Calming your Soul
“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. 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 131:1-3
Have you ever told somebody to calm down? We may have uttered the phrase “clam down” in two different types of circumstances and in two different types of tones. When trying to help a person in a state of panic, you may have said with a tone of great concern, “take some deep breaths and try to calm down.” You may have also told someone you were arguing with to “calm down” in a tone that was not calm. Telling an angry person in an angry way to calm down usually doesn’t have the desired effect.
In Psalm 131, King David writes about calming down a person, but the person he’s speaking of is himself. Although it might be helpful to learn some breathing techniques to help calm yourself down while in a panic-like state, King David’s strategy for bringing calm to his own soul involved more than a quick fix solution.
There’s a self-inflicted and peace-robbing anxiety that is caused by obsessing over things that are beyond our control. In the presence of God, David wrote,
Has it ever occurred to you that your anxiety and insecurity can be caused not by low self esteem, but by thinking too highly of yourself? We think too highly of ourselves when we lean on our own understanding and seek to control our own lives rather than acknowledging that God’s ways are higher than our ways and surrendering control to Him.
I appreciate C.J. Mahaney’s definition of pride:
I want to submit to you that one of the clearest ways that pride can be demonstrated in our lives is in our prayerlessness. “Prayerlessness," as Daniel Henderson put it, “is our Declaration of Independence from God.”
Now before we take a look at David’s prayer life, I want to suggest to you that David calmed his own soul not only by talking to God about his soul’s problems, but by talking to his own soul about God’s person, promises, and power.
After describing how he calmed his his own soul in verse 2 ("But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me") David then writes: "O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”
These words of David addressed to his people flowed from a soul that found rest in God like a weaned child finds rest in his mother’s arms. But again, this rest came not only because David talked to God, but he addressed his own soul as he did Israel. For example in Psalm 42 he writes:
Regarding how David spoke to his own soul, the British preacher Martin Lloyd Jones wrote:
Moreover, as I already suggested, David learned to quiet his own soul not only by talking to his soul about God, but by talking to God. He didn’t just talk to God about His problems–he talked to God about God. He praised God and found refuge in His steadfast love and faithfulness. (Psalm 36:5)
This is what’s behind David’s imagery when he writes in Psalm 131:2:
When a child is weaned, he/she does not seek their mother to satisfy their physical hunger. Rather a weaned child seeks the warmth and care of a mother’s embrace.
But the truth is that the busyness of life, our preoccupation with finding security in this world, and our tendency to want to be in control, keeps us from coming to God to find rest in Him, in His love, in His sovereignty. Like a child, we must be weaned from worldly appetites by cultivating spiritual appetites in communion with God. We must be weaned from seeking God only to satisfy our wants and desires, and learn to delight in His goodness, in a Father who did not spare His only Son to redeem us for Himself.
Charles Spurgeon wrote. “Weaned from what? Self-sufficiency, self-will, self-seeking. From creatures and the things of the world – not, indeed, as to their use, but as to any dependence upon them for his happiness and portion.” (Jay, cited in Spurgeon)
We must be weaned, but this weaning takes time and it’s often uncomfortable. In this fast-paced world that causes us to have hurried souls, we must learn to slow down and make time for the things that matter most, even if it cost us. As J.I. Packer put it:
"Live slowly enough to be able to think deeply about God."
But this slowing down will again involve weaning, and giving up some things, even good things to make room for the best things. Like a good mother, the Lord will work in our lives, even if it causes us to kick and scream, to get us off the bottle and into deeper experiences with Him.
Spurgeon said it better than I can:
Let us learn to calm down our own souls by talking to our souls about the hope of Jesus rather than giving in to our self-defeating thoughts. Let’s slow down enough so that we can think deeply about God, get weaned from from our self-sufficiency, and enjoy the wonders of His love.
