Well, we're glad you're here tonight. Nice to see you all. Thank you for coming. So would you open your Bibles please to Psalm 131. Psalm 131. And here's what the psalm says. It's a song of ascents of David. So this is the psalm that was written by 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've 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. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your precious word. This is an interesting psalm. It's a small thing, but it's potent. And I pray that you would allow your spirit to minister to us, Lord, tonight in light of this text, and we'll thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. We come now to a small little three-verse psalm, but this is a powerful psalm. Charles Spurgeon said, it's one of the shortest psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn. We need this psalm. We need the challenge that comes from the psalm. We need the comfort that's found in the psalm. Every one of us needs to be weaned away from every source of pride that would put a breach in our relationship with God. And that is exactly what this psalm is designed to do. Pride is a subtle and sneaky enemy. creeps in as quietly as a snake and it can do poisonous damage to our spirituality and to our relationship with the Lord. The pride of life is a spirituality killer. And if we don't stay on top of things in our own relationship with the Lord, it is a threat to us all. You know there are times when we can get so caught up in trusting something other than God and get proud of it. We can trust in a dollar, we can save and invest and have a few positive things happen financially, we become so full of ourselves. But the truth is we can hoard and store it and be proud of it and in the end it will melt away and it will be gone in an instant. Or we can trust in a person. We can say fully on trusting the Lord, I'll trust in a person. They seem to be so positive in my life, and that person will fail you. We can trust in ourselves and fall into the trap of self-exaltation. We want to be appreciated. We want to be seen. We want to be known. People can actually manipulate themselves into public positions, not necessarily because they want to do the will of God, They can do that because of a motive of secret, secret pride. Well, Psalm 31 is against that. Psalm 31 is a Psalm of David. If ever there were a man who could be proud of accomplishment and achievement, it was David. One of the most dramatic stories in all the Bible that people still talk about today is a story that pertains to his life. I mean, he single-handedly walked out into the middle of a valley, the Valley of Elam. On one side, you have the Israelis. On the other side, you have the Philistines. Thousands of eyes are on him. This giant is mocking Israel. No one dares make a move. And out walks David, and he drops him, and he kills him. He eventually became a powerful, exalted king. I mean, if ever there were a man who could have relished achievement and just enjoyed it, it was him. But David learned a great secret. What makes one a giant spiritually? It's the secret of humility. And Psalm 131 is a psalm on that theme. Now Psalm 131 describes the kind of life and the kind of existence that one has who's really right with the Lord. There's no mincing words in this. There's no difficult things to realize here. There does seem to be a connection between Psalm 130 and Psalm 131, and the connection is, O Israel, O Israel, hope in the Lord. We saw that in the 130th Psalm, in the 7th verse. It shows up here in the 131st Psalm, in the 3rd verse. In Psalm 130, we saw this writer crying out to God for forgiveness. He'd been in the depths of sin and he was waiting for the deliverance that would come from God to his soul. the believer fails, he cries out to the Lord, and he gets that cleansing grace, and what we see now is the result of that cleansing grace. It didn't make him proud, it humbled him. And that's the thing to see here. Because one who's truly right with the Lord sees themselves this way. The point of this psalm is, when one experiences the forgiveness of God, and is in a right relationship with God, it will manifest itself in certain humble realities that will demonstrate that point. People right with God manifest traits that demonstrate their right with God. These are not phony traits. These are real. And what is described here is one who really is in a right relationship with God. This person is, as it were, firing on all cylinders in their walk with God. What you get a glimpse of in this little short psalm is mature spirituality. Obviously, the one writing it fears the Lord, and he has a right perspective of things. Now, it's difficult to write about humility. There's a humorous account of somebody who wanted to write about his own humility, and he needed to choose a title for his book. So he narrowed it down to three choices, humility and how I attained it, how I became very humble, and me and my humility. He decided on the last title. Then he mailed to the publisher 12 full-length pictures of himself with no one else included in the book, just pictures of himself. And he thinks he's going to produce a book on humility. Well that is not going to