Well, good morning and happy 4th of July. It’s good to be with you this morning.

We’re going to be in Psalm chapter 131. If you turn with me to Psalm chapter 131.

And we’re going to make it all the way through the whole chapter this morning. Good morning.

David says, 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’ve 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. It’s summertime, especially it’s the 4th of July weekend. And what do people do on 4th of July weekends in the summer? They go on vacation, right? They try to sneak in maybe that last trip before, you know, life starts again. But it’s funny when you go on vacations, you generally come back more exhausted than you went. It’s tiresome to go on trips, to drive, to just be somewhere and you’re doing all this different stuff. And it’s… It’s fun and it’s resting in its own way and it’s good to do it.

But the psalmist is talking about a different kind of rest. He’s talking about a different kind of calm. It’s not a calm, it’s not a rest for your body, which again, that’s good to do that from time to time. He’s talking about a kind of calm, a kind of rest for your soul. And it’s a kind of calm and rest your soul should have and could have, even when life is at its worst and life is at its toughest. And even when you’re in the most exhausting places in life, it’s a kind of calm. A calm, a quiet, a rest for your soul that can never be taken away. That’s what he’s singing about. That’s what he’s writing about here. It’s a soul at rest. That’s what David has. And I believe if we study this text, we can see that by God’s grace, you and I can always have a soul at rest just the same.

Psalm 131 is what is called a song of ascent. And… Psalm 131 is what is called a song of ascent. Psalm 131 is what is called a song of ascent. They run from chapters 120 to 134. They’re known as the pilgrim psalms. They’re psalms of one traveling who is going up, one who is looking up to God where God is. So it’s thought historically that these verses, these psalms were written for Israel when they were traveling to Jerusalem for major festivals. They would sing these songs as they went. But whether or not they were that, these psalms, they make us look up to God. They make us as Christians, as followers of Jesus. They make us as we travel on the narrow road to eternity’s gates. They help us keep looking at God. And the psalms of ascent, in all the psalms, they find their truest and greatest meaning in that end of our journey when we were gathered to God forevermore out of a wearying, trying world. We go on as pilgrims. Pilgrims in life. And what do we face? One more trial. One more temptation. One more hardship. So the psalms of ascent are for the traveler, the pilgrim, who has his heart set on glory, but he’s tried in one manner or another.

And aren’t you tried in one manner or another so often as you follow Jesus?

So these psalms, these spiritual hymns, they renew us in our exhaustion. They refresh our eyes to see that great end for which we long. You think about all the psalms. They’re rich with what? Encouragement. They help you confess sin. They give you comforts. They give you the promises of God. They empower you with truths about who God is, who God is to you. So I want to say this, just on the nature of the psalms in general. Friends, we can never sing the psalms enough. We can never sing Scripture enough. Music is a powerful weapon. It’s a powerful tool in the hand of the pilgrim. It’s wielded well. That’s why it’s so important that we gather to worship on Sundays and we’re not just singing something, but we’re singing Scripture. We’re singing Christ. God has given us music to worship Him and to keep us as faithful pilgrims on the weary way as we travel. What is it in Psalm 131 here? What is he talking about? What’s the snare? Well, the snare he sings of, the trap he sings of that he wants to avoid of here is that of a proud soul. A proud soul. He says, Oh 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. So he’s describing a soul that’s unsettled because it’s in this endless pursuit for self-glory. It’s relishing in vaingloriousness. The psalmist starts with his heart, with his soul.

