I Have Stilled My Soul A song of ascents. Of David.
“My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore.”
We’re back out there with the pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem, with the heat and the cold and the dust, and the rocks and the flies. (Nothing is much nastier than following your neighbor’s donkey as he poops right in front of you.) Now some of our fellow pilgrims are becoming fractious, and the most common questions are, “How much further do we have to go? When will we get there?”
Actually, we’re not certain when we will arrive. We know we are getting closer; however, GPS doesn’t exist at this point and all those who have made the trip before can tell us is that it’s only a day or so more. Part of the problem is the pace at which we are moving. Due to the constant threat of bands of robbers swooping down on us, we must all stick together. We are forced to move at the same speed as the slowest and weakest of our pedestrians, lest we leave anyone behind to be attacked. There aren’t enough donkeys to convey everybody; donkeys are a luxury for many people. All we can do is to allow those who are truly faltering to switch between riding and walking. But how can we deny anybody their chance to see Jerusalem and to celebrate in the temple? For many of us, this will be a once in a lifetime event, something to be remembered and talked about for years to come.
Some of us have other concerns as well. The women are worrying about the households they have left behind. “Should I really have left Miriam in charge of the household? Will there be anything left by the time I return? Will she break all my cooking pots?” The men are worried about their crops, their animals, and perhaps their shops as well. “My nephew Ibrahim is really an idiot, but what can I do? My sons wanted to accompany me to Jerusalem, and this might be their only opportunity. Please, Yaweh, don’t let Ibrahim run off all the livestock and wreck the business in my absence!”
It’s paradoxical but true that the closer we get to Jerusalem, the more worried some of us are becoming. This pilgrimage that should bring us much closer to God is driving us to distraction. But now someone strikes up the chant. “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore.”
We join in the chant and then realize the words we are saying. We are the ones who must still and quiet our souls; nobody else can do that for us. And we forget our households, our shops, and our farms, and we sing on.
APPLICATION: The World Health Organization promotes exclusive breast feeding up to the age of 6 months, after which they recommend gradually introducing home foods. But WHO encourages some breast feeding up to the age of two years. When frightened or stressed, children long for something comforting; this is why so many children suck their thumbs as a substitute for sucking their mothers’ breasts. Children who have been successfully weaned still need close contact with their mothers, but they don’t need to nurse. It is enough if the mother of a fretful child will simply pick the child up and hug the child close to her body. (Even after he was weaned, one of my brothers used to employ one of his tee shirts in sucking his thumb. We used to find those thumb-sucking tee shirts all over our farm.)
This is a short psalm with a big message. “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me. Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Many times, we are worrying about things far beyond our control. What good does such anxiety do? Only God can handle those events, so give them to Him and let Him worry about them. But we are the ones who must still and quiet our souls; nobody else can do it for us. If we allow events to overwhelm us, our thoughts will race like a poor little hamster caught on an exercise wheel with no escape. How can we accomplish this feat? Hope in the Lord! We don’t have to tackle our fears by ourselves. We can confess our fears to God and ask Him to help us trust in Him. Note that the weaned child remains snuggled next to the mother. Mothers do not abandon children once they have been weaned; that physical bond remains. Neither will God abandon us. Do what the psalmist advises. “O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore.”
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to give all our fears and anxieties to You and to put our hope in You and nothing else. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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