Psalm 131:1-3
2-15-2026 Psalm 131
Introduction
It’s pretty obvious I think that all is not calm or quiet in our world, our country and even our state.
And whether at our job, in our school, in our family, in our body, or maybe even under the hood of our car, we don’t have to look far to see a lack of quiet or calm in our own lives.
In the midst of all the noise and unrest that surrounds us, how is it even possible to have a calm and quiet soul?
Turn to Psalm 131
It’s really short—only 117 is shorter with two verses
This Psalms is one of the “Songs of Ascent”; 120-134 which was most likely compiled for the use of pilgrims going up the hill to Jerusalem after the exile for the great old covenant festivals.
These Songs of Ascent occur in groups of three, and this particular Psalm is grouped with the two prior: 129, 130.
In verse two we see that it is possible to have a calm and quiet soul—King David tells us that it’s something that he has done. And he describes what it looks like:
When a child is in the nursing stage, moments of calm and quiet can seem few and far between.
When a hungry child is placed on his mother’s lap, he is often agitated:
He roots around, squirming anxiously.
If he doesn’t get immediate attention and satisfaction he frets and fusses.
He is frustrated and irritable because he wants something he doesn’t have. He needs something.
Mother’s milk means life, health, satisfaction and joy. If she doesn’t deliver right now, he’ll thrash about.
The baby both feels, and demonstrates pretty much all of what we could call the “noisy” emotions—fear, anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy, confusion, discontent.
Parents, or anyone who has been around babies are familiar with this. We have seen this baby; we have all been this baby.
Contrast that with the babies’ demeanor at the end of a feeding—the young child lying on her mother perfectly satisfied—for a little while!
Fast forward a few months, or years when that same child is successfully weaned and has grown beyond the age of seeing his/her mother as a source of supply and entered the stage of simple contentment to be in her arms, safe and satisfied.
Of course, we know it’s possible for an infant to be content, and a weaned child to be discontent—David’s analogy isn’t perfect. But the picture is really clear.
The weaned child represents total relaxation, unquestioning comforted contentment, an absence of fretfulness. He knows his mom loves him and trusts that he will take care of him. All is well.
That is how David describes his soul! He isn’t noisy inside. As one author imagined:
He isn’t busy-busy-busy.
Not obsessed or on edge
The to-do list and pressures to achieve don’t consume him.
Ambition doesn’t churn inside.
Failure and despair don’t haunt him and anxiety isn’t spinning him into free fall.
He isn’t preoccupied with thinking up the next thing he wants to say.
Regrets don’t corrode his inner experience.
Irritation and dissatisfaction don’t devour him.
He’s not stumbling through the mine field of blind longings and fears
He’s quiet!!
Are you? I am, most of the time, I think? But I do know that far too often I am more like the nursing infant than the weaned child, which Joleen can confirm.
For all of us who desire this calm and quiet soul that David speaks of, the first question we should ask is how do we get it?
The therapy of our world offers suggestions like:
Develop calming habits and quiet your inner critic
Prioritize yourself and set boundaries
David’s counsel is quite different.
In spite of all of his sin and failure, he walked with God, and in this Psalm, he lets us into his stream of consciousness; it’s been called a “show-and-tell for how to become peaceful inside”.
As we observe and listen, we learn that a calm and quiet soul requires:
An intentional choice
A humble heart
A confident hope
Intentional Choice (v. 2)
Although it doesn’t come through in our English translation, in the Hebrew language this verse begins with an oath formula which literally reads:
“If I have not calmed and quieted my soul”! . . .
and the unstated but implied complement would be something along the lines of, “may the curse of the covenant be visited up on me”.
“If I have not calmed and quieted my soul, May God punish me”.
David’s point is that he has resolved himself and taken an oath to ensure he will calm and quiet his soul . . . (Hamilton). He really means it and is bound and determined to wrestle down his unruly soul.
Powlison says that, “To calm our soul means literally to level it. To quiet our soul means to silence the noise and tumult. “Ssshhh to your desires, fears, opinions, anxieties, agendas, and irritabilities”.
