Homethis morning I read psalms 120-134. Many of them are songs of ascents. I need to figure out what exactly that means. My guess is songs sung on the way to the temple.
Here is something that caught my thoughts, especially in this culture of distraction.
Psalm 131
A Song of Ascents. Of David. 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.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Who of us has calmed and quieted our soul, that our hope would be in the Lord forevermore. Things rage before me, taking my attention. Think about the picture of the weaned child. Weaning is a process that eventually goes cold turkey. The weaned child no longer wants the breast, but is calmed on his own. Have we weaned ourselves from the world and it’s things so that all we want now is God?
Sometimes I think I have and then sometimes I find that I have not. May we be weaned of all that distracts and keeps us from being satisfied in the Lord alone.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 AM
The mother sometimes is the one deciding to wean the child from the breast. This may leave the child still wanting to depend on the mother for nurture and nourishment. The mom (in all her wisdom) must make hard choices for the child to “grow up” and move to the next level of nurturing and nourishment.
The child gets to the place of contentment with other nourishment and nurturing, but it can be a process where the child has to get hungry enough to submit to the mom.
It would be so much better if we trusted the Lord so completely that we submit to His ways without all the questions.