It would be possible, I think, to title this psalm, It Is Well With My Soul, A Confession, The Pilgrim Ascending to God, but I've chosen to call it instead an image from the psalm itself, Like a Weaned Child, Ascending to God, coming back now to our psalms of ascents on our pilgrim journey, which shape our souls to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, pardon me, and guide us through our earthly pilgrimage. This Psalm brings to mind this question, what is the pilgrim's attitude to life? As we ascend higher and higher to God, we find that we become more and more lowly ourselves. Life becomes more and more about God and less and less about ourselves. We begin to live what some have called the ecstatic life, that is standing outside of ourselves, rooted and grounded in another, secure and confident while humble and selfless. I think Psalm 131 is a kind of confession, a confession before God and man, a confession of absolute dependence and therefore a song of trust. So by singing it, our souls are shaped to be the kind of soul expressed in this song. And in this psalm, I want you to see the humble heart of a true pilgrim who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Let's read it together. Oh 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. but I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child is my soul with me. Oh, Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Three verses all stepping together here in this psalm to show us both, well, first of all, what the pilgrim is not what the pilgrim is, and then what the pilgrim calls others to. First of all, in verse one is not high, not high. Oh 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. The confession of verse one is a confession of what the pilgrim is not here. He talks about his heart and his eyes, the heart being the core, of who you are, and out of it come the issues of life. The eyes here, not only an organ of perception, but an organ of desire and direction. Where you look is what you want. Potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. This is what I want. This is what I'm after. In this song, we see a high heart and an exalted eyes are an expression of human ambition apart from God. Human ambition apart from God, striving for the heights. And it is amazing to look at what heights humans will go to to pursue their ambitions. We humans, we want to be beautiful. We want to be strong. We want to be, Admired. We want to be intelligent. We want to be wealthy. We want achievement. And we will do anything to get it. At the end of the day, I think you can actually say we want to be God. It's hubris that's being expressed here. You see, whenever you do not submit to God, you end up trying to be like God. That's always the case for us humans. We were made for God, but if we reject God, we try to become God. We exchange the creature for the creator. And that's exactly what this Psalm goes on to talk about here, because it confesses, I do not occupy myself or literally walk around in, exercise, invest myself in. I do not occupy myself with great things. or things too marvelous for me, it says. And this language of great and marvelous or wonderful or hard even things is actually most often used in scripture to talk about God's marvelous works. This is what, pardon me, it describes. Let's just look at a few places. We have seen this recently in our study of the Psalms. Turn back with me to Psalm 96. Psalm 96, verse three says, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all peoples. That's our language right there. God's marvelous works. Go over to Psalm 98, verse one. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song for he has done marvelous things. That's our language right there. Look just a few Psalms over at Psalm 105. First of all, verse two, sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wondrous works. There it is. Verse five, remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. We could go on and on looking throughout all the scriptures and you'll find, not entirely all the time, but almost always, is this language is talking about God and what He does. We could look at one Psalm that we're gonna see it next. And it comes out again here, Psalm 136, verse four. It tells us to give thanks to the Lord of lords. Why? To him who alone does great wonders. That's our language. For his steadfast love endures forever. So coming back to our Psalm here in Psalm 131, the pilgrim is confessing that he's not God, right? I don't try to involve my life with the things that are God's things, the things that only God can do. These great and marvelous and mighty things. I can't do that. Only God can. Pardon me. Pilgrim here is saying, I'm not God. I can't do what God does. And I don't deserve what only rightly belongs to God. See the pilgrim here is learning a deep humility about himself, who he truly is, and who God truly is. He's learning humility regarding God's mighty works. Folks, it should be very clear to us today, we cannot do what God can do, only God can do. We have to rest upon him to accomplish these works. The pilgrim here learns humility regarding himself, the value and the accomplishments of his own life. What is your life worth? At the end of the day, what are your achievements going to be? You see what he's saying here? He's swearing off, if you will, all human ambition to make ourselves great, but instead resting in the Lord to make his life worthwhile. I'm not trying to involve myself in these things that I can ultimately never do. Folks, it's not hard to look around us today and see this kind of vaunting human ambition. In fact, It's put before us many times as a virtue. Not only that, but it's constantly, the fires of this kind of desire are constantly stoked even by our advertising in our apps, right? You should desire this and this is going to fulfill