things too great (Ps. 131)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Psalm 131

1 O 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.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.

I am thankful for this psalm, especially today. It speaks of both a discipline and an experience. The spiritual discipline is simply getting real with oneself and one's world and God, and then making oneself calm or quiet in God. The experience of calmness and quiet and hope seems to accompany such a movement into reality.

I know this is not a guaranteed plan, that if I punch these buttons or type in this code then I'll get a certain result. But generally, and ultimately, this seems to be the witness of the prophets and poets and Jesus himself -

Stand still and see the salvation of God (Ex. 14)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Prov. 3)
Fret not yourself over the wicked (Ps. 37)
Be still and know that I am God (Ps. 42)
Don't worry about your life, for your Father sees and cares... (Matt. 6-7)

There are a lot of things I can't control, that are too great and marvelous for me. Among them, most immediately, the selling of our house and the finding of a job. But, obviously, I factor in to the situation: pricing our house right, sending out a good resume and following up faithfully with possibilities.

It seems to me that this all connects in with the Biblical picture of a righteous person. A righteous person rests, trusts, and hopes in the Lord regarding those things too great for him/her and does faithfully those things that are at hand, such as loving your neighbor as yourself - part of wisdom is both discerning the difference and doing love and justice. I can't make myself "right" with God, I can't make God do what I want, I can't circumcise or cleanse my own heart. But somehow, by turning, by trusting, by resting and hoping, I can place myself in the love of God (in whom I live and move and have my being), or yield or submit to his embrace, like a weaned child with its mother. This is baptism - being immersed in the love of God, saturated, irreversibly changed by plunging into a dying and rising...

I think this yielding alone helps to work a miracle inside me.

But even the grace and ability to do so is a precedent miracle.

Thanks be to God.