GROUP GUIDE: Psalm 131

Charles Spurgeon said that Psalm 131 was one of the shortest psalms to read but one of the longest to learn. In this short psalm, King David tells the LORD that he has quieted and composed his own soul. He states that his soul is like a weaned child resting against his mother. His soul was like a weaned child within him.

David had learned to take hold of his own soul, his own heart, his own spirit, and remove any anxieties, fears, fretfulness, restlessness, anger, worries, and trouble. David had learned to achieve what many people pay good money to achieve today, sometimes with little or no success. However, we too can learn to compose and quiet our own soul and spirit. Here is what David can teach us all.

First, David in this psalm addresses the LORD, the God with whom he was in covenant. David knew the LORD because the LORD had made himself known to his people. In Exodus 34:6 the LORD tells Moses who he is and how he wants to be known. He says, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” David began to quieten his own soul by acknowledging the compassion and graciousness of the LORD. David not only prayed to, but he leaned upon the LORD who welcomed him and loved him with a steadfast love.

Psalm 131 is one of the few passages in scripture where someone uses the metaphor of a woman to depict God. In this psalm God is depicted at the loving mother that David rests upon as a weaned child. Unlike an unweaned child who is demanding and seeking something, David rests upon God simply because of the peace and security he finds in God’s presence.

Second, David has learned that contentment and quietness of soul come from knowing who you are and who you are not. In verse one David says to the LORD “my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me.” David realized that he wasn’t God. David did not need to know everything, be able to explain everything, or be able to control everything. David knew that “the secret things belonged to the LORD” (Deut. 29:29). A sure recipe for a restless, anxious, troubled soul, is to involve oneself in matters, questions, and concerns that need to be left in God’s hands. David did not use God’s sovereignty as an excuse for passivity, but he used it as a source of rest and peace.

Third, David teaches us that we do have the ability to impact the very condition of our own souls. David says that he is the one that composed his own soul. He had and we have the ability to speak to ourselves, to remind ourselves of who God is and who we are not. We can speak to our souls words of truth that put things back into a godly perspective. Such truth allows us to rest in the goodness of God instead of panicking in the midst of our circumstances.

David closes this short psalm by encouraging all of Israel to hope in the LORD from this point on. It is a reminder not only of the faithfulness of God, but of the fact that our story is still being written by a God who loves us, cares for us, and will work all things for His glory and our good in His time. What great hope and assurance belongs to those who are in a covenant relationship with the LORD. And the more we see life through the lens of who God is and who we are not, the more our very souls are composed. May we truly rest in Him.