Welcome to our second episode of teaching talkback, where Renew Church is invited to send in questions in response to Sunday's sermon » (503) 765-5785

In this episode Pastor Jeff fields a question clarifying the imagery of weaned child mentioned by David in Psalm 131, and what that means. Can this metaphor be taken too far? Then we close with an Anti-Psalm, the opposite of Psalm 131, written by David Powlison. Text and links below. 

Psalm 131 (ESV)

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1 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.

2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the LORD

from this time forth and forevermore. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Teaching podcast link: Psalm 131 » Letting the Lord Be King

⁠Youtube livestream⁠

⁠⁠The Anti-Psalm, by David Powlison: 

Self,

my heart is proud (I’m absorbed in myself),

and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people),

and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.

So of course I’m noisy and restless inside, it comes naturally,

like a hungry infant fussing on his mother’s lap,

like a hungry infant, I’m restless with my demands and worries.

I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.

–“Peace, be still”: Learning Psalm 131 by Heart, by David Powlison. Source: The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Volume 18, Number 3, Spring 2000 [PDF]