Psalm 131:1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

I return once again to this shortest of psalms to point out maturity. Anyone who can say 131:1 of a truth is a mature Christian. These are believer who know who they are Christ and know how they got there.

Ezra 9:11 And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

We are allowed to come boldly to the throne of grace because we know who we are in Christ and have not stepped out of place. Verse 131:1 confirms this in referring to not exercising self in matters that are beyond us. Knowing our place in Christ allows us to exercise faith according to the will of God, not will of self.

Psalms 24:3-4 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

It is tempting to lift up ones soul to vanity, knowing what we know and Who we know. Knowing this is not an exercise in promotion. It is a privilege given to us to witness Christ to others.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Psalm 131

¹ Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

² Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

³ Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.

For anyone that is not familiar with Psalm 131, that is all the verses, just three. In the brevity of this scripture is danger of overlooking an important lesson because there is not a lot of setup, context or observation material. There is however one image which should be startling, the mother’s weaned child.

Thankfully in life we do not have an abundance of examples of children weaned unnaturally late. There is only one example I can draw from in a scene from the series Game of Thrones. A child of ten is seen nursing and as disturbing as the scene might be, it is compounded when revealed that this boy is the Lord of the Vale.

Relate this in biblical terms. The woman represents the church in scripture. The weaning represents the churches insistence that its child must grow in Christ and be dependent upon the church as the only source of spiritual nourishment. It is the churches responsibility to see that its children are weaned and not made dependent solely upon the church for growth in Christ.

I can think of nothing more disturbing than turning over church leadership to men who have not been weaned.

1 Timothy 3:8-10  Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.