Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 131:2
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul [is] even as a weaned child.
2. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul:
Like a weaned child on its mother’s breast,
Like a weaned child is my soul upon me.
He has calmed (lit. levelled, Isa 28:25, of levelling ground for sowing) his soul, and silenced it (Psa 62:1; Psa 62:5; Lam 3:26). It is no longer disturbed by the storms of passion and the clamours of ambition. As the child that has gone through the troublesome process of weaning can lie happily and contentedly in its mother’s arms without fretting or craving for the breast, so the Psalmist’s soul, weaned from worldly ambition, can lie still without murmuring or repining. It is not the helplessness of the child children in the East were sometimes not weaned till the age of three, 2Ma 7:27 , cp. note on 1Sa 1:23-24 but its contentment in spite of the loss of what once seemed indispensable, that is the point of the comparison.
The same preposition which is used of the child in its mother’s arms, lit. upon its mother, is used of the soul’s relation to the Psalmist, upon me. The soul in Hebrew psychology was sometimes distinguished from a man’s whole ‘self,’ and regarded as acting upon it or related to it from without. Cp. Psa 42:4-6; Psa 42:11; Psa 142:3; &c. See Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology (E.T.) pp. 179 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself – Margin, as in Hebrew, my soul. The Hebrew is, If I have not soothed and quieted my soul. This is a strong mode of affirming that he had done it. The negative form is often thus used to denote a strong affirmation. The full form would be, God knows if I have not done this; or, If I have not done this, then let me bear the consequences; let me be punished. The idea is that he was conscious he had done this. Instead of being arrogant, proud, and ambitious – instead of meddling with matters above him, and which did not belong to him, he had known his proper place. He had been gentle, calm, retiring. The word rendered behaved means properly to be even or level; then, in the form used here, to make even, smooth, or level; and it is used here in the sense of calming the mind; smoothing down its roughnesses; keeping it tranquil. Compare the notes at Isa 38:13, in our version, I reckoned (the same word as here) till morning, but where the correct translation would be, I composed or calmed myself until morning. So the meaning here is, that he had kept his mind calm, and even, and gentle.
As a child that is weaned of his mother – See Isa 28:9. There have been very various interpretations of this passage. See Rosenmuller in loc. Perhaps the true idea is that of a child, when weaned, as leaning upon its mother, or as reclining upon her breast. As a weaned child leans upon its mother. That is, as a child, accustomed to the breast, and now deprived of it, lays its head gently where it had been accustomed to derive its nutriment, feeling its dependence, hoping to obtain nourishment again: not angry, but gently grieved and sad. A little child thus clinging to its mother – laying its head gently down on the bosom – languishing – looking for nourishment – would be a most tender image of meekness and gentleness.
My soul is even as a weaned child – literally, As a weaned child upon me my soul; that is probably, My soul leans upon me as a weaned child. My powers, my nature, my desires, my passions, thus lean upon me, are gentle, unambitious, confiding. The Septuagint renders this in a different manner, and giving a different idea, Had I not been humble, but exalted myself as a weaned child doth against its mother, how wouldst thou have retributed against my soul! The Hebrew, however, requires that it should be otherwise interpreted. The idea is, that he had been gentle; that he had calmed down his feelings; that whatever aspirations he might have had, he had kept them under; that though he might have made inquiries, or offered suggestions that seemed to savor of pride or ambition, he had been conscious that this was not so, but that he had known his proper place, and had kept it. The sentiment here is, that religion produces a child-like spirit; that it disposes all to know and keep their right place; that to whatever inquiries or suggestions it may lead among the young, it will tend to keep them modest and humble; and that whatever suggestions one in early life may be disposed to make, they will be connected with a spirit that is humble, gentle, and retiring. Religion produces self-control, and is inconsistent with a proud, an arrogant, and an ambitious spirit.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 131:2-3
As a child that is weaned of its mother.
The weaned soul hoping in the Lord
In the same hour in which the soul of man is by grace weaned from itself and-its own high thoughts, it begins to hope and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, for a man to have the Lord alone for his confidence seems, to the unrenewed mind, the highest presumption; to put a present, an immediate trust in the Lord for all the future, in time and in eternity, is thought to be unhallowed boldness, and not humility or weanedness of heart. The whole dealings of God with man bring us back to the ever memorable words of the Lord Jesus (Mat 11:25-26).
I. The first weaning of the soul the grand event of a mans history. When God begins to deal with you in saving grace. He weans you from self, in its various forms, according to our Lords teaching (Mat 16:24). This self-denial includes weaning from the world, from your own will, from your own strength.
II. The joy in the Lord that springs up in every weaned soul. The Lord your is now ransom, your righteousness, and the well of living joy within you.
III. The daily weaning of the soul through life. The soul has to be weaned from all that must be forsaken, from that which may be either granted or denied, and from its own wisdom and way in the kingdom of heaven on earth.
IV. The earnest desires and the fruitful work of every weaned soul.
1. The weaning of the soul from self and from its own earthly affections neither stupefies the mind nor quenches the fire of all nobler desires.
