Psalms 131

Psalms 131:1-3

Psalms 1311. (Psalms 131:1) A Song of Ascents. By David. 0 Jehovah, not haughty is my heart, and not lofty are my eyes, and I meddle not with great (things) and (with things) too wonderful for me. This short psalm is perfectly in David’s manner, as well as his spirit, displaying in a high degree that childlike royalty, in which he is resembled by no other even of the sacred writers. Haughty, literally high, but with particular reference to hauteur or loftiness of spirit. Lofty eyes are mentioned elsewhere by David himself as a sign of pride. See Psalms 18:27; Psalms 101:5.

The elation here described is elsewhere represented as the natural fruit of undisturbed prosperity. See Deuteronomy 32:15, 2 Chronicles 26:16; 2 Chronicles 32:25. This confirms the Davidic origin of the psalm, and shews that it was only adapted by the later writer to his own purpose, when the original conception would have been almost impossible. Meddle, literally walk or walk about, i.e. employ or (as the English versions have it) exercise myself. Too wonderful for me, wonderfully done (more) than I (can comprehend). The great and wonderful things meant are God’s secret purposes and sovereign means for their accomplishment, in which man is not called to co-operate but to acquiesce.

As David practised this forbearance by his patient expectation of the kingdom, both before and after the death of Saul, so he here describes it as a characteristic of the chosen people.

2. (Psalms 131:2) (God knows) if I have not soothed and quieted my soul, as a weaned (child leans) upon his mother; as a weaned (child leans) on me my soul. The first clause contains a strong asseveration, in the idiomatic form of an ancient oath, very feebly represented by our adverb surely. See above, on Psalms 89:35. The word translated soothed means rather smoothed, levelled, as in Isaiah 28:25. Quieted, stilled, hushed, reduced to silence. The repeated use of the preposition on in this connection is so marked and striking, that it seems to make it necessary to supply a verb with which it may be construed.

This is certainly better than to give it a different meaning in the two clauses, or in both one which does not belong to it. In the version above given, the comparison suggested is between a weaned child, quietly reposing on its mother’s breast, without desiring to be suckled as of old, and the soul of the Psalmist, by a bold conception represented as his child, and acting in like manner. Hengstenberg denies that there is any reference to the mother’s milk, or that weaned has any other meaning here than that of infant or young child, as in Isaiah 11:8; Isaiah 28:9. The comparison is then coincident with that in Matthew 18:3-4. But the use of the word weaned, which was here required by no parallelism as in Isaiah, and the singular aptness of the figure suggested by the word when strictly under-stood, have led most interpreters, and will probably lead most readers, to prefer the obvious and strict interpretation.

3. (Psalms 131:3) Hope thou, Israel, in Jehovah from now even to eternity. This is the opposite of the feeling disavowed in the preceding verses. From the first clause that of Psa 130:7 was no doubt borrowed by the later writer, who prefixed that psalm to the one before us. With the last clause compare Psalms 121:8.