This is a reminder of our need to talk to ourselves, and not just listen to ourselves, which is exactly what David does in Psalm 42:5 where he says:
“Soul, why are you in turmoil? Put your hope in God”!
David made a conscious and alert decision. And it’s one that we must make too.
But it’s important to also recognize that this composure is learned, and it is learned in relationship. Such purposeful quiet is achieved over time; it’s not spontaneous.
I appreciate Spurgeon’s insight that although Psalm 131 is one of the shortest Psalms to read, it is one of the longest to learn.
I think the Apostle Paul would agree based on what we he wrote in Philippians 4 where he said I have learned to be content in any and every circumstance.
So, choosing to have a calm and quiet soul doesn’t mean that it will automatically become perfectly calm and quiet.
However, we will never grow in quietness of soul if we don’t choose it. This is where we must start.
Next, a calm and quiet soul requires:
A humble heart (v. 1a)
Proud eyes and heart are combined in 101:5—“whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure”.
One commentator notes: “Pride has its seat in the heart, and betrays itself especially in the eyes” (Hengstenberg).
In the words of another, “Pride is not just about me, it’s about you; I must look down on you in some way. Pride says, “I am right in myself”. Haughty eyes say, “I’m right compared to you”.
The essence of pride is imagining ourselves to be independent and autonomous; it’s seeing things as all about me.
In his excellent article: Peace be Still, Learning Psalm 131 by Heart, Powlison so effectively captures how the essence of pride is seeing things as all about me, and what that really means:
“I just want a little respect and appreciation, approval and understanding. Is that too much to ask? I want compensation for the ways others did me wrong.
I don’t want much. If only I had better health, a little more money, a more meaningful job, nicer clothes and a restful vacation, then I’d be satisfied. I want my measure of success—just a bit of recognition—as an employee, leader, or parent. I want control, comfort, ease and convenience. Who doesn’t?
I want to feel good. Doesn’t God want me to feel good? I want to have more self-confidence, to believe in myself. I want . . . well, I want MY WAY.
I WANT THE GOODIES. I WANT GLORY. I WANT GOD TO DO MY WILL. I WANT TO BE GOD. Doesn’t everybody”?
That is pride. And unchecked, that’s what it does in the human heart. It wants to be God.
Which is why God declares in Proverbs 8 that he hates pride. He hates it the way a surgeon hates cancer, because he knows it causes us to live in the delusion that we are somehow sovereign.
It’s important to note that David isn’t boasting here. As one preacher helpfully noted, his words are more like a white flag of surrender (AJ).
He realizes that the first thing he must do, as a rebel against God, is to renounce his pride.
He is saying I have come to my senses. I don’t think I am the center of the universe. He recognizes that it is insanity to rebel against an all-powerful and all-knowing God.
In the second half of verse 1, David provides a description of what his humility of heart and eyes look like (READ 1b).
I imagine that we can understand how occupying ourselves with things “too great or marvelous” for us could rob our souls of rest.
But do we recognize that pride is really the culprit?
This is an example, I think, of the subtly of pride; a place where it can so easily fly under our radar.
Because it’s not the flamboyant, in your face demonstration of pride like the pompous King or obnoxious athlete.
David here ties it here to the center of our more private, psychological life—the things we think about, the things we desire, the things that worry us—even there do we see evidences of pride.
Things “too great” or “too marvelous” are often used of God’s Word.
So, the idea seems to be that David does not attempt to elevate himself into a Godlike position, which is what pride does (Harman).
What does this mean, or look like for us? Here are three suggestions; there no doubt could be more.
The humility of heart that David describes here means that we:
Will be at peace with the things about God and the teaching in his Word that we don’t understand.
Sometimes this word “marvelous” is translated “wonderful” (or hard), which can refer to things beyond our understanding.
We catch a glimpse of what David means in Job 42:2–3, where Job responds to God’s convincing speech that he is God, and Job is not.
Job says to God: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know”.
Regarding deep doctrines, Spurgeon said, “we can’t know everything and we can’t understand even half of what we know.