2. The gracious weaning of the soul prepares and fits us for fruitful work. In grace, the helplessness of the child is combined with the strength and energy of the man. Except we receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, we cannot enter therein; yet it is the same kingdom of heaven that suffereth violence, and which the violent take by force. (A. Moody Stuart, D. D.)
The weaned child
An aged minister once made the confession to another concerning this passage–I wish it were true of me; but I think I should have to make an alteration of one syllable, and then it would exactly describe me at times: My soul is even as a weaning rather than a weaned child, for, said he, with the infirmities of old age, I fear I get fretful and peevish and anxious, and, when the day is over, I do not feel that I have been in the calm, trustful frame I could desire. And we have often to make the same confession. We wish we were as a weaned child, but then we are not. To the child weaning is one of its first troubles, and no doubt it is a terrible trouble to the poor little heart. But it gets over it somehow. It is a very happy condition of heart which is here indicated, and I desire to promote it in you. So–
I. Let us think what the psalmist meant by it. Look at the context and you will see that he meant–
1. That pride had been subdued in him. Lord, he says, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. We are all proud by nature. The Lord Mayor is not a bit prouder in his gold chain than the beggar in his rags. Great I grows without any watering, for the soil of nature is muddy, and the rush of pride takes to it mightily. You need never be troubled about a mans keeping up his opinion of himself; he will be pretty sure to do that. David could say, My heart is not haughty. His brother Eliab said that he was proud when he went down to carry his fathers present to his soldier brothers, but it was not so. Whatever faults he had, he certainly had not that of vanity. Now, it is a great blessing when the Spirit of God keeps us from being proud. After all, we are nobodies, and we have come of a line of nobodies. The proudest peer of the realm may trace his pedigree as far as ever he likes, but he ought to remember that, if his blood is blue, it must be very unhealthy to have such blood in ones veins. The common ruddy blood of the peasant is, after all, far healthier.
2. And next he tells us that he was not ambitious. Neither do I exercise myself in great matters. He was a shepherd; he did not want to go and fight Goliath, and when he did he could say, Is there not a cause? Else he had kept in the background still. We shall never be as a weaned child if we have got high notions of what we ought to be, and large desires for self. Baruch thought he was somebody, tie had been writing the Word of the Lord, had he not? But the prophet said to him, Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. We often seek after great approbation. And sometimes we are ambitious to do great things in the Church. The great destroyer of good works is the ambition to do great works. He is the best draughtsman, not who draws the largest but the most perfect circle.
3. He was not intrusive. Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Many men vex themselves because they will do what David did not. They want to understand everything. Some want to shape the Scriptures to their creed, and they get a very nice square creed too, and trim the Bible most dexterously; it is wonderful how they do it; but I would rather have a crooked creed and a straight Bible, than I would try to twist the Bible round to what I believe. The same evil comes up when we want to know all the reasons of the Divine providence. Why this happened and why that. When we begin asking, Why? Why? Why?–what an endless task we have before us! Now, from the simile itself we gather that the condition of heart David spoke of was like one who was able to give up his natural food. What nature loves the soul gives up. And that he had conquered his desires. Paul had, for he had learnt in whatever state he was therewith to be content. And doubtless, also, therewithout. And that as the child depends upon its mother entirely, so he depended upon the Lord.
II. The excellence of this condition. Desires will no longer worry you. You give your thoughts to something better than the things of earth. Note the psalm which follows this, for there David declares he will build for the Lord of Hosts. When you are free from fretting, worrying, and self-seeking, you are free to work for the Lord.
III. Is this state attainable? Certainly. David said, My soul is even as, etc. Not that he hoped it would be. What is the way to get it? The psalm tells us. Let Israel hope in the Lord. Easier said than done, says somebody. Yes, except by faith; but to faith it is easy enough. You unconverted, may the Lord make you first a child, and then as a weaned child. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The nature and effects of a weaned disposition of soul
I. From what does grace wean the soul?
1. From the dry breasts of the world (Jam 1:27; 1Jn 2:16).
(1) From the profits of the world (Heb 11:26).
(2) From the pleasures of the world.
(3) From all worldly comforts whatsoever, making it take up its rest in God (Luk 14:6).
2. From the foulsome breasts of sin, so that it loathes that which it loved before.
II. How is the soul weaned from these things?
1. Grace lays gall and wormwood upon these breasts, and so embitters them to the soul that it is made willing to give over sucking them (Hos 2:6-7). Now, there are two things that serve to embitter these breasts.
(1) Continual disappointments from them. Though the man is always seeking satisfaction from them, he can never get it. Like the prodigal (Luk 15:16).
(2) Severe wounds arise from them. The man leans with great delight on the broken reed; and, ere he is aware, it pierceth through his hand. He sucks eagerly at the breast, and, instead of milk, wrings out blood.
2. The Lord fills the soul with better things (Joh 4:14).
III. What are the effects of a weaned disposition of soul?
1. The weaned soul is a resigned soul.
(1) To the will of Gods commandments.
(2) To the will of His providence.
2. The weaned soul is cheerful, and not fretful in its resignation. What God does is not only well done, but best done; so says the weaned soul.
3. The weaned soul stands on other grounds, when created comforts are with him, and even when created streams are running full: he draws his support in both cases from God as the fountain.
4. The weaned soul will stand without them when these are gone, for they were not the props on which his house rested. Such a soul can adopt the prayer of Hab 3:17-18.
