I was recently reminded of a chapter of Scripture that has been a long-time familiar friend to me through the years. Counsel from this friend has served me well time and time again. To add another analogy, accepting this counsel has been much like putting on a pair of well-worn shoes. When you put them on you are much more comfortable and the path on which you are walking seems easier to navigate.
This chapter is Psalm 131. It is a psalm of David and song of ascent, a pilgrim song sung by Jews in biblical times while traveling up the steep hill to Jerusalem. It is a psalm of confidence in the Lord’s care. It reads:
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; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore (Psalm 131).
You don’t have to live long before realizing that life is filled with steep hills. We live in a fallen world, daily battling its effects. We struggle with remaining sin. We experience the temptations and attacks of the evil one. Difficulties and trials abound. The path before us is rocky and hard to walk.
If you are like me (and I suspect that many of you are), the challenges and hardships of life in a fallen world can often seem like heavy weights on our shoulders. They can weigh heavily on our hearts. As for me, I can add that I love explanations. I love it when life makes sense. And I love it even more when the circumstances of my life are well controlled. But this is most often not the case.
But there is a lesson in this psalm. When the events of my life are beyond human control and the Lord has chosen not to explain, I can find rest in the arms of the Lord. I can humbly admit that he knows what he is doing and I do not. I can affirm that my hope is rooted not in the events of my life, but in the Lord. And I can calm and quiet my soul in his arms. And so…
When my life takes an unexpected turn, I can rest in the arms of the Lord.
When I am sinned against, I can know peace in the arms of the Lord.
When I look back through the years and am tempted to see only my weakness, failure, and sin, I am assured that I am embraced in the arms of the Lord.
When hardships abound, I find comfort and reassurance in the arms of the Lord.
I have a friend who will walk with me on the steep path of life: a Savior who lovingly and perfectly has planned its course and who cares for me along the way, a Savior who counsels me from his Word to give rest to my soul.
