Humility

Another short but sweet psalm, in which David shows us the kind of heart we need when approaching God, which is appropriate considering that people sang this on their way to worship God in the temple.

What kind of heart should we have?  A humble one.  David wrote,

My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty (Psalm 131:1).

It is impossible to come before God with a heart of pride.

There are a lot of ways people do this, but I think about Job.  When going through his suffering, he started to make himself God’s judge, questioning His justice.  And he was determined to argue his case with God, proving his injustice.

So many people do the same today.  They have an attitude in which they think they are God’s equal intellectually and think they can actually win a debate against God.

Many atheists think, “Even if there is a God, I can give him good arguments why I didn’t believe in him.”

But as with Job, they’ll find that when they actually come face to face with God, all their arguments will be revealed for the empty things that they are.

Other people are like Job’s friends, haughty, looking down on others, and quick to judge them.  But God is equally against those kinds of people, as he showed when he rebuked Job’s friends for making false accusations against Job.

But David was different.  He was humble in his attitude towards God and towards others.

And when there were things he didn’t understand, when he couldn’t understand why God allowed different trials into his life, he humbled himself, and said,

I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  (1b)

Compare this with what Job said when he repented before God.

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.  (Job 42:3)

We too will face situations that we can’t understand.  We wonder why God allows things to happen in our lives, and we’re tempted to question him.

But like David, let us put our questions to rest, and simply trust in him, knowing that he is with us and really does care for us.

Let us trust him as a “weaned child,” a child that has all that he really needs, and waits in quietness and trust that his mother will continue to provide for him in the future.

So as David closes this psalm,

Put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.  (3)