5. The weaned soul uses creative comforts passingly. They follow the directions of Paul (1Co 7:29-31).
6. The weaned soul casts itself upon the Lord, without carnal anxiety, as the weaned child depends on the mothers care (Php 4:6). (T. Boston, D. D.)
Weanedness of soul
I. Its nature. It presupposes a power left in the soul of loving and desiring. It is not the destruction of its appetite, but the controlling and changing of it. A weaned child still hungers, but it hungers no more afar the food that once delighted it; it is quiet without it; it can feed on other things; so a soul weaned from the world still pants much as ever for food and happiness, but it no longer seeks them in worldly objects. There is nothing in the world that it feels necessary for its happiness. This thing in it it loves, and that thing it values, but it knows that it can do without them, and it is ready to do without them whenever God pleases. Could you give up all you have at Gods call? and when you had done so, instead of saying, There goes all my happiness, could you say with a calm, though perhaps with a bleeding, heart, I can be happy still; my best treasure is yet left? Then yours is a weaned soul.
II. Its sources. Our souls are as fast bound to the world as they were at first, or faster. We shall never leave it of our own accord. It is Gods own right hand that must draw us from it. And how? The figure in the text will partly tell us.
1. By embittering the world to us.
2. By removing from us the thing we love.
3. By giving us better food. Worldly pleasures debase the soul; they dispose it to sink deeper and deeper in its search for happiness, and to take up with viler things; the soul is always the worse for them: spiritual pleasures exalt the soul; they give it a distaste for all that is low and vile, and teach it to aspire to the very highest objects.
III. Its advantages.
1. It will save us from much sin.
2. It will keep us quiet under our many troubles. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Submission
I. What is implied in this representation of submission to God.
1. That we labour to be satisfied with what God appoints.
2. That we can do without what God does not appoint.
3. That we have higher comforts than those which God sees fit to deny.
II. The considerations which are adapted to cherish such a submission.
1. All the events of Providence are a discipline for promoting the welfare of good men.
2. Jesus Christ submitted to the will of God.
3. The demand of submission in its present form is only temporary. Submission is the character and blessedness of heaven; but there are no evils to be submitted to there.
III. The advantages which result from this submission.
1. It creates a just and a religious independence of men.
2. The submission which has been represented inspires with hope in God.
3. This submission quickens our desires for heaven. (Essex Remembrancer.)
The suppression of self-will
This is one of the shortest of the Psalms, and one of the most beautiful. It is unique. The grace of Christian humility is here before its time. The bird sings before the sun has risen. The spirit of Jesus is here. We almost expect the psalm to conclude with the words, Blessed are the meek. Gods benediction of peace rests upon a lowly soul. The hand of God has gently rocked a weary spirit to rest. The Authorized Version does not give the full meaning of the text. We should read, As a weaned child upon his mother, so lies my soul upon me. The subject, then, is the suppression of self-will. Let us think of the good which is possible through failure, of the beatitude of disappointment, the peace of defeat. We see men putting forth all their powers in some noble cause, but the good results are strangely withheld. They conceive holy designs, which, like that of David to build a temple, are frustrated. Jesus Christ will not have even His work preferred before Him. The final sacrifice which some men are called upon to make is not the sacrifice of a pleasure, or the relinquishment of some precious treasure; it is the sacrifice of a dear purpose by which they hoped to bring glory to their Lord. They are required to turn from the path of hallowed service, to renounce the holy enterprise. John Ruskin has told us how, when he came into clearer light, his hope of some better service was cut off by failure of health. Just when I was coming out of school, very sorry for having been such a foolish boy, yet having taken a prize or two, and expect now to enter upon some more serious business than cricket, I am dismissed, by the Master I hoped to serve, with a Thats all I want of you, sir. To give up what is dear to them is for some men comparatively easy, but to give up what they deemed dear to Christ,–to bind on the altar of sacrifice the one offspring of our heart, which gave such fair promise that in it men should be blessed,–that is hard. But it has to be done to the bitter end. No angelic voice stays the descending knife. Now, it is not difficult to see that, in many cases, these disappointments and failures are inevitable. Men are prone to exaggerate their powers, and to minify the hindrances which are before them. They have an attractive programme of bills which they propose to carry, but they underrate the forces of obstruction, and it is not in their power to enforce a closure. Now, there is no more searching test of character than disappointment. How charming the way in which John the Baptist accepted the narrowing sphere, and acquiesced in the circumstances which consigned him to comparative obscurity and silence. He must increase, but I must decrease. That exquisite humility gives the transfiguring touch to a noble soul. It sheds a softened splendour upon the granite peaks of his character. It is possible for a man to be victorious even in defeat. Success may be good, but failure may be better. Disappointment brings a richer dower than achievement. No man need be ashamed of failure, or afraid of it, after the Cross of Christ. Now, this weaning of the soul, this spirit of chastened submission, this complete suppression of self-will, this hearty acquiescence in the will of God, do not come easily to a man. The soul does not gain these heights without struggle. This psalm, tranquil as it is, bears traces of sore conflict. There is in it the echo of a storm. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself. The word behaved here bears a meaning which we do not now attach to it. It means to hold in, to restrain. The psalmist has known tears, protests, demands, complaints. Passion and pride have raged like swelling waves. But all this is over now. Lord, my heart is not haughty, etc. He does not seek a position above him involving duties and responsibilities too heavy. He accepts the limitations of his life, and adapts himself to them. He is at last willing, having tried all other ways, to try just Gods. Observe, this is not a state of torpor, which leads one to retire from service, and sit, with folded hands, in dull inaction. Nor is it a state of weakness, in which a man ceases from effort because it seems to fail. It is a submission that is full of hopefulness. It implies a persuasion that, though we seem to fail, Gods cause never fails; a calm conviction that, though the good result is deferred, it will surely come. There are men who, when thwarted, hindered, disappointed, foiled, in the midst of their broken purposes and crushed hopes, cry, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. When that hour comes the soul enters into rest. Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. There are rich feasts for weaned souls. The joy of conquest is poor beside the ecstasy of renunciation. The complacency of attainment, the pride of achievement, the flush of success, grows pale before the peace of disappointment. If there is one way in which, more than in any other, God is glorified upon this earth, it is when a man takes the bitter cup of disappointment, and says, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Such men are victorious over defeat by accepting it. Surrender is the supreme grace of the Christian soul. When a man bows meekly down before the will of God, he has reached the highest good. (J. Lewis.)
