Turn with your Bibles. Turn with me there in your Bibles. Psalm 131, Song of Ascents of David. O Lord, My heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty, nor do I involve myself in great matters or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever. When asked to preach these next two Lord's Day evenings, I considered and meditated for quite some time on what I would unfold to you that would be of some benefit. And I rested on these two few psalms for the next two evenings, Psalms, Songs of Ascent. While this particular psalm, 131, is quite short and you could say simple, its message for us is nevertheless very difficult to internalize and make our own, to lay up in our hearts and practice in our lives. And as such, it's a message that we ought to confront ourselves constantly with in order to follow God's word. And so it's with great benefit that we hear this word of God tonight. The context of the psalm, as I mentioned, or in reading it, is a psalm of ascent, and it's also of David, I'll come back to that context. But in these multiple contexts, God speaks to us as well. And it asks, I think, what does this psalm mean for you? And perhaps you hear this psalm. I know I feel this way when we sing it together, that I desire the sort of peace and comfort and solemnity and stillness and joy that this psalm brings. I say, God, I want peace in my heart. And I'm reminded of the tumultuous storm that Jesus calmed when he said, peace and be still. And that's what I want for you, because this psalm really gets to the mountains and the valleys of the human heart, because tonight we're talking about pride and humility. Our greatest hopes and expectations and fears, therefore, are all bound up in it. And yet, the message I have and that God's Word has for you tonight is simple, and it's this. Do not be proud, but humble, and so hope in God. Those are my three points, too. So, easy to follow along, I hope. And here we go into the first point. Do not be proud or prideful. This is really what we hear in verse one. O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty, nor do I involve myself, literally go walking in, great matters or things too difficult or marvelous Now, the expression is often translated, I don't lift my eyes too high, they are not exalted, and obviously this is not literal. Jesus prayed in Gethsemane with his eyes toward heaven. And he had no sin, of course. But this is the sort of figurative flash of pride that's in the eye's boasting of great things. Like a son whose eyes speak defiance toward his father or mother. Like a child who visits evil upon their sister or brother and cannot bear to eke out the words I forgive you, or will you forgive me, or I'm sorry, or any such thing. This is about pride living in the human heart. A proud heart and haughty eyes. Now, Proverbs 21 mentions to us that haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin. And I thought I'd start there with this because The lamp, we know from Psalm 119 that what's a lamp for us? The word of the Lord is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And so there are two ways that this psalm is, that's within the psalm, the way of the proud and the arrogant and the way of the word of the Lord. If you think back to our original fall into sin, oftentimes people will ascribe pride as kind of the sin that's behind all sins, but whether it is or not, in the Garden, Adam and Eve were, without a doubt, full of pride. They had to do sort of two things, and I learned this from Cornelius Van Til. He had to say, as a sinner, they eventually had to say, I know better than God, and also, I am better than God. They had to know better because they had to say, like Eve said, oh, this tree is a delight to the eyes and to be enjoyed. When God said, you shall not eat of the tree, So she thought that she knew better, and it resulted in sin and fall. But they also had to say that they were better, that they actually put themselves on an equal level playing field with God, saying, well, my reason, my ability to test whether this tree is for good or not is of my own being, of my own consideration. Word is just an opinion. And my reason and my experience, I'll put on the same level playing field. And then when they sinned, they said that they were above God. They knew better. They were greater. And these are the sins spoken of when the psalmist says, that's what they want to put off. My eyes aren't haughty. I don't think or move in ways that are too high for me. Pride is our default religion and it's often thought that this was the first sin of Satan as well the angel and We don't know exactly but Paul does say about new converts or new elders Excuse me that they oughtn't be new converts because they could be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil and So perhaps it was pride that took him there. And the question for you really is, do I want to fall like him? Do I want to make my way in life forward as an image of Satan? Because pride lies at the door and he will allow, he will convince you, as it were, to follow his pride just like he followed Adam and Eve to consider that they thought that they knew better and were greater than God. And it sounds far off sometimes when you talk about Genesis or Satan or whatever, but it's easy to fall into resentment every