Hold fast to what you know, and live mainly upon the simplicities of the gospel, for, after all, the food of the soul does not live in controversial points . . . exercise yourself, then, in the plainer matters”.
This of course doesn’t mean that we should avoid truths about God and his Word because they are hard and we don’t want to chew meat.
Rather, it means that we must be content to live with unanswerable questions.
Second, this humility of heart means:
We will be content with not having the answers to all of our “why” questions.
As we learn from the story of Job, God only shows us a smidge of what he is doing, and he rarely reveals all of the reasons for what he allows to happen in our lives.
Humility, Spurgeon notes, allows us to “believe that in our heavenly Father’s plan there is a wisdom too deep for us to fathom, a goodness veiled, but certain”.
Third, this humility of heart means:
We will recognize, accept and embrace the limitations God has placed on our lives
The New English Translation says, “I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me”.
As Jim Hamilton puts it, “David recognizes, accepts, and embraces the limitations Yahweh has imposed.
He neither contemplates what does not belong to him in his heart, ambitiously seeks to attain such things by setting his eyes on them, nor conducts his life so as to occupy himself with what God has not given to him”.
I love how Calvin describes this as a very useful lesson which should rule our lives:
To be contended with the lot which God has marked out for us
To consider what he calls us to do, and not to aim at fashioning our own lot
To be moderate in our desires
To avoid entering upon rash undertakings
And to confine ourselves cheerfully within our own sphere.
And it is humility that makes all of this possible.
Application on Technology
We know that David did not have a smartphone. He didn’t have a FB, instragram or X account.
But if he was somehow able to have known about our technology, do you think he would be at all surprised to read the numerous studies today showing the connection between anxiety and the use of smart phones and social media?
I think he would recognize, and so must we, how the internet and social media can feed our pride, which keeps us from a calm and quiet soul.
It is, after all, out of a proud heart that we are tempted to post things that make us look good and desire that others agree we look good with a like, share or affirming comment.
And it is with haughty eyes that we look down on others because what they post doesn’t measure up to our standard.
Through the rise of the internet, with its worldwide reach we can be constantly exposed to more cause for worry, fear and all the other noisy emotions than we ever would have experienced without this powerful and intrusive media.
With this all at our fingertips:
We want to know more about everything than we actually need to know
Want to be somewhere else—anywhere other than where we happen to be.
Don’t want to miss out on what is happening in the lives of others, even those we don’t know personally.
Feel the need to stay in touch more than we actually need to be in touch.
We are tempted to jump into controversies that are actually not our own, even getting drawn into being members of certain tribes who fight on behalf of our own.
Contrary to what this technology calls us to believe, we are not created to live outside of the human limitations God has given us!
We really can’t be anywhere. We can’t know everything. And we are not powerful enough to influence and affect change beyond our limited sphere.
These desires are all things “too great and marvelous” for us, things beyond our understanding and power.
So, it should come as no surprise that when we reach for them through the internet and social media, the result is a restlessness of soul.
We must recognize that our technology is not neutral. It is shaping us.
And if we don’t use it with caution, wisdom and self-control, recognizing its default setting is to encourage the expression and growth of our pride, we will not progress in the humility David speaks of.
And without that, we will not have a calm and quiet soul.
David makes it clear in verse one that humility is an antidote to all of the noisy emotions we see in a nursing infant.
The calm and quiet soul comes only after one renounces pride, which is something we must continue fight as we seek to grown in calmness of spirit.
Finally, this calmness and quietness of soul requires:
Confident Hope (v. 3)
David stopped placing his hope/trust in himself and started hoping in the LORD.
And he calls all of Israel, and all of us, to do the same.
In the words of Powlison, “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”.
What is it that makes the Lord worthy of our hope?
David tells us in the preceding Psalm, which fits with this one:
Read 130
Steadfast love, forgiveness, plentiful redemption—those are reasons to hope!
There is a danger of reading Psalm 131 and thinking, “yes, I want to have this inner peace David speaks of”. That calm and quiet soul sounds really good—but it’s only seen as a psychological desire to make me feel better.
That is not what David is talking about here, because when Scripture talks about peace, it isn’t primarily about an inner sense of balance and serenity.