The quiet mind
This psalm is called a Psalm of David, and there seems no sufficient reason for doubting that it comes from his pen. Probably it belongs to one or other of the few peaceful seasons of his troubled reign, in which he was at leisure to practise that self-discipline which makes men strong, and those habits of meditation which make men wise. We have here a rare and a beautiful state of mind; and there are two expressions in this second verse which will help us to understand it. I have behaved and quieted myself; literally, I have stilled and hushed my soul. The idea seems to be that of checking and restraining himself. The man has reproved his wayward impulses; he has arrested unreasonable ambitions and unseemly desires; he has taken himself in hand, and has dealt firmly and faithfully with that turbulent compound. His mind, for a time long or short, and from causes which he does not explain, has been like a troubled sea; and he has ruled the raging of its waters, and hushed the violence of the storm. The second expression is more striking still. For some reason or other the psalmist has not only been in a stormy mood, but in an uneasy, fretful, unsatisfied mood as well. He has been like a child passing through its first troubles. There is no vehemence in what he is here alluding to. His soul is not in arms. It is irritation, disappointment, unsatisfied desire, with perhaps a general sense of not being able to make the thing out. But it is all over now. From many a source of earthly joy and satisfaction he has had to wean himself away. And he has done it. The painful business is over; and in the sweet content of a tranquil, satisfied, and assured mind, his soul is even as a weaned child. Humility–a just estimate of oneself, a just conception of what one is, what one has a right to demand from life, what one really has a right to be angry and disappointed over; a clear perception of our relations to a Divine Being, to this great and wondrous universe in which we find ourselves, and to man, our brother and fellow-traveller: this is the sweet secret of peace, now and always. Have you ever known pride happy? You could as soon find a cone standing unsupported on its apex. Pride, in every form of it, is a monster with many mouths; and some of them are always crying, in all the bitterness of unsatisfied desire, Give, give! Notice here how thoroughly in this matter David is at one with a Greater than David (Mat 11:27-28). Not until we have brought down those high and haughty minds of ours; not until we have learned, I do not say the sad, but the sober look; not until lofty imaginations are in the dust at our feet, imaginations which in every direction are their own scourge,–can we know anything of the weaned condition of Davids mind, or enter into the rest which remaineth for the people of God. I hardly know which to admire the more in David–his profound wisdom, or his profound piety. Certainly it is as sure a mark of wisdom to know the limits of inquiry in any direction, and reverently to bow to them, as it is within such limits to reverently prosecute such inquiry. And the piety of it all is quite as great as the practical wisdom. It is so eminently characteristic of a true and trustful child to be able and willing to say, I cannot understand these things; but my Father knows all about them. Is that childish talk? Then let me be a child. I have read somewhere, Of such is the kingdom of heaven. Do you tell me that it is not knowledge? I say, it is better than knowledge; for it comes of the love that shall endure, when knowledge shall have vanished away. (J. Thew.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child] On the contrary, I have been under the rod of others, and when chastised have not complained; and my silence under my affliction was the fullest proof that I neither murmured nor repined, but received all as coming from the hands of a just God.
My soul is even as a weaned child.] I felt I must forego many conveniences and comforts which I once enjoyed; and these I gave up without repining or demurring.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When my mind was provoked to irregular practices, either by my own corrupt heart, or by Sauls implacable rage and tyranny, or by the solicitation of any of my followers, as 1Sa 24; 1Sa 26, I restrained and subdued all such evil motions.
