The way kids show up – Part 1

Three times a year the Jews were instructed, by God, to make a pilgrimage to the city of Jerusalem. Part of how they would entertain themselves on their pilgrimage was by singing traveling songs. These have been preserved, in the Bible, at least 15 of these songs. We call them the Psalms of Ascent, psalms 120-134. Some of them were written so that the Israelites could remember what God had done, others were to remind them that God was their helper (see Psalm 130), and others, like Psalm 131, were to get them in the correct posture to approach God.

As followers of Jesus, we are also on a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage through life, that will one day end in Heaven. And while that might be far off for some of us, it does no harm for us to get in the correct posture of approach before God now. We can, after all, meet with Him at any time.

Psalm 131 was written by David while he was being chased by Saul. It wasn’t written from a place of victory but from a place of waiting on God to do what only he could do. It was written as part of an ongoing pilgrimage through a hard part of life. It would do us all some good to learn some lessons from David’s writing.

Psalm 131 

My heart is not proud, LORD,

My eye are not Haughty

I do not concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me

But I have calmed and quieted myself,

I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

My Heart is not proud, LORD

One of the things that stuck out to me as I read the first line, “My heart is not proud, LORD” was that David did not write this psalm for others, it was a direct conversation between him, and the LORD. David is expressing what he sees in his heart. He is expressing the posture of his heart.

I don’t know about you but I can not, with confidence, say my heart is not proud. If I’m being candid there are things in my life I have too much pride in. David’s sentiment is a direction I want to take as I approach God. I want to learn to rid myself of pride, I just happen to have some work to do to get there.

We often let things that we have done or things that have been done to us, get in the way of meeting with God. Sometimes it’s really good. Those things that once you got done with, you could not help but smile at, and hope that everyone else noticed how good of a job you did. The problem with that is we start to the point where we don’t think we need Good anymore. It is a rare person who has never said, “Look at all of the things I have done in my life, look at all the good I have done, and all on my own.” What a ridiculous thought, yet I have had it. If we are not careful we can actually work ourselves into a place where we feel like we don’t need God.

The other side of pride is shame. Shame is felt because of what we have done, or things done to us that lead us to believe that God would never come near to us. Shame is even more twisted than other forms of pride because it is tearing us down, not making us feel bigger.  Shame still makes life all about you. When you have the posture of shame, Dr. Rob Reimer says, you are looking down, and when you look down the only thing you can see is…yourself. This of course prevents us from approaching God, not because we do not need Him, but because we believe he will not accept us.

When pride becomes the center of conversation, I often get the following question: “Am I not allowed to be proud of anything that I’ve done in my life?” I tried to figure this out as a kid and I don’t think it was explained very well to me. So I grew up thinking that if everything was God’s doing, God then what does it matter what I do, I have nothing to offer. I can never say that I’ve done anything of worth. 

That’s not what this word pride in the original language is saying. In fact, being proud of what you have done is completely acceptable if it’s built up with a sense of gratitude. I look at my life and my journey and there are many things I am proud of. My family, my work, my job, the growth I’ve seen in my preaching. I also realize how many people have been on this journey with me and have made things happen for me, I’ve not done this on my own. I did not happen to stumble into my life, nor did I build myself up. God has walked with me, guided me, and invited others to do the same thing.  It is ok to be proud of your accomplishments if it is accompanied by gratitude to God and others. 

In my next post, we’ll look at the 2nd line of verse 1. 

If you’d like to watch the sermon this was derived from you can click here.

Currently reading: Words of Radiance: Book 2 of the Stormlight Archive