Childlike Trust in God

Psalm 131:2

    When in Psalm 131:1 David confessed that he is not haughty and his eyes were not lofty, one might be inclined to say that his very words reveal pride and conceit. If you please, he says to God that he is not haughty.  He says this to one Who reads the heart and from Whom nothing can be hid. Do not such words then show both pride and ignorance?

    His words in the next verse seem to reveal even more pride. For there he states. "Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child," Psalm 131:2. Is that not boasting of what he did, and that, before the face of God?

    No, David's reference to a mother reveals his humility.  For he is speaking of what state a mother brought her child unto, not what he achieved by his own strength or ingenuity. Rightly understood he confesses here that unto which God brought him. He trusts in God and calmly rests in the assurance that God will take care of him. He has a childlike contentment given to him and worked in Him by God. As our versification sings it (PRC Psalter):

    With childlike trust, O Lord,
    In Thee I calmly rest,
    Contented as a little child
    Upon its mother's breast.

    David is therefore confessing what God did to him. The fact that he begins the Psalm with the word Lord reveals that. The Psalm speaks of a divinely wrought humility, a childlike faith in God, And his use of the pronouns my, mine, myself, me, and I do not reveal pride but are used that he may express what God did to him.

    Can you say that with David? Can you humbly say this is true of you as well as it was of  David? Are you weaned from your fleshly desires so that you are content with whatever God sends you, assured it works together for your good? And, if you please, David could confess that long before the cross of Christ. Do we not have more reason than he to walk in childlike trust in God? If you cannot walk that way, then pray for the grace to do so.

Read: Psalm 130 
Psalter versification: #366:2 

Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
II Samuel 15:23-37 
II Samuel 16 
  John 18:25-40 
John 19:1-22 
Psalm 119:113-128 
Proverbs 16:10-11

****
Quote for Reflection:

John Calvin on God's promises:

·     “Whatever God promises, belongs to his elect, not to all.

·     Promises are related to the covenant as their only source.

·     The efficacy of God's promises depends on Christ alone.

·     We ought not to judge of the promises of God from our condition, but from His truth.

·     Faith cannot stand, unless it be founded on the promises of God.

·     The only cure for covetousness is to embrace the promises of God.

·     We cannot rely on his promises without obeying His commandments.

·     The main thing in the worship of God is to embrace His promises with obedience.”