As a child that is weaned of his mother, either,
1. As void of all that ambition and malice wherewith I am charged as a child newly weaned; or rather,
2. As wholly depending upon Gods providence for the way and. time of bringing me to the kingdom, as the poor helpless infant, when it is deprived of its natural and accustomed food, the mothers milk, takes no care to provide for itself, but wholly relies upon its mothers care and providence for its support.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. Surely, c.The form is thatof an oath or strongest assertion. Submission is denoted by thefigure of a weaned child. As the child weaned by his mother from thebreast, so I still the motions of pride in me (Mat 18:3Mat 18:4; Isa 11:8;Isa 28:9). Hebrew children wereoften not weaned till three years old.
soulmay be taken fordesire, which gives a more definite sense, though one included in theidea conveyed by the usual meaning, myself.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself,…. Or “my soul” o; behaved quietly and peaceably towards all men, even his inferiors in Saul’s court and elsewhere, and had given no tokens of a restless, turbulent, and ambitious spirit; as well as behaved patiently under all his troubles and afflictions, reproaches and calumnies: or “if I have not” p, being in the form of an oath or imprecation, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra observe; if I have not thus behaved, let it come to me so and so, or let me be as a weaned child. Noldius renders it by way of interrogation, “have I not composed and quieted myself?” c. The Targum is,
“if I have not put the hand to the mouth, and caused my soul to be silent, until it heard the words of the law”
as a child that is weaned of his mother: and, for the further confirmation of it, it is added,
my soul [is] even as a weaned child; innocent and harmless, had no more ill designs against Saul than a weaned child; humble, meek, and lowly, and had no more aspiring and ambitious views than such an one; like that, weaned from the world, the riches, honours, pleasures, and profits of it; as well as from nature, from self, from his own righteousness, and from all dependence on it; and as a child that is weaned from the breast wholly depends on its nurse for sustenance, so did he wholly depend upon God, his providence, grace, and strength; and as to the kingdom, he had no more covetous desires after it than a weaned child has to the breast, and was very willing to wait the due time for the enjoyment of it. The Targum,
“as one weaned on the breasts of its mother, I am strengthened in the law.”
This is to be understood not of a child while weaning, when it is usually peevish, fretful, and froward; but when weaned, and is quiet and easy in its mother’s arms without the breast.
o “animam meam”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, c. p “si non”, Montanus “male sit mihi si non”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. If I have not set, etc. He here employs a figure which appropriately explains what he meant, and likens himself to a weaned child; by which is intended, that he dismissed all the anxieties which disquiet the man of ambition, and was willing to be satisfied with small things. This assertion, which some might be inclined to disbelieve, he makes with an oath, expressed in that particular form of which I have elsewhere taken notice, in which the imprecation is not directly brought forward, but left to be understood, to teach us caution in the use of God’s name. (124) As to the words, to set his soul like a child, is as if he had said, that he would frame it into such a likeness. And this with the view, as he declares, of composing himself to silence. For דוממתי domaintee, is formed from דום dum, and has the active sense of reducing to silence. The quiet of soul he alludes to is opposed to those tumultuous desires by which many cause disquietude to themselves, and are the means of throwing the world into agitation. The figure of childhood is elsewhere used in another sense, to convey reprehension. (Isa 28:9.)
“
Whom shall I teach knowledge? them that are weaned from the milk? and drawn from the breasts?”
where the Prophet censures the people for their slowness of apprehension, and being as incapable of profiting by instruction as infants. In the passage now before us, what is recommended is that simplicity of which Christ spake,
“
Unless ye become like this little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God.” (125) (Mat 18:3)
The vain desires with which men are carried away originate in their seeking to be wise and careful above what is necessary. David adds accordingly, my soul over me is quieted, not as expressing the language of self-confidence, but speaking as if his soul lay sweetly and peacefully on his bosom, undisturbed by inordinate desires. He contrasts the wayward and tumultuous agitation which prevails in those of a discontented spirit, with the peace which reigns in the man who abides in the calling of the Lord. From the verse with which the Psalm closes, we see the reason why David asserted his having undertaken nothing in the spirit of a carnal ambition. He calls upon Israel to hope in the Lord, words which must have been abrupt had it not deeply concerned the common safety of the Church, to know that he sat upon the throne of the kingdom by Divine appointment, in which case the faithful would be certain of the bestowment of the promised blessing. Our hope is of the right kind when we cherish humble and sober views of ourselves, and neither wish nor attempt anything without the leading and approbation of God.
(124) “ אם-לא, A formula of swearing which may be translated surely or indeed. I have surely so disposed and disciplined my soul as to remove it from any longing after great things, from any ambitious tendencies.” — Phillips.
(125) Of all explanations the best is that of considering the comparison to consist between the humbleness and simplicity of the Psalmist’s mind, and that of a little child, in whom there does not exist a sufficient consciousness to create an ambition for any worldly object. The comparison is not with יונק, a suckling; for it has a longing after the mother’s breast, and, therefore, such a comparison would not be appropriate. The same, indeed, may be said of a child who has only just been weaned; for, in that stage, how often does it cry and mourn after that of which it has been deprived, and the possession of which was just before its chief pleasure? We therefore conclude, that the comparison is intended to be with a child who has been weaned a sufficient time to have forgotten its infantile nutriment, and who is not conscious of any particular desires or cravings, and quietly resigns itself to its mother’s care and training. — Phillips.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Surely.This seems the best way of rendering the phrase, which literally is if not, and is plainly elliptical, being commonly used to express strong asseveration after an oath.
