Psalm 131, my heart is not proud, O Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me, but I have stilled and quieted my soul like a young child with its mother. Like a young child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. Short psalm, only three verses, but it's a lot to take in. You can spend your whole life learning the principles of this psalm. He starts by saying he's renounced pride. And then in the next line, he says, I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. Concerning yourself with great matters is an issue of pride. And he says, I don't do that. I don't concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. In other words, I don't worry about things that are above my pay grade. That's what that means. And I hear people say that all the time. Oh, that's above my pay grade. I'm not going to worry about that. People don't want to make hard decisions or take on the headaches of the people who are one or two pay grades above them in their job. Those people are getting paid the big bucks because they have hard decisions and the major headaches and big responsibilities, and those aren't my responsibilities. That weight doesn't rest on my shoulders, and so why would I rack my brain on all those hard decisions? I don't have any power to do anything about it anyway. I'm not in a position, I don't have the information I need, I don't have the power to carry out any decisions, so why would I waste my brain cells trying to figure out how to solve some hard problem that's not mine to worry about. So if you come to me with that and say, ah, that's above my pay grade, I'm not going to worry about it. People understand that in many areas, which is why that saying, above my pay grade, exists. And yet, those same people will fret and worry and get tied all up in knots and announce all their opinions about United States foreign policy, or economic policy, or tax policy, or every other issue in the government, things that people spend their whole lives studying and everything. That's not above my pay grade, right? I mean, what is that? That's pride. That's arrogance. For me to go around saying, giving pronouncements about things that I don't have any information about, I'm not studied in, I don't have any power to deal with, why would I think my opinion on those things matters? That's pride. But it's not the worst kind of pride. There's an even more extreme, much more extreme kind of pride that wants to weigh in on how the universe is being run and whether certain things should be allowed or disallowed by divine providence at any given moment. Providence should let this happen, not that happen. That is arrogance, and we do that. In our pride, we will go around, we'll give our opinion about whether this thing should have happened, that thing should have happened, whether we'll weigh in on the weather, it's too hot, it's too cold, it shouldn't be windy today, whatever. We'll give God advice on how things should go in our lives, what our future should be. We'll get mad at Him if He does it the wrong way. That's not above my pay grade, right? Is that within my realm? I mean, surely we have all the information we need to make those kind of decisions, and surely we have all the power that we would need to carry out our opinions about running the universe, right? Surely our hearts are righteous enough and pure enough to be the ones to call all those shots, right? What kind of arrogance is it to fret about how providence is being carried out? And by the way, those sarcastic questions I just asked are basically a summary of God's response to Job at the end of the book of Job. When Job starts questioning what God has done and how he's running things, God basically, at the end of the book, just reads, starting in chapter 40 of Job, just asks him a bunch of questions like, where were you when I created the universe, Job? You're so smart, you're so wise and learning, you've been around so long. Surely you remember when I created the universe, right? You've got all that figured out, don't you, Job? If you ever start getting worried about how God is running things, just read Job 40. See, in small matters, we usually know when we're out of our depth, when something's over our head. But in the most massive, incomprehensible matters of the universe, we think we know better than God. Why do we worry and fret about things that are happening outside of our control? Why do we worry about the future? It's because of pride. because of pride. We imagine ourselves kings and queens who should be the ones who are in charge of everything. And it gets us all worked up with anxiety because we don't have the power or the wisdom or the goodness to be in that position. When it comes to the way God is running the universe, or your life, or for that matter, the way the government is running this country, or anything else that's above your pay grade, Psalm 131 is such good advice. Still and quiet your soul and don't concern yourself with matters too wonderful for you, things that are above your pay grade. Instead, be like a little child in his mother's arms. Rest in God. Put your hope in Him. Let all your anxieties just melt into Him as He holds you and you trust Him to be God.