Because the soul, the heart, it’s the place where your greatest affections are, your desires, your most deep longings are found, and there all your truest passions are. And David says point blank to God, which is a really amazing thing to say, God, my heart is not proud. My heart is not proud. My heart is not swollen with the desire to be seen, to be known as great. And I think it’s an amazing thing to be in that place. Why? Well, because the human heart of its own inclination, it wants to be known as great. In one way or another, I want to be unique. I want to be a cut above everybody else. I want to count just a little bit more. But he says, my eyes aren’t raised too high. And he’s not talking about, hey, I’m a pilgrim God and I’m looking up to you. It’s not, he’s saying, my eyes aren’t set on, I’m not set on great advancement so that I am considered this wonderful great thing in life. My eyes aren’t set on things that don’t involve you. I’m not daydreaming about self-importance, self-admiration, people fawning over me. It’s a deep great lust to be great for sake of self. That’s what David is singing about, that he doesn’t want to be.

Look in Numbers chapter 12,

verse 1 through 3, it says, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now when the man Moses, he was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.

So now, what could have Moses done here? Moses could have verbally backhanded his brother and sister. Did you see the burning bush? Oh no, that was me. Were you called to lead God’s people out of slavery? Oh, that was me again. Did you go up the mountain and commune with God? Did you receive the Ten Commandments? Oh, still me. Did you part the Red Sea? Oh, that was me again.

He doesn’t do it, because that’s not, it’s not in him. He’s not asserting himself.

So God learns Aaron and Miriam a lesson about grabbing at greatness for your own self, for your own glory. And if you remember, God strikes Miriam with leprosy.

Consider David who wrote this psalm. David, who though he’s been anointed as king when he was young, he doesn’t say to Saul, Saul, your throne’s my throne. He doesn’t take Saul’s life when he has many opportunities to take Saul’s life. In fact, David kills the man who mercy killed Saul in battle before the enemy got a hold of Saul because he respected Saul’s place as king above his own. David didn’t say to his brothers, huh, I’m the guy keeping the sheep and I was anointed and all of you, my big brothers, you weren’t. So here’s what’s plain from David’s psalm and these two examples in Scripture.

Greatness that lasts is not found, friends, in who you can make yourself to be, what accomplishments are under your belt, the things you have or what people think about you. And I think that seems like a very simple maxim you would see written up on a wall or something you’d see put somewhere. But the reality is if you don’t grab the spiritual truth of that, the pride of the human heart will grab you and kill you. Like Saul. Like Pharaoh. Who had the world in the palm of their hands. Who had life just as they wanted to have it. But in the end, what? It faded away into nothing. It seemed so satisfying, but in the end it disappears. In history. Isn’t history littered with people, with men who have done great things, great feats, who were hailed in their time, yet what? All their praises are echoes from centuries past. They lived their life just how they wanted. Pride comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You want to be known or you want to have this certain life. You want to live life your way. Do things your way. I just want this thing. I want to own this. I want to be something of my own accord. But history shows us it passes away. Yet crazy, when we look at the realm of politics, you look at the realm of the entertainment industry, technology, science, it’s absurd. You look at the obscure industries no one knows about, you see people clawing to be great, to be something. If I could have X amount of dollars. I mean, if I could be known to be this kind of person. Oh, if I had this kind of recognition. If I could do this, if I could be this, if this was my lot.

The Psalmist is teaching us what we ought to know full well as followers of Jesus’ church. Greatness is found in nothing besides who we know. Greatness is found in nothing besides who we know. Right? And that’s just God. And it’s simple, but it’s so profound. God is great. Period. God is great. God alone is great. God is great in His attributes. God is great in His character. God is great in His work of creation. And He’s great in His work of redemption. God is great, and God has done great things. And I think, again, because it’s simple, maybe we don’t sit in that enough and just dwell on that and let it shape us. So when you find yourself stockpiling achievements, stockpiling all the things you want, you’re living for the life you want to have, we have a great disinterest, don’t we, all of a sudden, in seeing God’s greatness manifested in our life. If you’re filled to the brim with your own cheap glory, you’ll never know the greater glory of God’s greatness. But you’re so upside down, it must be true, right? That’s so backwards. It must be God’s thing because everything in God’s kingdom is upside down. Right? The world would say, what? Live for the glory of a God you can’t see who’s so far away? No, seize the moment. Today is your day. Live for you now.