day. To say, I'm too good for this. Why is God bringing me through these things? I'm sick of X, Y, and Z, this person, or that thing, or whatever, and become completely puffed up in your own conceits. I think we all know that, that we tend to undervalue God and therefore undervalue others and raise ourselves above them. So there's this pride of knowing and pride of being, overestimating yourself, and you consider it presumption as well along with this, pride and presumption. And that's especially brought out in these words that I'm not involved in great matters or things too marvelous for me. When we act presumptuously, we are overextending ourselves. And before I get into that, let me just say that this doesn't mean, this text is not telling us, that we shouldn't have ambitions, or goals, or drive, or adventure, or reason to get up in the morning, or to become better, or to run the race, and strive, and win the gold. It's not saying that. But it is saying to know what's within our grasp, and to be content with the boundaries of whatever office or station that God has given us. So, maybe it's just me, but I think about intellectual things probably first. I think about how the Trinity is somewhat of a mystery. There are things that I cannot fully reason through, and yet, the position that I've been given is to say, God, you are great. This is too marvelous for me, and I believe. Also, like in Sunday school this morning, we talked about the decrees of God. How can God decree all things, and yet man is still responsible? That is too high for me, but I know that God has got it handled, and it's up to me to reside in him and to rest in his truth. Because the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children, that we may do the word of the Lord. But that which is not revealed is too high for us. But it's also not merely intellectual, but like I said, the stations that God gives us in life. Imagine, for example, a wife who doesn't like submitting to her husband, but lets him know through little jabs or jibes or slight dissensions that he's not really in charge, that she's really the one who's ruling the roost because her pride won't rest or a child who I had a Child I knew who we actually drew a line for him at a parade Don't go beyond this line and we drew this long line in the dirt all the way across and he ran for a while Alongside the line and then one foot stepped over and then he came back and it's like did he do that on purpose? Of course he did. Of course, because he wanted his parents, he wanted me to know, you have no control over me. I do what I want. And we all do that to God. Or think about a servant who despises his yoke. who says, I don't want to tread the grain, I don't want to do this. Or a father who, in his pride, won't admit to his children that he's sinned before God, and his pride raises him up. I think we can see in all those examples things that we've done, where we've despised our station, and tonight we've said to God, or we know we have in the past said to God, that I won't be anyone's servant, I won't follow anyone's guidelines, I will step on the other side of the line. But there are only two sorts of people, those who are servants of sin, or slaves of sin, and those who are slaves of righteousness. We don't get to decide whether there's another category, there isn't. Jesus, the one who's meek and lowly, says to us, come to me all you are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And then he also says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So if we want to be slaves of righteousness, we take on the yoke of Christ, which doesn't mean we don't do anything, that we have no ambition or goals, or that there's no work for us to do, but it does mean it's a restful work and an abiding in God, and is not prideful. That brings us to the next point. Don't be prideful, but humble. And I want to start this section by talking about what humility isn't. Because as reformed people, we believe in total depravity. We believe that people are corrupt through their whole being. And I would say oftentimes our tendency is to err on the side of thinking everything's bad. And we can be self-deprecating or self-depreciating toward the spirits, the spirit that God gives us, or the gifts that He gives us. Can we really say, like Ephesians 2.10, that God has given us good works, that we've walked in them? Not drawing attention to ourselves, but to the Lord. It's hard because we can often make our own insignificance our pride. Let me give an example. There were once two presbyters who were praying in a public assembly and one of them said, oh Lord, you are great and high and lofty, but I am nothing and I'm worse than the worm and I am lowly, but you are great. And the next presbyter came and prayed likewise. Lord, you are great and I know that I'm nothing and there's nothing that I could ever do to add to you, which is true. But then he says, I'm like the dirt and I'm nothing. And then a third man, a stranger that they had never seen, comes in and prays the same sort of prayer. Lord, you are great and high and exalted. And I know that I'm nothing. And the first and second presbyter are talking. The first one says, who is this man that he also thinks he's nothing? We have a way that we can even make our self-abasement into our pride. I was the first in my family to confess my sin. I'm better, you know? I was the first to do this, or we can take these good things and turn them into pride. And it's foolishness. It would be like an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos, rich, rolling around in tattered clothes, saying, I have nothing, and I'm nothing. It's like, we have the riches of the Almighty God in the person of Jesus Christ living within us, and we want to say that we have nothing? No. And so part of our humility is recognizing what God has done in us. So Paul says, that everyone among you should not think of himself more highly than he ought, but to think with sober judgment. The antidote to pride is a humble estimation of ourselves as we live in Christ. Now, this turns us to the second verse here. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. This word, it kind of reminds me of our Westminster standards when they talk about an act of faith. What is a faith? It says, a receiving and resting upon Christ. This is an active resignation to a life of workful resting in the Lord. It says, God, wean me away from, take me away from the earthly desires to which I'm prone and to which I am immature and make me mature now, make me grown up, make my comfort you and make my peace be in abiding and a trusting in you and resting upon you. So one commentary from Derek Kidner, he writes this. The psalm emphasizes the word weaned, thereby drawing an analogy between the child which no longer frets for what it used to find indispensable, and the soul which has learned a comparable lesson. It is freedom from the nagging of self-seeking, from the bondage of delusive frets and fears. So going back to those examples, or some of them we mentioned earlier, the wife who despises her husband's authority, instead, in humility, has a gentle and quiet spirit of submission. And the child who is running over the line, instead of trying to find the line, instead looks for the obedience that they can grant to their parents. A father who, instead of being too prideful to admit his sins, nevertheless, instead sacrifices his own pride on the altar of God and seeks to walk in the light and says, this is what I've done and I'm willing to move forward. He's got to make hard decisions. Or a family or church, for example, who has to obey the civil magistrate during a very hard time. We ought not fear anything that the Lord commands us to do, but if we really were pushed and pressed to it, the things that God commands us to do, we are often afraid of. And I think if we spend time meditating on those or if you take this home and say, God, what are the things that I'm afraid to do or I won't do or the submissions that you've called me to that I'm not doing? I think that he will reveal those to you through his word. But this humility is a spiritual maturity that were to be weaned away from the deeds of darkness, that remnant nature of Adam that says, I know better and I am better. and were to move to the abiding peace of trusting in Christ. Now, Christ himself had this spirit of humility. And that's what's commended to us, for example, in Philippians 2, where it says, to have this mind among yourselves that is in Christ Jesus, who, although he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, consider it a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing by taking the form of a servant and being found in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death on a cross. So his resignation to trusting in his father went even so far as death. Are you willing to trust in God that way and have that childlike faith that he will bring you through it? One thing that this psalm reminds me of is an old friend of mine who apostatized from the Christian faith and he disliked Psalm 131 and it was in this letter that he wrote as a Rebuke to the church and he said whenever he was having hard questions or going through difficult things people would quote the song and psalm and say well just believe and There's all kinds of evidence against God, but I just want you to believe. That's what he believed. To believe despite the evidence. But that's not what the Christian faith is. If you think that faith is believing something without evidence, you have a feeble faith, or maybe you just misunderstand it. Because Christ, when he rested on the Father in his promise, he had all the evidence in the world to believe that the Father would raise him from the dead. Now, that was in some ways beyond what he could see. But he went to the cross believing and trusting in the Father because he knew the Father's word cannot fail. And unlike Adam in the garden, he didn't consider himself better He didn't think that he knew more than the Father. And we are called to have that same spirit of humility. It doesn't consider ourselves more important than others, but considers ourselves servants, even to the point of death, and that we have faith in Him. Faith is the way to really make sense of our Christian humility and the way that we can rest on God. It's the way of the cross. And the question is, what will you do with that? How will you live in that way? Which leads us to this last point, to not be prideful, but humble and sow hope in God. This last verse is an interesting one because in some ways it could almost feel disconnected