Hebrew Highlights 23 – NOT PROUD

Shalom, this is Yuval Shomron, coming to you from Jerusalem.

Today on Hebrew Highlights, I’d like to take a look at one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 131. Although It is one of the shortest of King David’s writings, it is packed full of wisdom and truth. Since it is only three verses long, I’ll read it through first in Hebrew, and then again in English.

Tehilim koof, lamed, alef: Shir maalot l’Dahvid. Lo gava libi, v’lo ramu einai. V’lo halachti bigdolot, uniflaot mimeini. Im lo shiviti v’domamti nafshi, k’gamul alei imo, k’gamul alai nafshi. Yachel Israel el Adonai, meiata v’ad olam.

PSA 131:1-3 (A Song of Ascents, of David.) O 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. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord From this time forth and forever.

The first verse is particularly humbling. When David said “O 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”, remember that He was King of Israel. If King David does not involve himself in matters too difficult, who are we to do so. I for one, am too ready to give my opinion, often arrogantly. Many people write books, or give sermons, claiming to understand the times and seasons of God, when the scripture tells us in MAT 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

I have often quoted this passage when friends ask me about the political situation in Israel. If the Israel government has such a difficult time trying to make things work, who am I to claim to know the answers to these “things to difficult for me”? Our main job as believers, is to pray that God’s will be done here on earth, while trying to keep alert, and recognize fulfillments of biblical prophecy as they happen around us. If you think about it, no one, anywhere, has ever completely understood any major biblical prophecy before it actually happened.

Verse 2 says, “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.” First of all, think about what a child is usually doing before his mother picks him up, and holds him against her breast. He is usually crying or complaining. So when our soul is in agony about the state of affairs we see around us, the best thing to do is not to try and figure things out for ourselves, but simply to quiet our soul’s lament by leaning on, in our case, the Father’s bosom, along with Yeshua, as we are reminded in JOH 1:18, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him”.

The third verse of PSA 131 seems to suddenly change from personal to national when it says: O Israel, hope in the Lord From this time forth and forever. Israel was of course a person, who became a nation. I believe the admonition hear to “hope in the Lord forever”, is to each of us individually, and to nations, Israel being the first among them to know God.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, there was a general feeling of hopelessness, which swept over the United States, and the rest of the world as well. As terrorism continues here in Israel, our souls murmur almost daily, saying “What can we do”?

Well, it seems more and more obvious that I, at least, can do absolutely nothing, except to crawl into the Heavenly Father’s arms, and trust Him to take care of us. In that place, along side Yeshua, I can moan quietly in the Spirit, and whisper my fears, and make supplication as accurately as my human understanding allows.

The Apostle Paul makes a plea to his beloved young disciple when he says to him in 1TI 6:20, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge"—

King David says in PSA 25:2, “O my God, in Thee I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me.”

This trust in the Almighty is essential, if our soul is to be quieted. It is also imperative to share this trust to others, who have not yet been introduced to God, and His Son. In this case, there is something we can do. Bring our nation, one at a time, to the Father’s bosom, so that they too, may “hope in the Lord From this time forth and forever.”

Shalom, Shalom from Jerusalem.