But David tells us, David sings to us, greatness is found in spending your life on the greatness of God.

Do all you can do to starve yourself of greatness and focus on God’s greatness and you will know greatness eternal. Matthew Henry says, humble saints cannot think so well of themselves as others think of them. They’re not in love with their own shadow. Are you in love with your own shadow?

Do you remember that passage of Scripture where David is out in the field keeping the sheep and he’s complaining to God?

God, you’ve anointed me king and here I am with the sheep. When’s it going to start? When do I get to take my place as king?

You don’t remember it because it’s not there.

I saw some of you trying to agree with me. Like, I don’t remember that one. What you read about is David keeping a bunch of dirty, nasty sheep and he’s content. He’s content and he would have been content if that’s all he ever did because he knew God. And that was great contentment in the lowest station of life that he ever had. So it makes sense. God raises up this David to do a great thing for him to be king because David’s not going to be drunk on human pride and forget about it. He’s going to get his king in heaven. What is it that the law instructed God’s people when they finally did get a king? We see it in Deuteronomy 17. When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of the law approved by the priests and it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life. Why? So he can learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them. That his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers. That he may not turn aside. He may not turn aside from the commandment. So God is saying plainly, if and when you get a king, that king will only be great if he constantly has an eye for my greatness and my law and my word.

So be you a king or a custodian, a sultan or a sweep, rich and famous or poor and obscure, can I say to you, the greatest greatness you can ever know is in knowing Jesus and knowing God and being used to God. Use of him however he desires.

That’s greatness. And I want to say this at the same time, it doesn’t cancel passion. Like, okay, so we should all calm down. Because I read Paul and Paul has great ambition, he says. But Paul’s great ambition, his great zeal is not for the advancement of the apostle Paul. He’s been there. Paul’s done that. He was, you know, a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a Pharisee. He was the top of his class. Paul had had human greatness. And he says, my greatness is in so much more now. It’s in the advancement of God’s kingdom. That’s what I live for. That’s what my zeal’s for. So yes, friends, let’s have great zeal and great passion and great drive for God so that his kingdom is known. And it reminds me of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Because as they’re towards the end of the trip, they have to pass through the city Vanity Fair. And in Vanity Fair, it says, there’s so many pilgrims who had their eyes set on the king and on the celestial city. They were turned from one side or to the other because they found so many things to worship. They found so many things to take their attention. They saw in a mirror themselves as gray and they died in their own greatness.

Someone has said, a life that is wrapped up in itself

makes a very small package.

And that’s so true, isn’t it? The psalmist says, I do not occupy myself with great things. What is your occupation? I don’t mean your career, your job. What is the tenor of your life? It does come out in big ways. It does come out in the way you think about money. The way you think about how much you should have. The kind of feeling it imparts when you’ve got X dollars in your bank account.

Success is not innately wrong. But it is innately wrong to be driven by nothing. Nothing but success.

Notoriety. Stuff. Much smaller ways. You got that compliment and you know you enjoyed it a little too much.

Maybe you just happen to notice you do a little better than someone else. You just kind of just pour that over your own head. I’m the best in my class. Nobody can do things the way I can do them. And you dwell on your own greatness.

I want to say a special word to us on this because we live in a labor, work crazy society. Now, does God say work? Yes. Does God say provide for yourself and your family? Absolutely He does. That’s quite different though than the way we are today as Americans and we so much so find our identity in our work. So we don’t just have proud hearts but we have proud hands. We have proud hands. And we say I will provide for me and this is my identity and this is why I count and we give so much, so much, so much to your nine to five that you have so little room elsewhere to live for God’s greatness. So let me say to you yes, do well where you are but don’t be so obsessed with doing well in work. Whatever your work may be the friends you’ve lost view for the greatness of God. Does your work own you?

And it does sometimes. It does. So the flip, he goes on to the affirmative now. He sings about the affirmative.