The peace we need above all is not emotional—it’s judicial, or relational. We need, more than anything else, to be at peace with God who we have made our enemy through our pride and sinful rebellion.
And the only way that is possible is through the forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation with God that can only come through Jesus’ death in our place.
This is why we must hope in the Lord!
Have you placed your trust in Jesus as your only hope for peace with God?
Have you repented of your prideful rebellion, of living life as if you are God?
Scripture tells us that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
So, the very first step of being forgiven by God is admitting that you aren’t him; it’s letting go of your pride. And then you can take the free gift of grace offered in Jesus Christ through faith.
This “hope in the Lord” David calls us to isn’t one-and-done. It’s not something we do, check the box and move on.
No, we must hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
Did you catch in Psalm 130 the close relationship between David’s call to wait on the Lord and his call to hope in the Lord?
It’s the same Hebrew word meaning to wait with eager anticipation and hopeful trust.
This was on display in our homes during the weeks leading up to Christmas as our children were waiting for the presents they hoped to receive.
The Apostle Paul acknowledged this in Romans 8:25: “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience”.
The renouncing of pride and the intentional calming and quieting of the soul are to be practiced in the context of waiting—of faith not yet sight.
Unlike the nursing infant, a weaned child is able to wait (at least for a little while) because they know that their mother will eventually come around to meet whatever need they have.
Brothers and sisters, God will take care of you and meet your every need today, tomorrow and forever.
And he will provide us with sufficient grace for every trial we will ever face.
We can believe that with full and total confidence because:
He has come to us in the person of Jesus who died on the cross to pay the price for our sin and defeated death through the resurrection
All who repent and believe will live with him forever
The day is coming when Christ will return in power and glory, and sin, suffering, disease, hurt, grief, pain, loss, and death itself will be no more.
As we hope in the Lord and wait on him with confidence, we accept that what God has promised to do, and what he has already given, are enough.
Like the weaned child, we stop clamoring for what we want, because we are content in who we are with.
So, as we choose to rest and hope in God, we will not pursue rest in the many counterfeit gods that Satan wants to convince us our restless soul needs.
Things like alcohol, pornography, adultery, binge watching Netflix or Youtube, more possessions, money power, a better position . . .
The Lord alone has the power to provide the calm and quite that our soul needs, which is why we must continue to hope in him above all.
Christ’s Fulfillment
As I reflected in my own heart on these three short verses and our need to keep hoping in the Lord, forever, I was deeply encouraged to consider how we can see David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ in this Psalm.
Because a thousand years later, he lived it out even more fully, consistently and perfectly than David ever could.
Jesus came to earth and took on what it means to be a human that is limited in space and time, and he lived a life of perfect humility.
He called those weary and burdened to come to him, promising to provide rest for their souls out of his gentle and humble heart.
Jesus proved his eyes were not haughty when he looked down on sinners like us in love.
He stilled and quieted his soul by trusting perfectly in his Father. And in the Garden of Gethsemane he submitted his personal preferences to him as he prayed, “not my will, but thine be done”.
And he humbled himself to the point of death on the cross, recognizing that his Father could raise him on the third day.
Turning from pride means trusting in Christ. Trusting in Christ means depending on his humility.
As one preacher noted, “In the end it’s not about your pride and humility, it’s about our pride, and Jesus’ humility; his obedience credited to us” (AJ).
And so, we must continue to look to Christ, because it is only through him that we are able to choose a calm and quiet spirit and grow in humility of heart.
The Apostle Paul knew this, for he said in Phil 4, it is through Christ who strengthens us, that we are able to be content in any circumstance.
And this peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, as we give our anxieties to the Lord.
Conclusion
Do you desire a calm and quiet soul?
It’s possible to have one through an intentional choice, a humble heart and confident hope.
If you do not have peace with God through Christ, why would you wait any longer for forever hope, particularly knowing you aren’t guaranteed another day? Turn to Christ in repentance and faith, today!
And for all of us who are in Christ but restless to one degree or another, may we hear the words of David in Psalm 116:7:
“Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.”