I have behaved . . .The figure here is plain. It is taken from a babys first real sorrow when he not merely feels pain, but is allowed no access to that which was his solace hitherto. He moans, and frets, and sobs, but at last is quieted by the love which is powerful to soothe, even when it must deny. So, as George Herbert says of man, If goodness lead him not, then weariness may toss him to Gods breast. But the exact rendering is matter of difference and difficulty. The verb rendered behave means to make equal or like. This is its meaning, even in Isa. 38:13, which is the only place referred to by Gesenius in support of his translation here calmed. We cannot, therefore, render, as many critics, I calmed and quieted my soul. But, as in Hebrew, it is common to express one idea by the combination of two verbs, so I made like, and I quieted my soul, is really an idiomatic way of saying I made as quiet as. The redundancy of the sign of comparison as after verbs of likening may be illustrated by Psa. 49:12, as well as by the passage in Isaiah referred to above. We thus get: Surely I made my soul as quiet as a weaned child upon his mother, as a weaned child upon me, my soul. Instead of fretting after what is too great for him, he quiets his ambition, and his spirit lies calm and gentle, like a child in its mothers arms, that after the first trouble of weaning is over is soothed and lulled by the maternal caress. Perhaps the opposite idea, expressed by the common phrase, to nurse ambitious thoughts, may serve to illustrate this somewhat unwonted image. For Israel as a weaned child, comp. Isa. 28:9.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. The conditional Hebrew particle , ( eem,) here joined with the negative, , ( loh,) takes the sense of solemn asseveration, as in the formula of swearing: “ Certainly, verily, I have behaved myself,” etc. See on Psa 132:3. From negative disavowals he rises to affirmations.
Behaved and quieted Literally, Smoothed, or levelled and stilled; that is, he had composed and hushed his soul as a weaned child. On this comparison to childhood see Mat 18:3. The comparison is not to an infant, but to a child of three years, the Hebrew period of weaning, ( 2Ma 7:27 ,) the earliest age of choice and rudimental development. The discipline of weaning is very notable. It effected a total alienation from its earliest nature and habits. As a weaned child David had learned not only to deny himself of prohibited indulgence in the common pride of monarchs, but was cured of the desire. He had no craving for that which God had denied, and from which he was now completely separated. There can be no more natural and beautiful description of a humble, subdued, and submissive spirit than in these artless professions.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 131:2. Surely, &c. On the contrary, I compose and hush my soul like one that is weaning in his mother’s arms; as one that is weaning in the arms, is my soul. Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 725
WEANEDNESS FROM THE WORLD
Psa 131:2. My soul is even as a weaned child.
AMONG the great variety of representations whereby the Christians character is set forth in the Holy Scriptures, that of a little child holds a very distinguished place [Note: Mat 18:3.]. To this we annex the idea of humility, and teachableness, and resignation to the will of our heavenly Father. In this last view more especially the behaviour of a child was beautifully exemplified in the conduct of David. He had been anointed to the kingly office by Gods command; yet he waited patiently for many years without ever aspiring to the kingdom, till the Lords time came to give it him. Though he was persecuted with murderous rage and jealousy by Saul, he would never lift up his hand against the Lords anointed, or give occasion of offence to the government under which he lived: on the contrary, he appeals to God in this psalm, that he had not indulged any ambitious thoughts, or interfered in any affairs of state, but had acquieseed in the disposals of an all-wise Providence, even as a weaned child does in the directions and government of his mother [Note: ver. 1, 2.].
To illustrate this disposition of mind, we shall shew,
I.
What those things are from which we ought to be weaned
[The circumstances alluded to in the text will serve to direct our thoughts. Davids indifference to all the pomp of royalty shews, that we should be weaned from pleasure, from riches, from honour, from every thing which we possess in this world.
Pleasure is but ill suited to the advancement of a soul in the divine life. There are indeed pleasures which we may lawfully enjoy: but if the heart be set upon them, we cannot properly engage in that race which we are to run, or that warfare we are to maintain: nor can we have any more decisive evidence of our being still unrenewed by divine grace [Note: Luk 8:14. 2Ti 3:4. Jam 5:1; Jam 5:5. 1Ti 5:6.].
Riches also may be possessed with innocence; but they must not be coveted. They should rather be considered as a snare which we are to dread, than as a blessing we are eager to obtain. They are as clay upon the feet of one that is running a race [Note: Hab 2:6.], or as a weight tied to the neck of one that is swimming for his life [Note: Mat 19:23-24.]. There has scarcely ever occurred an instance wherein the acquisition of them has furthered the divine life; but thousands have been retarded by them, and not a few eternally destroyed [Note: 1Ti 6:9-11.].
Reputation is that which men in general are most averse to sacrifice: but we must be willing to part with that, if we would be Christians indeed. If we seek the honour that cometh of men, we cannot possibly be steadfast in the faith [Note: Joh 5:44.]; we shall shrink from reproach, and prove unfaithful to God in the time of trial [Note: Joh 12:42-43.]; and being ashamed of Christ, we shall cause him to be ashamed of us in the day of judgment [Note: Mar 8:38.].
There is not any thing, not health, nor friends, nor liberty, nor life itself, that we should value any further than as it may be improved to the glory of God [Note: Col 3:2. 1Jn 2:15-17. Luk 14:26.]. Our hearts must be weaned from all, so as to be ready to part with every thing, whenever God, in his providence, shall call for it.]
