Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.42 – November 1995

 

The Childlike Spirit

 

Sermon by Rev. R. Brenton on Psalm 131

Scripture Readings: Matthew 18:1-4

 

Brothers and Sisters.

One day Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  In reply, Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them.  “I tell you the truth,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1-4).  Like a pin, Jesus’ object-lesson pricked the bubble of His disciples’ pride and occupation with the pecking order of heaven’s kingdom.  That child who was thrust into their presence made them think again about their status in the kingdom – about where they stood in relation to Jesus.

In fact, it forced them to think hard about whether they had met the basic requirement for admission into the kingdom: humility.  Somehow that child thrust into the presence of glory-seeking grown-ups exemplifies the humility the Lord requires of those who want a place in His kingdom.  How so?  What is it about that child which shows humility?  Is it the nature of children to be humble?  That’s debatable.  I know plenty of children who aren’t.  But I also know plenty of children who know how to act humbly if the situation requires it of them.  Did this child make some kind of respectful gesture to the grown-ups which showed his humility?  He might have.  But if he did, Jesus didn’t tell us so.

Or does the very nature of the situation – a lone child set in a circle of grown-ups – portray humility?  Maybe so!  I think that a lone child in that situation would feel rather small next to so many grown-ups.  Don’t you?  I know how I would feel if I were set in the presence of important grown-ups like the Prime Minister and Parliament.  I’d feel a lot smaller than I already am.  Just think how small a child must feel when he is made to be an only child in the company of grown-ups.  Come to think of it, when I was a child I felt very small in situations like that.  Most unimportant.  Anything but great.  But we don’t know for sure whether this particular child felt small and unimportant next to the grown-ups.  He didn’t tell us how he felt.  And Jesus didn’t tell us either.

So, we are left with our question unanswered.  What is it about this child in this particular situation which communicates humility?  What does “being humble like this child” mean?

Like you, I think I understand a thing or two about humility.  I have a pretty good notion what humility is all about and why we could stand to see more of it in the world.  Yet, our Lord Jesus impresses us with a certain kind of humility: a childlike humility… without which we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.  So, I continue to raise the question: What is it to “be humble like this child”?

Happily, I am prepared to share with you an insight which has taken me further down the road than I have ever gone before toward an answer.  Now I’m not claiming that this insight is the definitive answer, the final word on child-like humility.  But it has for me proven to be a helpful word.  Let me share this word with you today.

The word is Psalm 131.  I stumbled onto it the other day.  It’s one of those short psalms which, in my experience, tends to get lost in the shuffle.  In this case I think I know the reason why.  The reason – I think – is because of the self-righteous sounding way that the Psalm begins.  Listen to this.  “My heart is not proud, O Lord; my eyes are not haughty.”  Full stop!  That is as far as I have ever been able to go with that Psalm.

If someone is humble, it goes without saying.  Doesn’t it?  If you happen to be humble, you don’t have to tell people, “I’m not proud.”  Do you?  Of course not!  As soon as you say, “I’m not proud”, we suspect just the opposite: you must be proud.

Now you see why I never got beyond that first line.  It was like a stumbling block to keep me from going on in my reading of the rest of the Psalm.  Every time I fell over line one, I gave a glazed look over the remaining lines.  What David was saying in the remainder just never registered with me.  I guess I wasn’t patient enough to sit down and really listen either until my most recent stumble.  Now that I have listened and learned, I’d like to share with you what I found out.

Let us start with that old stumbling block: verse one.  You will notice again how the Psalm begins with that strange sounding boast which seems to reek of false humility.  Listen once more.  “My heart is not proud, O Lord; my eyes are not haughty.”  But then David adds, “I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.”

On the surface it looks like David is making an excuse for himself.  It looks like he is matter-of-factly telling us why he refuses to get involved with the complex issues and weightier concerns of life.  It is as if David is saying: Look Lord, there’s nothing high and mighty about me.  As you can see, I’m just a humble ordinary Joe (Jew!) with not a great deal of ambition.  I’m not curious about the way things work; I don’t really care what’s going on in the big, wide world.  You know me, Lord.  I’d just as soon sit here all day minding my own business.  You know, counting sheep.  Absorbed in my own little world.

By itself, verse one reads like that.  On the surface.  Verse one, however, is followed by verse two.  Verse two takes us below the surface into David’s soul.  “But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

Let me raise a caution flag here.  Let us make sure we get the picture David is showing us here.  The right picture.  First, let me show you the wrong picture.  The wrong picture is a baby being pacified by nursing.  One Bible version I know of, the Revised Standard Version, puts baby on the breast.  “Like a child quieted at its mother’s breast” is the way it reads.  The blue psalter hymnal version of Psalm 131 follows suit.  There we sing “contented as a little child upon its mother’s breast.”  David, in this Psalm, gives us quite a different picture.  Mother’s breast is not in the picture at all.  You see, we’re looking at a weaned child, not a nursing child.  And the difference between the two is mother’s breast.  The nursing child is attached to it while the weaned child has been released from it.  There is a world of difference between the two children.

The nursing baby is the most self-centred, need-seeking kind of human there is.  Any mother who has nursed her baby will agree.  Not that the baby is on the breast all of the time.  But when the baby needs feeding, or comforting, only the breast will do.  And baby must have that breast straightaway.  Baby frets and carries on with crying and screaming when the breast isn’t there for him.  Mother’s breast is all baby wants.  It’s all the world to him.