And he says, but I have a calmed and quieted soul. Now he’s talking about what he has now. He’s learned. He has a soul at rest. I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother like a weaned child is my soul within me.

The calming can mean here it’s like taking something that’s rough and unlevel and working on it until it’s smooth and balanced. He says his soul it’s just, it’s quiet. It’s just this rest, this smoothness. You know, you go out like early in the morning if you’re like at the lake and the water’s like glass. You know, it’s not doing this. There’s no breaks in the waves. It just, it looks like a piece of glass if you go out very early in the morning you know, you’re going to look at a pond or a lake. That’s what he’s saying. His soul’s like, he says, it’s so much so calm. He says it’s like a child weaned from its mother.

Now,

you may know, I know what it sounds like when an infant’s hungry. It’s the same sound as if someone is in deep distress and agony and pain. When a baby is hungry it’s the end of the world. Like they need food then. That’s the only way they know how to express it. That’s the only way it’s just the way God wired babies to be. So much so, when you’re weaning a child and you’re not giving them the good thing they want. Now, why does a mother deprive their child of a good thing? It’s because there’s a better thing for them they just don’t know it yet. They’re giving them food. They’re giving them sustenance and meat that’s going to grow them up and mature them to be a full person. So the psalmist says here, I’ve moved, from fussing to God about life when God and life don’t behave my way. I’ve moved away from that kind of fretting and disbelief to being calm when life goes awry. He does not look for a variety of ways to get things the way that He wants them. He has a certain matured confidence in God. Like a child just sitting in its parent’s lap. Because you know, you see a two, three, four, five year old and they’re sitting in their parent’s lap and it could be a monster, it could be a demon, it doesn’t matter. There’s a certain kind of confidence when you’re a child in your parents and you’re with your parents and everything is, you know, you’re just bulletproof. That’s the kind of just inner calmness and rest the psalmist says he has because of who he knows God to be.

He has overwhelming assurance. And that’s what I want you to have in God this morning. Overwhelming assurance in who He is for you. 1 Samuel 30, verse 6,

which maybe I’ve seemed to… Did I get that to you? Okay, that’s okay. In 1 Samuel 30, verse 6, David is still on the run from Saul and he’s raiding these towns. Well, while he’s gone, one of Israel’s cities is raided. And the people are so upset that their children, their women have been taken away. They’re so mad about it, they’re going to stone David. They all thought about, let’s stone David. But what does that mean? What does David do? It says he finds his strength in God. He finds his strength in God. He didn’t fear like all the armies of Israel feared when Goliath showed himself. He didn’t fret when he had nothing more than the means of a shepherd to go fight Goliath.

Providence appropriated to David a sling. And he said, well, it’s time to go to war. What was David’s only hope? It was, the Lord his God. And he made that plain. So friends, you and I must have this same sort of sureness, this overwhelming sureness of God in all of life. Because God never lets bad things happen? No. Because God always shows us the end and it’s always going to conclude just how we want it to conclude? No.

Because God is steadfast. Because God is sure. Because God will always be who God has always been. Amen. He is now and forevermore will be. So what’s a real sure sign of your Christian maturity then? Well, it’s as a pilgrim, you can walk through dark places calm, cool, and collected. It shows the Spirit has had you eat some mature food. You’ve been chewing on some of the stuff that God gives to those He wants to grow up. Might be hard to chew on. Might go down funny. But guess what? God is growing you up. What would you look like if God only ever gave you the milk of a baby? Like a big fat baby. And it would be really weird. And I think that we have sometimes in the church a bunch of really weird looking spiritual people because we fuss and complain at God because we want God to be to us as a mother is to a child and I scream and I get exactly what I want. But that’s not where God wants us to be. He wants us to have a deeper relationship with Him. A deeper faith in who He is.

Are you a baby? Though you should be an adult? Do you crawl? You should be walking? Do you fuss when you should be silent?

