Psalm CXXXI

A Song of degrees of David.

1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: Neither do I exercise myself in great matters.

Or in things too high for me.

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.

3 Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

Thine of the calm bosom of the Lake of Galilee that morning after Christ had spoken peace to the tempest — think of that glassy sea, resting in a morning without clouds under the rising sun. Was it not a fit and fair emblem of the soul of the man whose name had once been “Legion,” whom Jesus that morning met, and whose spiritual storms Jesus calmed by a word? Is that man’s soul now not as peaceful and at rest as that lake? It is such a picture of repose we have here. In the case of the Master, no previous storm had vexed it; in the case of the disciple, the tempest has preceded the peace.

It is the Master who can in full measure look up to his Father and say —

“Lord, iny heart is not haughty, neither are mine eyes lofty; I walk not in great things, and matters too high for me.”

He was willing on earth to be ignorant even of the day of his own glory — his Second Coming — and, while grieving intensely over Capernaum, and the other cities, was content to rest his spirit in this one consideration, “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.”” Surely {i^ D^^ like Isa. v. 9, &c.) I have smoothed and silenced my soid, As a child weaned from its mother. My soul in me is as a iceaned child Others say,

“As a weaned child leans upon his mother,“’ (iQi ^/S?,) ‘”’ithout any desire to suck the breast as before.

Not of this world, loving the Father, Christ walked through earth without a murmur, or suspicion, or doubt, as to his Father’s will — “Not my will, but thine be done.” And his heart overflowed toward man also (ver. 3); he pressed men to partake of his joy in the Lord. Such was the Master.

His followers are only in some measure like him. It is when they shall “see him as he is,” that they shall be able to take up the Psalm in all its breadth. True, they receive the kingdom of God “as a little child;” they are “not of the world, even as he is not of the world;” they have accepted the punishment of their iniquity, and their once uncircumcised hearts have been humbled. Still, they have only some measure of this “mind that was in Him;” but they are expecting the entire likeness, on that day when Israel realizes what is written in Lev. xxvi. 41, and hopes in the Lord, from henceforth and forever.’’ Thus the harp sings of

Jhe Lord’s servait’s co7itentment with Jehovah’s will.