Psalms 131
What Happens in This Chapter
This short psalm is a personal statement of calm before God. The speaker says he has no pride and does not reach after matters too big for him, and describes his settled soul as a weaned child resting with its mother. He closes by calling Israel to put its hope in the LORD, now and always.
LORD, my heart is not proud, and I do not look down on others. I do not chase after big things, or things too wonderful for me.
1Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
Lifted or "lofty" eyes was a standard Hebrew way of saying arrogance, looking at other people from above. The Hebrew phrases behind "great matters" and "things too high for me" are open: they can mean affairs too grand for the speaker's station to meddle in, or matters too deep for anyone to fathom, and the psalm does not settle which.
2I have truly calmed and quieted myself, like a small child who has stopped nursing and rests with his mother. My soul inside me is like that quiet child.
2Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
In ancient Israel children were normally nursed until around age three, and the weaning was marked with a feast. The picture is of a child past that point: still held by its mother, but no longer crying or struggling for milk, quiet because it is no longer demanding anything. The word rendered "soul" (Hebrew *nephesh*) means the whole living self, including its appetites and cravings, not an immaterial part inside a person.
3Israel, put your hope in the LORD, from now on and forever.
3Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.
"Israel" here is the whole people addressed as a single person. The Hebrew word behind "hope" means to wait expectantly for something to arrive, closer to "wait for" than to "wish."
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