in the world? What was in God’s mind when He created the universe, knowing all of His image bearers would sin against Him? If nothing exists unless God created it, and God is not the author of evil, how do we explain the existence of evil? Philosophers, theologians, and great minds have all struggled with developing a logical narrative to explain God and His ways, but no one has the last word on any of it. For skeptics, such musings lead them to reject biblical Christianity because they cannot wrap their minds around the complexities of an eternal, creator God. 

Psalm 131 presents the thinking of a man who recognizes that such deep things of God are beyond his understanding; he rests in knowing the Lord and does not fret over what he does not know about God. His approach is not one of passive ignorance but an honest acceptance of his own limitations. He enjoys the serenity of a childlike trust in the Lord.

The psalm begins with a simple but beautiful posture: “O Lord, my heart.” Foundational to resting in the Lord is a heart response of loyalty to Him. He is Yahweh God (“Lord”), the One who is phenomenally present; He is real and active in the world and our lives. Responding to the reality of God requires reality within our own hearts. When we turn our hearts to Him in loyalty and affection, we are cognizant of and overcome what Jeremiah, the prophet, wrote about: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jer. 17:9). We all must come to the Lord with the integrity and purity of an open heart, for we can hide nothing from Him (see Ps. 139:23-24, Rom. 8:27, Rev. 2:23).

Other psalms speak of confession, which is agreeing with God’s assessment of our lives and actions (e.g., Psalm 51). This psalm assumes confession by virtue of the writer coming to God at the heart level. No one can do that without dealing with their sinful heart, but the ones who do can approach Him without fear of judgment or condemnation (see Heb. 4:16). No one can understand this kind of heart except someone who has opened themselves to the Lord at the deepest levels and discovered that therein is a resting place for their souls (see Ps. 51:6).

The writer simply and humbly confesses that he is not proud. Skeptics or humorists will tell us that anyone who proclaims his humility is inherently proud of their assumed humility. In the inspired Word of God, nothing could be further from the truth; God can see through superficial religious talk. The writer of this psalm displays no such duplicity.

Pride is the source of competition, power struggles, conflicts, hatred, jealousy, and the obsession with getting ahead; these things cause many of life’s difficulties. How can anyone rest when there is always more to attain? Yet we will all die without resolving everything in our lives. By resting in the Lord, we can be assured He knows all and understands all; we don’t need to continually struggle with “things too difficult for” us (vs. 1b).

The psalmist illustrates how we can rest in the Lord: “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me” (vs. 2). An infant may fuss when he is hungry or agitated, but once the mother gathers him to her breast, calm envelopes him. His body rests in serene trust and contentment and he enjoys complete and restful confidence and trust in the one who supplies what he needs. In the same way, we should have a childlike faith in the Lord and rest in Him.

While it is a very personal song of trust, this psalm poignantly broadens its application to include all of God’s people, inviting them to “hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever” (vs. 3). There is so much in life that we don’t understand and can never understand. But our hope and expectation is that one day we will understand, when we arise to be with the Lord forever. The psalmist may have in mind what Moses had written years earlier:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” (Deut. 29:29)

Lord, there is much that I do not understand, but one thing I do understand is this: I know You! You love and care for me far more than I can fully comprehend. I know enough to rest assuredly in You. And right this moment, I release anxiety and fretfulness, and I dwell instead on how great, sovereign, powerful, wise, and understanding You are.