I want to say to you it’s truly a question of the robustness of your faith. And it’s ironic because the psalmist is saying I’m like a child

but maturity is childish. Not baby-like. Two extremes. I’m a baby and I fuss and complain. I’m an adult which means I’m extremely pragmatic. Right? I think as adults we lose our faith. Everything’s practical. Everything’s logical. And what does Jesus say to us in Matthew 18 verse 3? If you are to come into my kingdom you must have childlike faith. You must enter the kingdom of heaven like a child. So no, I don’t want to be this immature creature that just whines and complains when nothing is in my way nor do I want to think I know so much that I don’t need God at all. But what the psalmist is getting at what Jesus ultimately gets to is this like a child just trust based off of the good character of your parent. Of your father. You have that kind of trust. When the enemy advances against you when sin rears its ugly head when pleasures and honors and self-advancement bid us to fall down. We must flee from Christ. Friend, do you trust the Spirit of Christ? Does it work in you? The presence, the power, the love of the cross to keep you, to sustain you? Are you sure that God will be your victory? God will be your victory.

I think there may be a deeper question than I want to ask you on that. It’s this. Are you contented with Christ?

Okay, and there’s a difference between being fine with something and being contented with it. Fine with something is like it wasn’t the restaurant I wanted to go at but I guess I’ll eat and I technically won’t be hungry and I’m not happy about it. Like I’m fine with it happening. Like I’m fine doing things your way. I don’t love it. Like it’s fine. You know? Contented is like I am satisfied and I’m happy. So if you’re in one chair and Jesus is in the chair opposite you are you content? Even if you were sitting in hell together would you be content because Christ was there? That’s real trust. That’s real love. That’s the calmness that David is talking about. Do you have that kind of just satisfaction in Jesus?

And that’s the next thing to assurance is satisfaction. Are you satisfied in Jesus? Because the soul of a redeemed Christian is that of being satisfied in Jesus. Of all the things the world calls us to. Of all the ways we could fret. Of all the variety of solutions you could look for in problems. At the end of it we do what David does here and in other places so often. He waits in silence for his God. He waits for his salvation. And again, let’s not paint a picture that’s inaccurate of David. David had enemies galore. David had temptation galore. David had dark seasons galore. And he did not always act according to the true satisfaction of his soul. Did he? And we can read about those episodes in the Bible. But I do believe we can follow this example in striving by grace to grow up all the more so at the end of it we can say I’m like a weaned child. Yes, I’ve failed and I need some whippings maybe and this happened and that happened but I find myself at a place in life now God where I’m just like sitting in my mother’s lap in reference to just thinking about you and your ways and what happens in life. That’s what David is getting at. Are you smooth? Are you worked over?

You know, I paint. I used to paint a lot and you know, you see a wall that’s got to be painted and it’s got these holes and it’s got these divots in it and all these stuff and it just like drives you crazy. You’ve got mud over that and you sand it and you sand it but eventually you can run your hand over it and you can’t tell where the divot started and stopped. You can’t tell. It’s smooth. It’s flat. And that’s kind of a thing. It’s kind of an illustration of that calming that God does in us. We’re not all over the place. We’re not a mess. We’re just calm. We’re rested. We’re smooth because God has worked in us. He’s worked through us to trust Him.

Are you a professional fretter? Fretter’s not a word. I looked it up. Are you a professional at fretting? But fretter. Are you a fretter? Yeah, I’m a fretter. Would God have you walk but you want to be glued to the hip?