To evince that such a state is attainable, we shall shew,
II.
What methods God employs to wean us from them
[Without any indelicacy or impropriety we may observe, in allusion to the metaphor in the text, that to wean us from creature-comforts, our heavenly Parent embitters them to us, withdraws them from us, and gives us something more suitable in their stead.
Such is our attachment to earthly things, that we should never be willing to part from them, if they were not in some way or other embittered to us. God therefore, in mercy to us, mixes gall and wormwood with every cup he puts into our hands. In the pursuit of pleasure, our brightest prospects become clouded, our highest gratifications cloy, and numberless unforeseen accidents arise to damp our joys, and to disappoint our expectations. In the attainment of wealth, there are many cares to corrode, many vexations to disquiet us, so that we must write on all the bags that we have amassed, This is vanity and vexation of spirit. The acquisition of knowledge seems to promise the most permanent satisfaction; but such is the labour requisite to attain it, and so little, after all, is within the reach of human intellect, that the wisest of men was constrained to say, Much study is a weariness to the flesh; and he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow [Note: Ecc 1:18; Ecc 12:12.]. Even those dear relations of life which God has given for our richest consolation, the wife of our bosom, or the fruit of our body, are not without their attendant troubles; which are designed to teach us, that this is not our rest [Note: Mic 2:10.], and that God alone is the proper portion of the soul.
But notwithstanding all our disappointments, we are prone to seek our happiness in the creature; on which account God is necessitated, as it were, to deprive us of things, which, if, continued to us, would rob him of our hearts. Hence it is that the dearest of Gods children are often most heavily afflicted. He sees perhaps that our health, our riches, our friends, have drawn us aside from him, or impeded our progress in the divine life, or that they will prove disadvantageous to us in the issue; and therefore he lays us on a bed of languishing, or causes our riches to fly away, or cuts off the desire of our eyes with a stroke. But his design in all this is, to weaken our idolatrous regard for created enjoyments, and to make us seek our happiness in him alone. And thousands have had more reason to bless him for the bereavements they have experienced, than for all the bounties he ever bestowed upon them [Note: Psa 119:71; Psa 119:75.].
Nothing however will finally destroy our attachment to earthly things, till we have learned how much more suitable provision God has made for the souls of his people. When therefore God, by his providence, has embittered or withdrawn our comforts, he leads us, by his grace, to that fountain of consolation, the sacred Oracles. There he proposes himself to us as a reconciled God and Father in Christ. He sets before our eyes the unsearchable riches of Christ, the honour that cometh of God, and the pleasures that are at his right hand for evermore; and, having enabled us to taste of these, he makes us to despise every thing in comparison of them, and willingly to relinquish the husks of this world, for the bread that is in our Fathers house.]
But that we may not form a wrong opinion of our state, we shall declare,
III.
When our souls may be said to be as a weaned child
[The whole world, with respect to earthly enjoyments, are like a child either before it is weaned, or while it is weaning, or when it is altogether weaned.
The generality are like a child at the breast, minding nothing but their carnal gratifications. The world, in its pleasures, riches, or honours, is the one object of their desire, the one source of their comfort: they feed upon it all the day long; they fell asleep, as it were, with it in their mouths; they are clamorous for it as soon as they are awake. In their very slumbers they not unfrequently shew, how wholly their minds have been occupied with that one object. Give them their favourite gratification, and they care for nothing else: rob them of that, and not all the world can pacify them.
Such are they who have a fulness of earthly comforts. But others, to whom these things have been embittered, or from whom they have been withdrawn, are, like a weaning child, disquieted beyond measure: they are unhappy in themselves; and they disturb all around them with their peevishness and discontent. Having lost that in which alone they found delight, they can take comfort in nothing else: yea, because of one thing of which they are deprived, they have no enjoyment of all the other things that they possess. In vain have they more suitable and substantial blessings offered them; they have no appetite for the provisions of the Gospel; they refuse that which would infinitely overbalance their loss; and they pine away in querulous lamentations, when they might be nourished with angels food.
Some there are, however, who with David, resemble a weaned child. They are become indifferent to carnal enjoyments. They use with gratitude whatever God has bestowed; but they do not set their hearts upon it, or consider it as essential to their happiness [Note: Php 4:12. Heb 11:24-26.]. They suffer the loss of all earthly things with a holy resignation and composure of mind. Doubtless they have their feelings, like other men: but these feelings are moderated by religion, and brought into subjection to the Divine will [Note: 2Sa 15:25-26.]. The more they are bereaved of earthly comforts, the more entirely do they live by faith on Christ, and the more abundantly do they grow in every grace. Afflictions drive them, not from God, but to him: and in the midst of all their bereavements they shew, that they have meat to eat which the world knows not of, and joys with which the stranger intermeddleth not.]
Application
[Let those whose hearts are set upon the world, remember, how transient and unsatisfying their enjoyments are Let those who are disconsolate on account of their troubles, consider for what gracious ends God has caused them to be afflicted And let those who feel a measure of Davids spirit, strive for yet higher attainments, in the assured expectation that the more they are weaned from all but God, the more will God communicate to them out of his inexhaustible fulness.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 131:2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul [is] even as a weaned child.