your life. You should want that. And so our whole life is kind of this desire machine of I'm going to make life great. And that's exactly what this pilgrim here is saying I don't do that. I don't do any of that. The amazing thing is though, not only we look around the world around us and see this kind of desire being stoked to become like God, but this kind of human ambition can creep into the very body of Christ. As God's people, we are still not immune to this kind of creeping human ambition. I'll just give you a couple examples here. In a time called the Second Great Awakening here in America, the early to mid part of the 19th century, there was a man, a famous preacher by the name of Charles Finney. He was known for the dramatic results at many of his revival meetings, but he wrote a book called Lectures on Revivals of Religion. And what he espoused and taught and practiced in his revival campaigns was that revival is something within man's power to accomplish. It's just like a machine. If you just do the right things, the right results will always follow, right? You put gas in, you turn on the engine, and you go places. It just works that way. If it doesn't, you just didn't do it right, right? It's man's ability to do this. And many people have followed that ideology down through the centuries. I would submit to you that Finney was walking around in things too great for him, but he's not alone. Romans 12 gives us good instruction on this as it applies the gospel to our lives and calls us to be living sacrifices. Pardon me. In verse three of Romans chapter 12, we read, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more haughty than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. And then in verse 16, we learn how this works out in our relationships in the body of Christ. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind. There's that high-mindedness again, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. This is exactly the kind of attitude that the scriptures are warning us against. Pardon me. Augustine saw the story of Simon Magus as an example of one who did aspire to walk in wonders above him. You remember the story in Acts chapter eight, how as the apostles went out preaching Christ, doing miracles, Simon saw that miraculous power and he craved it. I want that ability to do miracles like that. And he offered money to the apostles for it. And when that happened, Peter saw exactly what was going on. This was not from the Holy Spirit. This was from the devil. That's what's going on here. This is not some holy and pure ambition. This is the ambition of the flesh. Augustine went on then to apply this psalm to the issues of pride within the body of Christ and how it brings about divisions. And this is so true. When purported pilgrims who should be learning this virtue of humility, humility not vaunting themselves to what God can do and recognizing themselves and even the achievements of their own lives only in light of trusting in God, when they don't do that, we start to look at ourselves and want to be great ourselves. And whenever that starts to happen within the body of Christ, you start having envy, division, The Corinthian church is a great example of how this can come about even with the spiritual gifts that God gives to us. Pardon me. God had been very gracious to this congregation, this early church in Corinth that the apostle Paul had planted. And he had actually, by his spirit, given them many amazing abilities. But what had happened with all those abilities? They'd become all about myself. Look what I can do. I have this ability. And it was carnal. It was fleshly. It was bringing divisions into the church. And the apostle Paul had to rebuke them soundly and say, you know, the whole reason God has given these gifts to his people is for the good of the body, to serve others. It's precisely not about you. It's about the good of the body. And that's why he had to say, yes, pursue gifts, but most of all, pursue love. Love is all about glorifying God and what is good for my brother. Love doesn't worry about what's in it for me here. And so that will lead you to then when you love your brother, it leads you to act orderly in the church instead of disorderly. Pardon me. Here's what the irony that can happen. And you see this happen to this very day in churches. People see, you know, they have a certain ability and in many ways, rightly delight in that ability that God has given to them. They like to utilize that ability. But very subtly sometimes it becomes, because I have this ability, I have a right to exercise it in the church. And pretty soon that becomes If the church doesn't let me exercise my ability, well then you're holding me back and holding me down and not letting me serve God to the full of my potential. And you ought to give me this platform to use my ability. I deserve this. You see what has suddenly happened here? That what was given to you for the purpose of serving others, has become diabolically inverted into a demand that others serve you. That's what happens when we start to raise our eyes up and not in light of God. You see, when your heart is high instead of humble, you actually become a needy, demanding person. I want this, I need that. And if you don't give it to me, you're the one who's doing evil. because your satisfaction isn't found in God at that point. You're not resting in God. You're occupying yourself with things too great and too marvelous for you. This is exactly what the true pilgrim forswears. This is not what I'm going to do. And this Psalm, by the way, is not saying that you should not aspire in many true ways to know God. There shouldn't be a longing in your heart to ascend to God. It's not saying that you should just live a mediocre life You know, not really caring about anything. Well, I'm not gonna raise my eyes too high. I'm