And I want to say to you more than anything, don’t miss out on growing up and being calm before the Lord. One, because your greatest joy and satisfaction is knowing Him. But I think next to truly knowing God is the great joy and satisfaction of being used by God. But God can’t use babies to drive cars and work heavy machinery, right? He needs mature people, right? Who He can trust. Who trusts Him. So I can only say to you, friends, be long in prayer. Be long in the Word. Be long in community to know God at all times and your senses are filled with Christ. Are you filled with Christ? And I don’t want to say on the opposite side, this thing has happened. You name it. What happens? This distress. This temptation. This trial. Uh-oh, I’m upset. That’s not what the psalmist means here. You can read so many psalms where David is, crying out to God. He says he’s got feelings of just being alone. It’s not wrong to plead to God. But there’s a great difference between expressing to God your distress and unendingly distressing because you don’t trust God. And I think that’s all the difference here is running to God in your distress rather than running in circle, you know, like a chicken with its head cut off when you’re in distress. That’s what we’re striving for in Jesus. Verse 3.

He says in this very short, very short psalm,

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth

and forevermore. Hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. A soul at rest is a soul hopeful.

A soul at rest is a soul hopeful. And that’s the only way, friends, you can be hopeful is to truly be at rest. At rest in the Lord. The proud soul can’t do it, can it? Because the proud soul’s never content. The proud soul is constantly trying to build himself up. The proud soul wants the next best thing. The proud soul once more wants to be seen as great. But then there’s this realization when we encounter God, no one and nothing can be as great as Jesus Christ already is in His cross. No one can walk and talk like Jesus. And it’s only Jesus’ greatness in my place that’s great. So no, I will never have hope if I have a proud heart because I’ll never see how Jesus has already accomplished all greatness on my behalf and I only need to deny myself and run from myself and see Jesus as my greatness and trust in Him. Then I’ll have hope. Because I’m not seen before God the Father on me and what I can get done, who I can be in my life. But the Father judges me on the greatness of Christ.

And friend, if I’m a soul so unsettled because this or that’s happening, I’m not like a woman. I’m not like a weaned child. I’m crying all the time. I’m worried all the time. What’s it mean? But I really don’t believe that God is for me. I really don’t believe that through the deepest valleys, and they do get deep and they do get dark, that God cares. But Paul says God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. So there’s hope when you now believe God is who He says He is. And the cross and the empty grave prove to us that God loves us that much. So you see, there’s abundant rest in Christ. And there’s abundant proof that God is a God who alone provides rest for your soul so that in all things you can have hope for tomorrow. Because when tomorrow comes, guess what? Jesus is still great and He’s my greatness. Hey, when tomorrow comes and it’s a bad day, it’s a bad year, and things fall apart, guess what? God still loves me and He’s still working it all together for my good. So I’ve got hope. So I’m a soul at rest because of my Jesus.

And He proclaims it to all people. He doesn’t just say, hey, my soul. He says, hey, God’s people. God’s people. Hope in Him now and forevermore. Hope in Him now and forevermore. We can rest because the cross of Christ alone affords us that rest, that calm, that quiet that our souls desperately want and need. Oh, all of it God has provided in Christ Jesus. Amen? And that’s the greatest freedom that we could ever have or live for. Alright, let’s pray together.

Lord, I pray this morning for all of us in this room who we are letting go of and letting chains hold us back as if there’s a chain, Father, that Your Son Jesus can’t and hasn’t already broken through the power of His cross.

Lord, for so many hearts and minds that are thinking

this thing has overcome me, this sin, this fear is too great for me. Lord, for the person thinking I don’t add up, I don’t count, I’m not done enough. Lord, I need to do more and they’re laboring to matter to You or to other people. Lord, would You give us a fresh vision this morning of Jesus and how in Him all things are made new, all things are right. In Him we’re free. In Him we’re known. In Him we’re loved. That’s our gospel message is Jesus and what Jesus has done. He is our hope. He is our rest. He is our peace. So, Father, I pray Your Spirit would just put deep roots in our souls this morning that Jesus is our calling, and that would be our song as we travel,

sometimes with more energy than other times, sometimes just really weary pilgrims. But Lord, may we keep singing that song of Jesus who keeps us, of Jesus who is our rest.

And it’s in His name that we can pray those things. Amen.