from the first two verses, but it's not. It ends with this, And the reason it's not disconnected is because God is our hope. That's why I mentioned Jesus hoping in the Father to raise him from the dead. We have a similar hope that God will accomplish our salvation. It is not our pride. It is not what brings us, ourselves, is not what brings us to heaven, right? It's not what we have done. but it is God's work, and we can show that. We can show the hope of God to the world by our humility. Our humbleness is shown by our humility. excuse me, our hope is shown by our humility. And I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon that there are some contexts to consider. And the first that I wanted to mention was that this is a song of ascents, ascend, you know, up the stairs, as it were. And it's likely that this psalm along with the 15 others were saying as those who were in exile came out of the exile and went back to Jerusalem. Some consider that it may have been the Psalms of priests who were ascending the Temple Mount or the stairs to Jerusalem. In any case, it is about people going away from the presence of God and closer to God. Which is important when we're talking about pride and humility because we have to ask, what right do I have to go into the presence of God, I who have sinned? Solomon asks somewhere, what right do I have to build the Lord a house except for to make sacrifices in it? It's that sort of humility that ought to possess us as we think about what it means to honor God with our humility and to have hope in Him. The other interesting thing about this psalm is that it's attributed to David, or associated with him at least. David doesn't always strike you as the most humble Because he did things that were contrary. He did walk in things too great for himself at times he did take Bathsheba and raised himself against God and Followed his own lusts and his own heart followed the lamp of the wicked But you could also say especially under the Prophet Nathan that David humbled himself afterwards and asked the Lord for a new spirit within him, and that ultimately his hope was in God, and he did rest like a child upon God's mercies. I think also of when he sinned against God, taking the census, and yet he said, God, you choose what vengeance or wrath you bring upon me, but I'll put myself into your hands and not the hands of men. And so David was a very, you know, this humble shepherd, far lowlier than Saul, didn't think to attack the Lord's anointed, but he often made himself nothing, and then in him making himself nothing, God's promises were fulfilled, because God's Word never fails. This also makes me think of Jesus, who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, And he didn't vie for the insubstantial or the temporary or unsatisfactory lust of the life of flesh, but weaned himself constantly from the lesser things to say, like he did, that my food is to do the will of him who sent me. Jesus can be our peace. We can say that with Jesus because we have trusted in him and relied on him. And if you haven't, I would recommend that to you this very night. Because the pride will come before the fall, that there will be a time when we are judged for sin. And the only ones who will make it through that judgment are those who are trusting in the Lord Jesus. Now Jesus, He said constantly things that showed His reliance on the Father. I've come only to do the will of my Father. I've spoken only the words that my Father has given me. that his pleasure is to do the will of his father. And in some ways, I imagine someone today saying, come on, man, be your own person. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, you know, have your own desires, do your own thing, make your own experiences. And it's in a sense, in a very subtle way, commending to him, commending to you the lies of the serpent to know better and to be greater than God. But Jesus rested on the promises of God, and so can you. If you trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, He will bring you there. Who are we to mount the steps? Who are we to ascend into heaven, as it were, or into the temple, or the presence of God? Well, we're nothing, but when Christ has forgiven us of our sins, if we believe on Him and trust in Him for His righteousness and not our own, we are enabled to have a humility that will bring us to heaven, that we can trust in Him. And so, the psalmist tells us tonight, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore which will be shown in your humility. So do not be prideful, but humble. And in that way, hope in the Lord. Let me pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for this scripture. We pray that it would endure within our hearts, that we would show that our hope is not in the things of this world, the lust of the flesh or the pride of life, but that our hope And our humility is found in you, you who live within us and teach us to do good works, to love the light, to love one another. I pray that you would help us to have a greater boldness as your people, that you would move our church closer to your heart and help us to be a light and a salt to a very dark world that lives in pride and haughty eyes and a proud heart. We pray this in the name of our meek and lowly Lord Jesus, who taught us all things. Amen.