Christians hope in the Lord because he rose for our justification, and we will follow in a resurrection like his.
It is not death to die.
But we sometimes feel like death.
I speak of worry, anxiety, mental anguish, the pain of the mind that brings sickness to our bones (Prov 17:22).
So today, I want you to hope in life and not die the death of a thousand worries. To do so, I want to discuss a short psalm of David, a king who had the physical, moral, and spiritual burden of ruling over Israel, a burden that crushed him until he learned to hope in the Lord, who rose for us and lives for us.
Humble Yourself
David was chosen by God, blessed, and leader of Israel. But that responsibility made him frantic. Look at Psalm 131:2. He says he calmed and quieted his soul. These words imply a process.
He says that this process made him into a weaned child. Now an infant gets hungry, frantic, and calling for food. But a weaned child can cuddle mommy in peace. Again, David emphasizes a process.
I’ll get to what that process means in a moment. But here I want to point out that David lived like a starving, frantic baby because he didn’t trust God. And he thought, I can do it all. I’m king; I can handle it.
But consider what he says in verse 1. His eyes were too high. He wanted to do the miraculous, a word that describes the wonders that only God can do.
He tried to do what only God can do. He thought he could control everything. But as he tried to do so, he became less calm, less quiet in soul.
His eyes were too high. Even a king must humble himself before God. So must we. What does this look like?
Have Faith in Your God
It looks like having faith in God by trusting him to do what only God can do and by doing only what God expects us to do. But David made the mistake of trying to do what God alone could do.
David tried to do wonders, but only God can do wonders. He forgot that God wants us to cast our anxieties upon him because he cares for us (1 Pet 5:7).
He was an infant: hungry, tired, panicked to find food. Even though his mother had David in her arms, keeping him safe, David didn’t see that.
He was uncalm and unquiet in soul. As king, he tried to take the full burden on his shoulders. He tried to do it all. Yet when you try to do it all, you will find out you can’t. Two things can happen: first, you turn inward to despair; or second, you turn outward in anger.
Both are rooted in a lack of trust in God. David was in God’s arms, but he was not weaned; he was panicked, hungry, always in motion but never in rest.
I preached this psalm two decades ago outdoors to a college group. My notes flew in the wind, and I remember distinctly not really understanding what a weaned child was. But after four kids, I think I understand it better now.
Jesus rose from the dead to live forever in bliss; and he promises that we will rise from the dead too to enjoy everlasting bliss.
David is saying God has us. But we act like unweaned children, never at rest with our God but always wanting more because we think we are God when we try to do the miraculous. But that shows a lack of trust in God who alone does wonders.
What makes this setting absurd is that we try to out-God God while in God’s arms. We are like starving infants not realizing the safety and provision we have in God’s arms. And so we need to become weaned, so that we can lay upon our mothers at night while she reads us a story, completely calm and quiet in her loving arms.
David realized this is how we should be with God. So he practiced trust. It took time to calm and quiet his soul. He weaned himself from trying to be God by simply resting in God’s arms. He weaned himself from always thinking he needed to be Mr. Wonderful to letting God be the God of wonders.
This is the habit of faith, which takes time and practice, and it starts by letting God be God and us being his child.
Faith then goes to hope.
Hope in Your Lord
In Psalm 131:3, David moves from talking about his own biography to addressing the nation of Israel. Here is where David most clearly tells us what to do when we struggle with uncalm and unquiet souls. Not only should we have faith in God who loves us like a mother loves her child, but we also need to hope in the Lord: “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”
God promised in Genesis 3:15 to bring a redeemer. This promise came to Abraham, whom God promised that his offspring would be a blessing to the whole world (e.g., Gen 12, 15, 17, 22). Then God promised David that one of his royal lineage would be the offspring to bring a universal teaching to nations (2 Sam 7:19) and his kingdom would have no end (e.g., 2 Sam 7:13). In fact, in 2 Samuel 7 where God makes this promise to David, the word “eternal” appears seven times, emphasizing how David’s offspring would never taste death.
That is what David actually tells us in Psalm 16: that God’s holy one would not see the corruption of death but would walk the ways of life (Ps 16:10–11). And in Psalm 110, David tells us that his offspring is actually his own Lord (Ps 110:1). How can David’s own offspring be his own Lord?
Because the offspring of David is both root and shoot. He is root because he is the Lord. As Jesus says in Revelation 22:16, “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” He is root as the LORD God, and he is descendant or shoot as the man Jesus Christ.
David’s call to hope in the Lord turns out to be a call to hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came for us and for our salvation, the Lord of Glory.
You see: if we raise our eyes too high and seek to do wonders, we will try to become our own fixers, our own healers. But God heals our soul. If we try to outdo God, our souls become unquiet and uncalm. But God cares for us and wants us to cast our anxieties upon him (1 Pet 5:7). If we place our hope in anything but the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, then we will live in our corruption, sin, and death forever.
Death begins in the corruption of the soul. It begins with worry, anxiety, mental anguish, the pain of the mind that brings sickness to our bones (Prov 17:22). As Hebrews 2:15 tells us, we are enslaved to our passions through the fear of death. So the only way to break through this fear, this enslavement to our passions and desires of the flesh, is hoping in the Lord of Glory, who rose for us and for our salvation.
David knew this as a promise coming. But actually, our resurrection still lies in the future ahead of us. We must hope in the Lord. It will tell us that we cannot save ourselves. Only God can. It will tell us that we cannot heal our souls. Only Christ can. It will tell us that we cannot place our hopes in princes or horses. Only a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose for our justification will crush the soul-destroying vice of despair (Rom 4:25).
Despair is the active turning away from hope, and it lacks the kind of faith that can lie upon a mother’s lap in peace because of her love. But Jesus leaves us with peace. Not like the world gives us, but a peace that lasts forever because Jesus rose from the dead to live forever in bliss; and he promises that by faith and hope in him, we will rise from the dead too to enjoy everlasting bliss with God, our friends, and angels in festal gathering.
Hope in the Lord, reader, from this time forth and forevermore. For this hope will never disappoint.