-Pastor Marco
Have you ever told somebody to calm down? We may have uttered the phrase “clam down” in two different types of circumstances and in two different types of tones. When trying to help a person in a state of panic, you may have said with a tone of great concern, “take some deep breaths and try to calm down.” You may have also told someone you were arguing with to “calm down” in a tone that was not calm. Telling an angry person in an angry way to calm down usually doesn’t have the desired effect.
In Psalm 131, King David writes about calming down a person, but the person he’s speaking of is himself. Although it might be helpful to learn some breathing techniques to help calm yourself down while in a panic-like state, King David’s strategy for bringing calm to his own soul involved more than a quick fix solution.
There’s a self-inflicted and peace-robbing anxiety that is caused by obsessing over things that are beyond our control. In the presence of God, David wrote,
“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.”
Has it ever occurred to you that your anxiety and insecurity can be caused not by low self esteem, but by thinking too highly of yourself? We think too highly of ourselves when we lean on our own understanding and seek to control our own lives rather than acknowledging that God’s ways are higher than our ways and surrendering control to Him.
I appreciate C.J. Mahaney’s definition of pride:
“Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon him.”
I want to submit to you that one of the clearest ways that pride can be demonstrated in our lives is in our prayerlessness. “Prayerlessness," as Daniel Henderson put it, “is our Declaration of Independence from God.”
Now before we take a look at David’s prayer life, I want to suggest to you that David calmed his own soul not only by talking to God about his soul’s problems, but by talking to his own soul about God’s person, promises, and power.
After describing how he calmed his his own soul in verse 2 ("But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me") David then writes: "O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”
These words of David addressed to his people flowed from a soul that found rest in God like a weaned child finds rest in his mother’s arms. But again, this rest came not only because David talked to God, but he addressed his own soul as he did Israel. For example in Psalm 42 he writes:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 42:5-6a
Regarding how David spoke to his own soul, the British preacher Martin Lloyd Jones wrote:
“The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of [us] talking to our self…The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and what God is, and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.'"
Moreover, as I already suggested, David learned to quiet his own soul not only by talking to his soul about God, but by talking to God. He didn’t just talk to God about His problems–he talked to God about God. He praised God and found refuge in His steadfast love and faithfulness. (Psalm 36:5)
This is what’s behind David’s imagery when he writes in Psalm 131:2:
When a child is weaned, he/she does not seek their mother to satisfy their physical hunger. Rather a weaned child seeks the warmth and care of a mother’s embrace.
But the truth is that the busyness of life, our preoccupation with finding security in this world, and our tendency to want to be in control, keeps us from coming to God to find rest in Him, in His love, in His sovereignty. Like a child, we must be weaned from worldly appetites by cultivating spiritual appetites in communion with God. We must be weaned from seeking God only to satisfy our wants and desires, and learn to delight in His goodness, in a Father who did not spare His only Son to redeem us for Himself.
Charles Spurgeon wrote. “Weaned from what? Self-sufficiency, self-will, self-seeking. From creatures and the things of the world – not, indeed, as to their use, but as to any dependence upon them for his happiness and portion.” (Jay, cited in Spurgeon)
We must be weaned, but this weaning takes time and it’s often uncomfortable. In this fast-paced world that causes us to have hurried souls, we must learn to slow down and make time for the things that matter most, even if it cost us. As J.I. Packer put it:
"Live slowly enough to be able to think deeply about God."
But this slowing down will again involve weaning, and giving up some things, even good things to make room for the best things. Like a good mother, the Lord will work in our lives, even if it causes us to kick and scream, to get us off the bottle and into deeper experiences with Him.
Spurgeon said it better than I can:
“When God allows things or circumstances in our life that wean us from things we have relied on, we should never despise it. Blessed are those afflictions which subdue our affections, which wean us from self-sufficiency, which educate us into Christian manliness, which teach us to love God not merely when he comforts us, but even when he tries us.”
Let us learn to calm down our own souls by talking to our souls about the hope of Jesus rather than giving in to our self-defeating thoughts. Let’s slow down enough so that we can think deeply about God, get weaned from from our self-sufficiency, and enjoy the wonders of His love.
-Pastor Marco