just gonna, you know, stay down here and not really try. Just be mediocre, make sure I don't care about anything too much. That's not at all what this Psalm is encouraging. That's an unbiblical idea. What it is saying is that you cannot do what only God can do. So don't try, right? You cannot establish the value of your life. So don't try. You're going to have to trust. If you want a worthwhile life with something to show for it at the end, you're going to have to trust the Lord entirely. And that's what the next verse goes on to say then. Like a weaned child in verse two, we're not high, what instead are we? A pilgrim's heart is like a weaned child, he says here in verse two. And the confession of verse two is what the pilgrim is, not what he's not. I, by the way, as we enter into this, I like this alliterated translation here, the first line of verse two, I have soothed and silenced my soul. I have calmed and quieted my soul. Here's what the true pilgrim commits himself to. Here's what he does want to be. a soul that is calmed and quieted, pardon me, at rest in God. The confession is that a living, desiring being, a soul, has developed here now morally to a place of rest in the Lord. The pilgrim has been able to place all of his anxieties, fears, doubts, weaknesses, inabilities, in the hands of an all-sufficient Savior. And in order to bring out some of the richness of that concept, then, the word uses two similes that both use the image of a weaned child in verse two. First of all, it says, like a weaned child with his mother, or as one weaned upon his mother. That's the first one. And the second one still uses the image of a weaned child but now switches the picture a little bit here. As one weaned, we might say literally, is my soul upon me. Like a weaned child is my soul with me. Picturing David here, picturing his own soul, if you will, like a child that's resting in his arms. Why does the scripture use this imagery of a weaned child here? I think there are several characteristics that this brings out. This is one of the blessings and beautiful things of imagery is it ties so many things together in a beautiful picture. But let's just walk through some of the characteristics that this likeness brings out. First of all, it puts it all in the context of development and growth. I am like a child, right? That's me. My soul is that child. You see, a pilgrim headed to the new Jerusalem always knows how little he is, how dependent he is, how much he doesn't know, how much he needs his heavenly father. In Luke 18, 17, Jesus said this, truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter in, right? A true pilgrim is always like a child because he always knows how much he has to depend We get older. We feel like we learn a lot. You know, we graduate from college. Boy, I've learned a lot now. We feel like we're capable. We can control things. We know what to do in life. The true pilgrim learns and confesses, I'm like a child, right? At the end of the day, I don't know everything. I can't control everything. I depend. So there's development and growth here. He needs, he knows, excuse me, he knows he needs to grow and develop. The weaned child gives the picture of a child who is growing up. He's beginning to mature, and that is good, right? There's a growth process taking place here. And then as that growth process takes place, we see this as a picture of contentment and satisfaction. Contentment and satisfaction, like a weaned child with his mother resting on his mother's lap, right? Psalm 43 verse four calls God, my exceeding joy. In other words, my soul is satisfied entirely in God. Everything I could need to give me joy, I find in him. And I think that's what the psalmist is learning and expressing. This pilgrim is saying, I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child. I'm content and satisfied with God and with his provision for me. And the longer I go on this pilgrim journey, the more I look around and I see, no, not fundamentally all the evil of all my enemies. And we've gone through some psalms that have talked about the power of the enemies here. No, not the overwhelmingness of all my trials. And we've gone through some Psalms that have shown us how deep those trials can cut. But what I see when I look out, this pilgrim says, is God's goodness providing for me every step of the way to the new Jerusalem. I can't help but see it everywhere I look. And in fact, the more my eyes are open to it, the more it becomes overwhelming that God is good in all that he does. And I find contentment and satisfaction in him. There's a sense of it, you might say, being able to see God's goodness in the smallest details of life. So instead of, why isn't this the way I want it to be? Or why isn't that the way I need it to be? That's what the empty soul says. The full soul is constantly drinking in God's goodness and a thousand details of life. Pardon me, just this last week, in fact, is looking at some of our fruit trees, putting out their blossoms. And you think the glory in one little flower is enough to make me happy for a long time. But then just think of how many flowers there are in the world. And then just think of how everything else all around it is showing God's goodness. And pretty soon you start working this out and everything is shouting out, God is good, and God is providing, and God is bringing me along to the new Jerusalem. He has not left us and forsaken us. Everything is beautiful in God. I find that rest, that contentment, excuse me, and satisfaction in my God. I think that's all in part of this weaned child picture here. In addition, there is the picture of quiet and rest. Quietness and rest is evoked by this weaned child picture here. It's interesting to ask this question to your own soul today. As one man has put it, do you have a noisy soul? Do you have a noisy soul? Is there always a thousand things bombarding you and you feel like you can't think of everything? Or do you have a soul that's at rest? Not a soul that's not weary with the realities of this world, not a soul that doesn't feel, if you will, the true pain of a sin-cursed world. but a soul that can still rest, right? What does this child do on his mother's lap, right? Life is good, right? Because I'm with my mother now. Life is good, I don't have to worry about everything else. And that's the picture for us as pilgrims. Finally, this image brings forward to us confidence and trust. Confidence and trust. