Rev. Jeremy B. Stopford
May 13, 2018 10:30 AM
TODAY’S FUNNY: “Things Only a Mom Can Teach”
My Mother taught me about ANTICIPATION: “Just wait until your father gets home.”
My Mother taught me to MEET A CHALLENGE: “What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you…Don’t talk back to me!”
My Mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE: “If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.”
My Mother taught me about my ROOTS: “Do you think you were born in a barn?”
My mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: “I brought you into this world, and I certainly can take you out.”
“David’s Hymn to His Mother” (Psalm 131)
INTRODUCTION
As we celebrate this year’s Mother’s Day, I would like to share with you something I learned recently from the Bible! I came across an interesting verse of Scripture. David wrote this prayer in Psalm 86:16, “Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.” It’s a nice prayer: for mercy, for strength, and for God’s salvation to be a part of David’s every day. But what pricked my curiosity roots was the phrase, “son of your maidservant”. Who was David referring to? HIS MOTHER! The other day, I was most surprised to see the expression again, this time in Psalm 116:16, “I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.” David identified his mother as an humble servant of the Lord that David, too, served! We know, from 1 Sam. 16:1 and other places that David’s father’s name is Jesse. But no where in Scripture is the name of David’s mother ever given.
Although anointed to be the next king, David was fleeing from the jealous current King Saul. David writes in 1 Sam. 22:3-4: “[David] said to the king of Moab, “Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?” So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.” So his parents were alive at that time – but his mom is yet unnamed.
I looked up the times that “mother” is used in a psalm written by David. Perhaps he was describing his mother:
Ps. 27:10: “though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”
Ps. 35:13b,14: “When my prayers returned to me unanswered, I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother.”
Ps. 51:5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
These are all good, and may give us an insight into his respect for his mom, and that perhaps at the time of the writing of these psalms she had passed away.
And then we come to the 3 brief verses of Psalm 131. This is entitled an “Ascent Psalm” – a song sung while the worshippers were traveling to the feasts in Jerusalem. The authors to these psalms – Psalm 120-134 – went mostly unnamed except for Psalms 122, 124, 131, and 133 (David) and 127 (Solomon). Let’s take an inside look into Psalm 131. It is possible that this psalm tells us much about the character of David’s mother.
#1 THE NEGATIVE CONCERN (v. 1)
In an October 2011 “Our Daily Bread”, David Roper wrote how he used to be calm that God was in control of the universe. That gave him a hope that God knows what He is doing. Then he came to realize that God is also in control of what He is doing in “me”. When that truth overwhelmed him, imagine the calm that brought to his soul.
Look at all the negative words: “not proud”, “not haughty”, “not concerned with great matters”, “not concerned with things too wonderful for me.” What do you and I usually dwell on? The negative! We usually ask, “HOW on earth will I be able to…(pay a bill) (afford this) (change my schedule) (add an extra responsibility to my schedule which has no margin for anything else)…”. Fill in YOUR blank!
But David is saying my heart is NOT all those things! He is NOT concerned. Why? Because God knows what He is doing, and He alone is worthy of my trust.
So what does this look like? Verse 2 gives us the clue!
#2 THE NOBLE CONTENTMENT (v. 2)
Noble contentment looks like a soul which is both stilled and quieted. Note who does the stilling and quieting – the one who previously was proud, haughty, overly concerned! David says “I have…stilled, quieted my soul”
Sometimes our NIV is a tad limited. Other Bible versions describe it this way: “ceased from fretting” (AMP); “to feel safe and satisfied” (CEV); “I composed and quieted my desires.” (MEV).
I like what The Living Bible says: “my begging has been stilled.”
ILLUSTRATION
Have you ever noticed the check-out counters at most every store you go to, especially the grocery store? There are items that are there for what is known as a “suggestive sale”. A “suggestive sale” is designed to get the shopper who is done with his shopping to buy just one more item. Yet how often is the one who is attractive to that sale not an adult but a child? And how often is that child a cranky, under-rested, very overly-tired child? It starts out by his having a sly smirk and putting the “suggestive sale” item into the shopping cart. You know what happens next! The mother says, “no, please put that back where you found it.” And then they come…the pout, the anger, the shouting, then…the tears. All exaggerated by a most muffled “I want. But mommy I want…”.
This is not an illustration of someone with noble contentment. But the Bible gives the best illustration of all: “like a weaned child with its mother.” The Expanded Bible says, “a relationship with God is like that of a mother with her weaned child, resting comfortably in her arms.”
David may not remember when he was that weaned child. He may be recounting stories that his mother told him, of how contented he would get when under his mother’s nurturing. What a tender picture that is. We all can see it. David was told it. It meant much to him!
And that example stayed with him for when he was an adult, not alone with his mother, but rather alone with his God! He was not proud, haughty, nor overly concerned. Like what he may have been reminded of when growing up with his mother, he had as it were weaned his soul with his heavenly Father. He was quiet. Contented.
This is a beautiful picture. But the psalm doesn’t end here.
#3 THE NATIONAL COMPASSION (v. 3)
David always had a national focus. His vision went from himself to his entire nation. He wanted the nation of Israel to be content! Just like David was in the arms of his mother as a child, and in the arms of his God as an adult, so he longed for his nation to be contented with the Lord alone.
But how was that to be done? One citizen at a time! One contented resident weaned under the matronly tenderness of his Heavenly Father! A nation that is not proud, not haughty, not concerned with great matters. A nation that is stilled and quieted.
What David experienced with his mother and then later as a young shepherd before his God, he so desired his entire nation to follow – both now and forever.
CONCLUSION:
So let’s wrap this up with one more illustration. We are at the check-out counter once again, but this time it is not at a grocery store – it is at the check-out counter of life.
When you stand before the Lord – and we all will – will you have lived a life-long picture of contentment? Will you have been an example of one who, like a weaned child before its loving mother, has found a peace and joy with his heavenly Father alone? Will your joy be in the Chief Shepherd, even in the Lord Jesus?
OR will you be the one who all your life long IS proud, haughty, concerned with greater matters and things too wonderful for you? Will you be the one who never found the personal God worthy of your trust? He who controls the universe is also able to control your soul today, too! Does he?
Let’s give thanks that a simple picture in David’s youth of his being weaned in the arms of his mother could be used to show the contentment the child of God is designed to have with the Lord Himself!
Do you have that contentment?