work. Humility is a very, very difficult subject to discuss because most of the time, the moment we start discussing it, we don't have it. But David did have it. David was honest in what he's writing here. He did have this humility he's writing of. And this psalm is a psalm of genuine humility. We do not know what prompted David to write it. Maybe, if we connect it to the previous psalm, although the previous psalm doesn't say it was written by David, but it's possible in the aftermath of him experiencing the remarkable forgiveness of God, he wanted to just describe what was going on inside him, and he wanted to just write about being right with the Lord. And I want you to notice how the psalm begins. O Lord, O Yitwa. Don't jump over that proper noun. Because David begins realizing, I'm talking to the sovereign God here. I'm standing before the sovereign, I am, covenant God of Israel, who's capable of doing anything he wants to do. David knows that this God knows him. David knows that this God sees his heart. David begins by realizing that I'm in a relationship with a glorious, sovereign, self-existing God. And by thinking about that, oh Lord, just that, that should be enough to humble any of us. Now, there are multiple passages that make it very clear from both the Old Testament and the New Testament that pride will ruin a relationship with God. Pride will always be a barrier to a relationship with God. You can be proud if you want, but you won't have a close relationship with God. It can't be. The Word of God is clear on that point. Psalm 138.6, God is near the lowly, not the proud. Proverbs 18.12, pride is the fast way to destruction. Humility is the way to honor. Isaiah 57.15, God is with the contrite and lowly of spirit. First Peter 5.5, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And James 4.10, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. So there's no possible way that anybody can have a right relationship with God if they're proud. There's no place for pride in a relationship with God. Just that proper noun, oh Lord, just think about who this is here, kind of smacks the pride right out of you. Now there are five realities that are brought out in this psalm that are evidenced by one right with God. First of all, my heart is not proud. That's what he says. David writes, my heart is not proud. We are challenged in the New Testament to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord. Paul challenges that in Romans. We are challenged to crucify ourselves. And one of the first things that we have to crucify if we're going to be right with God is pride. Pride. Make that the priority. Get that out. A lot of other things fall into place. The word pride here, Geba in Hebrew, refers to one who magnifies himself or holds himself up as some mountain and tower that he really isn't. It refers to someone who wants the highest part even of his own heart. Proud people want to be seen as big and important. And they don't even care if God's looking at them. That's the way they want to be seen. They're always looking and comparing, and they're always competing, and they're never content with who they are. They're never content with what they have. They're always trying to outdo somebody else. They want to be on top. I read a story of a minister who preached a message on pride, and a woman came to him after the service and said, I am in total distress after hearing that. I need to confess sin. The minister said, well, what sin do you need to confess? She said, the sin of pride. She said, for the last hour, I've sat in church admiring my own beauty. The minister said, your sin's not the sin of pride. It's lying imagination. But the truth is, the principle is to the point. And that is, people desire to be at the top. They always want to be at the top. And that's nothing but pride. And if you see what is actually in your heart, Doesn't it worry you that we may face Jesus Christ soon? Are you really that on top of your game? That you're ready to do that? I mean, have you got it all together? Are you firing on all cylinders in your heart so there's no threat here if the Lord raptures us tonight? Do you have room for pride? If we see what's in our heart honestly, there's nothing of which to be proud. David wasn't. He didn't see a thing in his heart that was worthy of pride. He was not high. He was exalted in his heart. He said, my heart is not proud. Being a proud person or an arrogant person or being loudly self-opinionated or having some lofty view of self that lacks humility proves there's a lack of spirituality. One who thinks and acts this way does not have the peace of God, nor really is at peace with himself. You know, the problem is we live in a world that is proud and arrogant. In fact, we live in a world that tends to glorify and reward selfish, arrogant, self-elevated people. But you can know this from the word of God. Nobody will be honored or rewarded by God who is proud. God hates pride. His word is filled with passage after passage that says, it's an abomination to me. When we think about who we actually are and think about God, who he actually is, my heart is not proud. The second reality is my eyes are not haughty. My eyes are not haughty. We