Child-like Humility

Child-like Humility

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.       Psalm 131

The shape of this psalm is deeply rooted in humility, seen best in the opening lines where David confesses that there is much about God and life that is beyond his understanding. So, why is it that he incorporates into this statement of humility the picture of a weaned child? What does that have to do with humility?

As mothers with infants well know, the child who is not yet weaned is captive to his appetites; whenever he is hungry he cries, demanding that his hunger be satisfied here and now. His relationship with his mother is one strongly driven by getting his needs met when, where, and how he chooses. And the mother is willing to engage him on this level, for a while. However, the time comes when weaning is necessary, and the though the process may be difficult, the end-product is a child that is simply happy to be in the presence of his mother, content to just be with her.

A lack of humility in one’s life manifests itself by the demanding that one’s appetites (i.e. needs, interests, desires) be met in particular ways, and we can even often approach the Lord in this way, perhaps without even realizing it. And so sometimes the Lord may need to deny us that which we feel we want the most because perhaps it is causing us to relate to him in unhealthy ways. This can often feel like a weaning and can be difficult. But it can also produce within us a newfound humility that expresses itself in contentment to simply know the Lord and walk in his presence, regardless of whether he is meeting our perceived needs and wants in the ways we wish he would. And as we learn to be okay with that, what is produced is what shows up in the last phrase of the psalm: hope. To hope in the Lord is to continue trusting him even as our present circumstances are not what we would choose.