READ: Psalm 131
MEMORY VERSE
“I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.” Psalm 131:2
BACKGROUND
In a psychiatrist’s advice column, he responded to a reader named Brenda, who lamented that her ambitious pursuits had left her discontented.
His words were blunt. Humans aren’t designed to be happy, he said, “only to survive and reproduce.” We’re cursed to chase the “teasing and elusive butterfly” of contentment, he added, “not always to capture it.”
I wonder how Brenda felt reading the psychiatrist’s nihilistic words and how different she may have felt had she read Psalm 131 instead.
In its words, David gives us a guided reflection on how to find contentment. He begins in a posture of humility, putting his kingly ambitions aside, and while wrestling life’s big questions is important, he puts those aside too (v. 1).
Then he quiets his heart before God (v. 2), entrusting the future into His hands (v. 3). The result is beautiful: “like a weaned child with its mother,” he says, “I am content” (v. 2).
In a broken world like ours, contentment will at times feel elusive. In Philippians 4:11–13, the apostle Paul said contentment is something to be learned. But if we believe we’re only designed to “survive and reproduce,” contentment will surely be an uncatchable butterfly.
David shows us another way: catching contentment through quietly resting in God’s presence.
By: Sheridan Voysey
INSIGHT
Psalms 120–134 are known as the Songs of Ascents, so called because the fifteen psalms in the collection were sung by the ancient people of God as they journeyed up to Jerusalem for the annual feasts.
Psalm 131 is among the shorter of these songs. Nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon noted that this psalm “is one of the shortest psalms to read but one of the longest to learn.”
What makes it the longest to learn is that it challenges one of the most difficult aspects of our human behavior, our pride. In this psalm we hear the heartfelt prayers of one who’s renounced pride.
The psalmist also expresses and encourages humble satisfaction with God by using the universally familiar image of a mother and child. Though weaned, the child’s contentment is found in the mother’s loving presence and not just in her nourishing provision.
By: Arthur Jackson
APPLICATION
When do you most feel content? How could you set aside unhurried time to be quietly present with God today?
PR’s (PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of.” C.S. Lewis
“He who is not contented with what he has, would (likely) not be contented with what He would like to have” Socrates
“Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So, if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.” I Timothy 6:6-8 (nlt)
PR’s RE-EMPHASIS (From Post)
“In a broken world like ours, contentment will at times feel elusive.”
PRAYER
“Dear God, I rest in You, the deepest well of my truest contentment.”
TODAY’s HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“I WON’T COMPLAIN” Rev. Paul Jones
… I’ve had some good days
I’ve had some hills to climb
I’ve had some weary days
And some sleepless nights
… But when I look around
And I think things over
All of my good days
Outweigh my bad days
I won’t complain
… Sometimes the clouds are low
I can hardly see the road
I ask a question, Lord
Lord, why so much pain?
But he knows what’s best for me
Although my weary eyes
They can’t see
So I’ll just say,
Thank you Lord
I won’t complain
… The Lord
Has been so good to me
He’s been good to me
More than this old world
Or you could ever be
He’s been so good
To me
… He dried all of my tears away
Turned my midnights into day
So I’ll just say thank you Lord
I’ve been lied on
But thank you Lord
I’ve been talked about
But thank you Lord
I’ve been misunderstood
But thank you Lord
You might be sick
Body reeking with pain
But thank you Lord
The bills are due
Don’t know where
The money coming from
But thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
I want
I want to thank God…
He’s been good to me…
He’s been so good
He’s been so good…
So good
So good…
READING THROUGH THE ENTIRE BIBLE THS YEAR (DAILY)
Joshua 4-6
Luke 1: 1-20
