Prior to his passing in 2019, David Powlison was a well-known biblical counselor, author and speaker. He wrote an article about Psalm 131, our passage from this past Sunday. You can read his 9 page journal article here. What follows is a short paraphrase of some of the main ideas from the article.
An interpretive tool that we can sometimes use when reading scripture is to consider what the text is not saying. Powlison essentially crafted the opposite of Psalm 131 in order to highlight why we are restless and anxious and struggle to receive Jesus’ peace. Hear how he rewrites and inverts the Psalm:
“Self,
My heart is proud (I’m absorbed in myself),
and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people),
and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.
So of course I’m noisy and restless inside, it comes naturally,
like a hungry infant fussing on his mother’s lap,
like a hungry infant, I’m restless with my demands and worries.
I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.”
Right off the bat he goes after our biggest problem, a proud self-will. The noise of anxiety, irritability, and stress makes sense from within the logic of a proud heart. Our prideful self-focus can be subtle and insidious - I just want my spouse to appreciate me, my kids to listen to me, my coworkers to respect me. I want an apology and a little compensation when I’ve been wronged, and I would like the wifi signal to work. If I had a little more money and the chance to go on vacation a little more often I would be more relaxed. I’d like to lose a few pounds and feel a little more self-confident. I want to feel successful and satisfied with what I do. I just want a sense of control. - Do you hear it? No wonder we are anxious.
And “haughty eyes” flow naturally from this self-focus. I don’t claim to be perfect, but I’m right compared to you, says our haughtiness. Have you noticed that you don’t have to be full of self-confidence in order to be judgmental toward others?
What about chasing after things that are out of our depth? Even the small, everyday things in our lives are, in fact, too great and difficult for us. You didn’t choose the talents and skills you were born with. Your opportunities were ordained by God, and your provision comes from him. All of these things are gifts from our heavenly father.
There is much more we could say about these things, but in the end, our inability to be calmed and quieted seems to flow from our self-focus and self-reliance. Try as we might, we can’t control other people or our circumstances. When we lay down pride and control, then quietness and composure begin to make sense. Now let’s try on the mindset of the true Psalm 131:
“Lord,
my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty.
I do not get involved with things too great or too wondrous for me.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with it’s mother;
my soul is like a weaned child.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forever.“
David Powlison concludes about this Psalm, “When you set your hope in the right place, you become just the right size. No pride, no looking down from on high, no hot pursuit of pipe dreams. The soul-storms meet their Master, and He says: ‘Be quiet. Ssshh. Peace. Be still.’” Keep pursuing stillness in him and let him quiet the storms in your soul.
*Below are some more resources meant to continue the conversation about how we can let God untangle our emotions and anxieties. The first one is not from a Christian perspective, but we think it beautifully illustrates the design and purpose of God in our mind and our emotions.
And if you missed it, check out Pastor Aaron’s most recent sermon on Psalm 131 wherever you get podcasts or over on our sermons page.