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4.19. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus, right? Listen to that confidence that he just expressed. Just before that, he had said, I have learned both how to be abased and how to abound, right? It doesn't matter what situation I'm in in life because this is my confidence. He could say this just like a pilgrim. God will supply every need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That's confidence. That's trust. And that's exactly what the true pilgrim confesses as he marches to the new Jerusalem. And that leads right then to the third verse of this Psalm. Hope in the Lord, in verse three, a pilgrim's heart hopes in the Lord. Precisely because he is like a weaned child with his mother, he can then confess before men, you, he can command men, you need to hope in the Lord. Here is where there is salvation. Here is where there is hope and trust. There's contentment and satisfaction. There's quietness and rest. There's confidence and trust here. You come, come and hope in the Lord. We call others to become true pilgrims precisely because we have found the goodness of God, right? We know this is good. We know God satisfies. There is eternal hope only in the Lord. And it's a hope that's eternal from this time forth and forevermore. There is never a time when this hope in the Lord is not justified. Let's go back to the book of Romans and see this played out. Pardon me. As the gospel of God, the power of salvation in Jesus Christ is proclaimed, is made effective in our lives, what happens? It says in Romans chapter five, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand And we rejoice in hope in the glory of God, right? There's that rejoicing. Precisely because I know God and I am right with God, I am resting in his arms, so to speak. I rejoice in hope of the glory of God. It goes on. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Reading this in light of Psalm 113, you cannot help but see that image of a child in his parents' lap with our God. He's pouring out his spirit, giving us his love, and we find rest there. We find true hope there. Yes, There are difficulties. Yes, sin is real, but it will be overcome. Romans 8.24 goes on to say, for in this hope we were saved. And then Romans 12.12, going back to the very passage we alluded to earlier, it says, rejoice in hope. Rejoice in this. I think that's what we find in Psalm 131. We find a humble pilgrim finding satisfaction in God and therefore rejoicing before men and saying, hope in the Lord. This is where satisfaction is found. Can you say that today? Is your testimony even to this world clear? Because you have a humble pilgrim's heart. You're resting in the Lord. So when you Say to them things about your God. When you talk about the gospel, when you praise the Lord before unbelievers, does it ring true? Because they see in you someone saying, hope in the Lord. I found hope. I know where it is. You come too. Rejoice in hope. In conclusion here today, I'd like to just ask this question, because I think it's something that Psalm 131 brings up for us. How do you have godly aspirations instead of selfish ambitions, right? If this is so common for us to exalt our hearts, lift up our eyes, to occupy ourselves with things that are really the province of God to take care of, if we're so tempted toward that, How do we know when I'm having godly aspirations and when I'm actually having selfish human ambitions? Well, I would put it this way. Just put it simply at the end here. The Apostle Paul said, And he would go on to say then in Philippians 3, in verse 8, For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Folks, this is the opposite of selfish ambition. This is a surrender. This is a finding satisfaction in Jesus Christ. This is an entire casting of ourselves on Him. My life will not be fulfilled apart from Jesus Christ, and I want to know Him. When that is your attitude, in other words, when you've grasped the gospel, you're prepared to know the difference between selfish ambition and a sublime aspiration for God. This very passage goes on to say this, the very next thing, verse 12. Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature, we're growing up here, right? Think this way. This is the Apostle Paul's example for us. There should be, and I think in every true pilgrim there will be, a holy aspiration to press on, to know God in his fullness, to come to the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That becomes our heart's desire. But you know what, at this point, it's not about us now anymore. It's about Christ. people acknowledging me and approving me and me being great and establishing my own strength anymore. It's all about knowing Christ. That's the difference. I trust that difference is yours today. Charles Spurgeon famously said about this psalm, it is one of the shortest psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn, right? this resting in the Lord. Well, that's what the pilgrim journey is about, right? God is teaching us. So I would just ask you today, as you think about Psalm 131, is this confession your confession? Is this song your song? If so, let's confess together that Jesus is Lord, all together as a congregation. Jesus is Lord.