Ver. 2. Surely I have behaved ] Heb. if I have not, &c., a deep asseveration, such as hath the force of an oath, Si non composui et sedavi.
And quieted myself
As a child that is weaned of his mother
My soul is even as a weaned child
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Surely = [See] whether I have not, &c.
quieted = silenced. Some codices, with Septuagint and Vulgate, read “soothed and uplifted”: i.e. comforted.
myself = my soul. Hebrew. nephesh.
My soul = Myself. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
quieted: Psa 42:5, Psa 42:11, Psa 43:5, Psa 62:1, *marg. 1Sa 24:10, 1Sa 25:32, 1Sa 25:33, 1Sa 30:6, 2Sa 15:25, 2Sa 15:26, 2Sa 16:11, 2Sa 16:12, Isa 30:15, Lam 3:26
myself: Heb. my soul, Luk 21:19, Joh 14:1, Joh 14:2
as a child: Mat 18:3, Mat 18:4, Mar 10:15, 1Co 14:20
Reciprocal: Gen 21:8 – and was Deu 17:20 – his heart Est 6:12 – came again Isa 28:9 – weaned Mar 10:14 – for Luk 18:17 – General Rom 12:16 – Mind 1Pe 3:4 – quiet
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A HYMN OF HEARTS-EASE
My soul is even as a weaned child.
Psa 131:2
I. The inward obedience of the heart, the obedience of receiving, the passive, which lies rather in how we take than in what we do, is higher than the active. It is higher because: (1) it is most difficult; (2) it is last always; (3) it is more like Christ.
II. Consider some of the forms of passive obedience.The acceptance of our salvation. If ever you are to be saved, you must begin by an act of perfectly passive obedience. There will be abundance of the active presently; but that which saves you is faitha simple acceptance of your pardon, through what Christ has done according to the will and commandment of God. (2) The great sin and loss of most of us is that we do not give a sufficient portion every day to the receptive influences of the Holy Spirit. (3) How much of life is waiting, only waiting, an entirely passive thing! And God generally exercises the passive before He blesses the active. (4) God has His law of disappointment, and many a one who has been an excellent servant in duty has been sadly wanting when he comes to the obedience of failure.
III. To attain to the blessed state of passive obedience, which asks no questions, which serves without the consciousness of its servitude, two things are necessary.(1) The one is to take grand, honouring views of God. Fill yourself with His majesty and His goodness. (2) Do not measure things. See only His will in sovereignty, His mind in its prescience, His hand in His providence, His tenderness in all His works, His purposes in mercy, for the end is not yet.
Rev. Jas. Vaughan.
Illustrations
(1) The soul is unquiet. It needs stilling and soothing. Argue with yourself; sing to yourself lullabies of trust and hope; remind yourself of all the blessedness which Jesus promised to the merciful and meek. Above all, wean yourself away from the sources of your own energy, from all that would minister to your self-sufficiency and pride, from all the worlds boasted pomp and power. Weaned from your own ways and schemes and thoughts, hope in God from now and for evermore. He will do for thee more than thou couldst do for thyself.
(2) After a period of prolonged and painful struggle to have its longings answered, the little one gives over striving any more, and is at peace. That process was a picture to our poet of what passed in his own heart. Like a weaned child, its tears over, its cries hushed, reposing upon the very bosom that a little ago excited its most tumultuous desires, his soul that once passionately strove to wring from God an answer to its eager questionings, now wearied, resigned, and submissive, just lays itself to rest in simple faith on that goodness of God, whose purposes it cannot comprehend, and whose ways often seem to it harsh, and ravelled, and obscure. It is a picture of infinite repose and of touching beautythe little one nestling close in the mothers arms, its head reclining trustfully on her shoulder, the tears dried from its now quiet face, and the restful eyes, with just a lingering shadow of bygone sorrow in them still, peering out with a look of utter peace, contentment, and security. It is the peace of accepted pain, the victory of self-surrender.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 131:2-3. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself Hebrew, , I have composed and hushed, or, rendered silent, my soul. When my mind was provoked to any irregular passion or temper, I restrained and subdued all such sinful motions or dispositions. As a child that is weaned of his mother As void of all that ambition and malice, wherewith I am charged, as a child newly weaned; or, rather, as wholly depending upon Gods providence, as the poor helpless infant, when it is deprived of its accustomed food, the milk of the breast, takes no care to provide for itself, but wholly relies upon its mother for support. I have levelled my mind to an equality with my condition; and resolved to acquiesce in the present state of things, committing myself wholly to thy care, being content to be disposed of as thou pleasest. Let Israel hope in the Lord, &c. Let all good men, in like manner, modestly place their confidence and hope in the Lord, as long as they live; and choose rather to be depressed, than by any undue means to raise themselves to greatness and honour. Bishop Patrick.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
131:2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul [is] even as a {c} weaned child.
(c) He was void of ambition and wicked desires.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
David had stopped being self-assertive and restless. Rather than constantly seeking self-gratification, he now rested in his lot. The ability to rest and be quiet, rather than struggling for what we want, is a sign of maturity as well as humility.