What a relief – I’ve been told – for the mother to finally wean her baby away from the breast.  What freedom!  Freedom for mother.  Obviously.  But freedom for baby, too.  The weaned child may not be aware of his new freedom, but he has in fact been freed from a life of persistent nagging and fretting.  Freed from questing for self-gratification.  Freed from being the centre of the universe – of his own little world, of course.

Sure, baby still wants to be held close by his mother.  But he is no longer selfishly attached to mother’s breast, absorbed in fulfilling his own need.  Having been weaned, baby learns to be content in his mother’s presence.  No longer self-absorbed with the breast that once nourished him and gave him comfort, baby’s world begins to expand.  He begins to realise that there is more to his mother than need-supplier.  Lo and behold, she is a person just like he is!  And she is a delight to be with.  With mother at his side, baby starts making sense of the world around him.  He is able to take it in and make sense of it without being overwhelmed by it, largely because mother is by his side.

David wants us to get the right picture: the picture of the weaned child.  Why?  Because it shows us the state of David’s soul – the frame of mind of his innermost being.  In this Psalm, David is confessing a change that has come over him.  “But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

We are not party to David’s previous frame of mind.  But we can gather from his confession that a significant change has taken place.  As significant a change as being weaned from mother’s breast.  I gather from this confession that David has come to a point in his life where he realised he was carrying on like a fretting nursing baby: totally absorbed with his own greatness and sense of self-importance.  Maybe being King of Israel went to his head.  Maybe he entertained the notion of being the greatest in God’s kingdom.

We do know this.  The ego trip is now over.  David has had it with himself: he is done with thinking that he is the greatest in the kingdom.  He wants down from his pedestal.  He wants to be freed from whatever the breast which was nourishing his inflated sense of self-importance.

Now he confesses the change that has come about in his life.  It’s as if he had been weaned.  He is like a weaned child.  That’s his new frame of mind, his new state of soul.  Like a weaned child he is now content not to be the centre of the universe.

Now the Psalm makes sense.  By saying, “My heart is not proud, my eyes are not haughty,” David is testifying about his conversion.  He has had a change of heart.  Instead of thinking himself to be better than his brothers and sisters, he is now happy to take his place right alongside them.  In effect, he is saying that he is thankful to have been relieved of being the only one in the kingdom – at least the only one who truly matters.  Having been relieved of such an unbearable burden, he now knows the peace and the joy of being equally joined to his brothers and sisters under the gentle yoke of his Lord and King.

This converted soul now thinks of himself as simply one of many servants of heaven’s kingdom.  And as one of many he is happy to fit in wherever he can be of service.  The thought of being the greatest in the kingdom no longer consumes me, he says.  But being in the kingdom suits me just fine.  I don’t have to concern myself with great matters.  Let the King tend to matters of rank and status.  Those are His concerns, not mine.  As for me, I’m happy just to be included.  So I’ll gladly do my part.  At last, I have learned contentment.  My life is in the Lord.  I leave it all up to Him.

Which brings us now to verse three: the conclusion of the matter!  “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.”  So freed from conceit and selfish ways is David that he cannot help but urge everyone to make the same soul-freeing change.  So, he calls out to his own people.  “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord!” You, too, find your contentment in your Lord and King.  You, too, be done with your conceited thinking and self-seeking ways.  Lift your hearts to Him in hope.  Do it now.  The King of Heaven will never let you down.  Hope in Him.  He will satisfy your deepest need as you serve Him in the humble place He assigns to you.  Hope in Him now.  And forevermore.  That’s the message of this Psalm.

There is one more thing about Psalm 131 which cries out for comment.  This Psalm happens to be one in a collection of fifteen Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120 to 134).  They were the psalms sung by Israelites while on their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts.  As you know, Jerusalem was the capital city of Israel.  More than that, however, Jerusalem was the City of the Great King: God’s city.  So, the city gate of Jerusalem was the gateway into God’s presence.  The pilgrims who made their way up to Jerusalem were consciously entering into the presence of the most sovereign Lord: the King.  In a manner of speaking, the pilgrims were entering the Kingdom.

Let me venture to say that the eager pilgrims sang Psalm 131 to engender among themselves that child-like Spirit of humility without which no one can enter the heavenly kingdom.

My brothers and sisters, how good it is for grown-ups to remember that true humility consists of child-like contentment with one’s own place in life.  True humility is not concerned with great matters like one’s rank and position in the kingdom.  The spirit of humility is content to take the place the King assigns, wherever that place may be.  The spirit of humility also makes one open toward others and accepting of them and their place.

If you find such humility hard to come by – as some of us do – think of the weaned child.  Done with the breast, he is happy to be with his mother, by her side.  And by her side the weaned child learns to face the world and open himself in love to others.

Perhaps this is the picture Jesus wanted His disciples to see when He placed that child in their presence.  If so, we should see it, too!  If we get this picture, maybe we’ll be better fellow-travellers along the way which leads to Heaven’s Kingdom.  If we get this picture, maybe we will be more inclined to give each other the respect and dignity which is befitting those who have a share in the kingdom, the power and the glory of Heaven’s Rule.

Amen.

Note: The singing of BoW Psalm 131 would be good at the end of the sermon.  This version gets it right!