Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Way of Weaned Children | The Writings | Psalm 131

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Do you have humility about your knowledge? Have we idolized confidence? Are you secure in God's love? In today's episode, Patrick shares how Psalm 131 encourages us to live as weaned children who are secure in our Father's love for us. Prepare your heart this Advent with the 2024 TMBT Advent Calendar! Each day, receive a new prompt for Scripture, prayer, and reflection—designed to help you slow down and reflect on the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that Jesus offers. Sign up now to receive your free Advent calendar! Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 131

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. What kind of heart does Jesus want in his followers? What kind of person does he want you specifically to be? Psalm 131 sets out an ideal using a strange word picture. It's only three verses long, making it the second shortest Psalm in the entire Bible. Let's just read it all together first.

My heart is not proud, Lord. My eyes 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 his mother. Like a weaned child, I am content. Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. The first verse in this Psalm is somewhat unsurprising.

God loves a humble heart. We all know that. and he despises a proud heart and haughty eyes. Again, we all know that. But the psalmist goes one step further, and he says that he himself, the writer of the song, doesn't concern himself with great matters and things too wonderful for him.

In other words, his humility is not merely an expression of how he sees himself. He has humility about his knowledge. He's not the sort of person who's always trusting his own rationality. He's not the sort of person who's confident about his take on reality because he's always right. He's not the sort of person who believes that he knows far more than everyone else does and is always on the right side. Instead, he's someone who humbly says, there's a lot beyond my reach and I don't get too worked up about it. We had an election not too long ago, and whatever you make of our current situation, I can definitively say that this was not the attitude of either

candidate. In fact, it's not the attitude that we look for in most of our leaders. There's plenty of churches led by overconfident pastors who believe that they not only know the most about the Bible, but they also know the most about medicine and politics and parenting and every other imaginable subject. It's no surprise that these leaders amass huge followings. It's no surprise that these kinds of leaders run for office. And that's because we, the people, we love confidence. The world is far more chaotic and unpredictable than we like to admit. So there's something comforting about having an assertive, confident, absolutist leader that comforts us by telling us he knows how everything will work out,

who makes us think that everything will be right because he or she is a master of the universe. In Psalm 131, who does God elect? Who does God choose? Who does God adore? He says that he sets his heart on those who say, My heart is not proud. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. Of course, no human has this kind of humility. We're all way too confident about our own beliefs.

We're all haughty at times. We're all lacking in humility. But it did describe one human, Jesus. Here's a remarkable fact. Jesus only describes his heart, how he operates, you might say, one time in the Gospels. And when he describes himself, do you know what Jesus says? Matthew 1129, I am gentle and humble in heart. Jesus is a leader cast not from the mold of haughty American presidents.

Jesus was a leader cast in the mold of Psalm 131. He wasn't what people expected. in a lot of ways he wasn't what people wanted. Perhaps that's why they crucified him in the end. He wasn't a strong man. He was meek. He was mild. And it makes me wonder,

if our desire to be strong, to be confident, to be the big person in the room who makes things happen, well, it makes me wonder whether all of that confidence isn't actually strength at all. What if it's actually insecurity?

What if it's actually fear? I say that because Jesus, was the strongest human to ever live. But as Paul said, his strength, it was perfected in his weakness. And Paul also said his weaknesses were stronger than the strongest strength of men. So let's ask that question. How is all of our self-confident leadership actually a sign of weakness and insecurity? I think we find part of the answer in verse two.

But I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, I am content. The author is drawing a contrast here, and it's not the contrast between a child and an adult. It's instead the contrast between a weaned child and an unweaned child. I know that this language is a bit weird, but he clearly wants us to imagine the difference between an infant that's still breastfeeding and a young child who can eat solid food. Let's start with the similarities between these two people. Both an infant and a weaned child have needs.

Both need adults to provide for them. Both need adults to protect them. The author isn't challenging us to be self-sufficient or self-reliant. Even an unweaned child is not self-sufficient or self-reliant. This is a common trait in our loudest leaders. They claim to be adults who aren't needy. They're the kind of people who can figure things out on their own and provide for themselves on their own. But the truth is that they aren't

adults. The psalmist wants us to realize they're actually infants. What's the difference between an infant and a weaned child? Well, an infant is loud. An infant is demanding. An infant screams and cries when it doesn't get its way. There is literally no one as confident about themselves and as loud about their confidence than an infant. Unlike a child, an infant thinks only about itself, only about its own needs. An infant expects the world to bend to its needs. An infant demands the world to bend to its needs. Friends, do you realize that our nation and our culture is actually led by infants?

By people who demand the world to bend to their needs? Who demand the world listens to their demands? The question, of course, is why are infants so loud and demanding? And it's because an infant is, by nature, insecure. It doesn't understand the world well yet, and so its way of ensuring its safety is by crying out. An infant is full of fear unless it's being coddled. And this is actually a beautiful thing in an infant. We expect an infant to want to be coddled, to cry out, to be insecure, all of those things.

but those traits are not beautiful in adults, much less are leaders. Now contrast this to a young weaned child. A young child is still needy. So a young child is still humble. He's not haughty. He knows that there are adults there to guide him because he doesn't know everything. He knows that there are adults there to give him rules because he doesn't always know what's right and what's wrong.

He knows that there are adults there to help him. And so he's not insecure. but a weaned child doesn't scream about every need because a weaned child is not insecure. He's lived a few years and he knows that his mom and dad will provide. Again, the psalmist says, but I have quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, I am content. This child in this Psalm is a non-anxious presence because this child in this Psalm is in the presence of a mother.

a mother that he knows will provide for him, so he doesn't have to scream out and cry out. He is content and he is calm. So why was Jesus so gentle and lowly? Why didn't he cry out like most leaders and make demands and demand that the world bends to him? Because he was in the presence of a father who loved him. He was a non-anxious presence because of the father's presence, because of the father's love. And because of the father's love, he was secure. and secure leaders are able to lead out of humility, not overconfidence.

They're able to lead out of a child's neediness, not out of an infant's insecurity. They're able to lead out of a child's confidence in a child's father and mother to provide. In Christ, you have a father's love. You don't need to be overconfident. You don't need to be an arrogant person overcompensating for everything because you fear that your needs won't be met. No, you have needs, that's true, and you know that they will be met. And that's why you fearlessly ask God to provide. And that's why you fearlessly trust him, because you've been adopted as his child.