"The Contemplative King" - Psalm 131

We are teaching through a series called After God's Own Heart, where we're asking the question from the Hebrew Bible and from the Psalms, what did it mean for David, King David in the story of the Hebrew tradition, to be a man, quote, after God's own heart? That's a phrase that's used both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Christian New Testament and And Janelle and I have noticed, Janelle brought this up to me several weeks ago, that that phrase often gets employed to gloss over a whole host of character problems in the lives of Christian leaders.

And I don't know if you've noticed, but Christian leaders, especially of the male variety, have a tendency to act in ways that are extraordinarily harmful and destructive.

And when they do, it feels like In church spaces, we often just sweep that under the rug, and sometimes we say, oh, well, you know, they were a man after God's own heart, meaning that whatever quality in their heart resonates with God's character excuses all kinds of terrible behavior.

So we've been sort of exploring the life of David and asking ourselves, what does this mean to that David was a man after God's own heart.

Last week, Janelle shared with you the story of David and Goliath, tackled that story.

And today, I want to share with you a story that jumps into the immediate aftermath of the David and Goliath story.

But we're really going to center our text today in the Psalms.

So one of the things we've been doing, if you haven't been here, is pairing a story from David's life and narrative with a Psalm.

to see if there's something about that Psalm that reveals something about David's inner life that's helpful to us.

So today we're going to take a look at Psalm 131.

We're going to put it up on the screen if you don't have a Bible with you.

And that text is very short.

It's a very short Psalm.

And it says this, O Lord, my heart is not lifted up.

My eyes are not raised too high.

I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother.

My soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on.

and forevermore.

I'm going to share with you what I'm taking from this text and how I think it helps illuminate some of David's story, but first I'm going to ask you to pray with me.

God, we thank you again for today, for this opportunity for us to gather as a community, to circle around these ancient texts and to open our hearts and minds to the ways that these old stories can stretch us and grow us beyond ourselves to be both directed and liberated at the same time.

And we ask that you would perform that grace for us today, that we would be stretched and grown and at the same time somehow more able to get a hold of who and what we are and how we are in the world.

And we pray that you would do all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.