6th March 2024
Hush now!
But I have calmed and quieted my soul…
Psalm 131:2 ESV
How often have we been tempted to tell someone to be quiet? Noise can be annoyingly intrusive. Maybe there’s someone having a loud conversation on their mobile that could be heard around the room. There’s a child that won’t stop crying and the parents just ignore it. There are kids playing music so loud you can feel the beat. The neighbours are having a party and it’s midnight. Someone goes by on a motorbike that would wake the dead. Why, oh why won’t all these people just be quiet?
But notice that instead of telling other people to be quiet, David is telling his soul to be quiet. We think of the need to be calm but how often do we tell ourselves to stop the internal noise and shouting that is going on in our minds?
In the Psalm, David proceeds his quieting of his soul by telling us that he’s not conceited and that he’s not looking down on others. Why? It sounds a bit conceited to say that you are not conceited. Has he been having to deal with the self-important and it’s got him upset and agitated? It could be – and nowadays we can see people strutting their stuff and proclaiming their arrogance across our screens, or in our papers, and it may well upset us too.
He also says he’s ‘not involved in things too big or too difficult for me’ (v.1). Whatever that meant for him, for us there are plenty of things that are beyond us – can we solve climate change, can we sort our economy and social difficulties extant in our world today, or sort out the Middle East conflicts? We can find ourselves very disturbed by the barrage of problems that come our way through the media, or even the disputes between neighbours down our road, or in the workplace.
What does David do about the people who are upsetting him and the issues that are disturbing him and causing the noise in his soul? David’s solution to his agitation is to calm down and to quieten his soul. He concludes the Psalm by saying ‘Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.’ (v.3 NIV).
Now that’s good advice – and it still holds up today for us all. Trust in God, know that Jesus has dealt with and will deal with the proud, with those who consider themselves superior to others, and that nothing is too difficult for him. Hallelujah – we can calm down and quieten the disturbances of our minds as we rest in that knowledge.
Prayer
Father, it’s not always easy to still our minds and trust in you when confronted by the difficult people in our world and the seemingly unsolvable problems, but with your help and guidance, we can learn to be calm and quiet and trusting in this abrasive, noisy and confusing world. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Hilary Buck
About the writer:
Hilary Buck is a minister and pastors the Lewes congregation of Grace Communion International.
Local congregation:
Grace Communion in Lewes
The House of Friendship
208 High Street
Lewes
BN7 2NS
Meeting time:
Sunday 11:00 am
Local congregational contact:
Hilary Buck
Email: lewes@gracecom.church
Like us on www.facebook.com/Grace Communion Lewes
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church