read, nor my eyes haughty. I want you to go to Proverbs chapter 6. Just go right in your Bible a few pages to Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 16. These are things God hates. I mean, these are things that are an abomination to God. I want you to think in terms of this. These are things God hates. They're an abomination to Him. He says in verse 16, these are six things which the Lord hates. He has seven which are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes is at the top of the list. Haughty eyes. And then he says next, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans. I mean, but at the top of the list is haughty eyes. You know, there are certain people, they walk around like a peacock. And you see it. They're not fooling anybody. You see it. They have that look. They're arrogant. They're proud. They're not humble and contrite people. Pride's a problem of the heart, but often you can see it in somebody's eyes. The word haughty is one that means have eyes that are lofty, lifted up, raised up. And there are two ways you can detect a person who's full of pride. Number one, by their eyes, how they look. And number two, by their speech, what they say. Not hard to pick them. Not hard to see them for what they are. There are people who do literally walk around with haughty eyes. There are people who look proud. They strut around like they are proud. They're full of themselves. They're puffed up. They're bloated. But they're not right with God. They never can be right with God. Because God hates haughty eyes. And he will not deal with anybody who has a proud heart. It's the biggest reason people are lost. It's their pride. They're not about to admit they're a sinner who can't measure up to the righteousness of God. They're not about to admit that they've fallen short of the glory of God. They need a savior because they can't save themselves. They're too proud to admit that. But get before the Lord, not having believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and pride will send one to hell. Which brings us to the third reality. I don't involve myself in things too difficult for me. I love this in verse one. Nor do I involve myself in great matters or things too difficult for me. See, that's what pride does. Pride makes you think you can do it all and you're good at everything. That's what pride will do. David did not involve himself or occupy himself with ambitions and schemes that were impossible for him to achieve. He knew himself. He didn't think more highly of himself than he ought. For example, when he even went out and fought Goliath, he knew he couldn't go out there with those weapons of Saul. He said, I'm good with a sling and stones. Let me use that. That's what I'm skilled at. I practice with that. Let me use that. David did not involve himself in things he knew nothing about. There are people who want you to think they know everything about everything. Met them? Have you met them? They want you to think they are the authority on every possible topic imaginable. David had no problem admitting there are things I don't know. David had no problem admitting there are people more skilled in certain areas than me. He had no problem saying they have more knowledge in a field than I have. He didn't involve himself in things too difficult for him. Now, one commentator said, we do need to identify what this does not mean. This doesn't mean we should be faint-hearted. It doesn't mean we should be spineless or mousy or unwilling to take on great challenges. The missionary William Carey, who's called the father of modern missions, preached a message in England in 1792 that he entitled, Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. So this is not some admonition to cowardice. It's estimated that his Bible translation work provided Bibles for 300 million people. So this is not a challenge that you never step out by faith and take some chances. But the emphasis of this text is, don't become so proud that you start dabbling in things you don't know a thing about. Don't be so arrogant that you think you can figure it out. You don't need anybody else's help. Know your limitations. Think of yourself honestly and accurately, not more highly than we should. There are some people, David obviously knew them, who are so arrogant and proud they think they know everything about everything. There are people so haughty that they think they can micromanage everyone and everything. They don't even know what they're talking about. It doesn't matter. They just want you to think they know what they're talking about. They just run off their mouths. This kind of person tries to take control of any situation, any conversation, any organization. They want the center stage. There are people after the limelight. They don't even know what they're talking about most of the time, but they want you to believe they do. David said, I don't operate like that. I'm not some proud person who dabbles in things that I know nothing about. I'm humble enough to admit the truth. Someone does a great job and others think they can do it. And I do think there's a real application here to biblical things. There are people who, they make themselves self-proclaimed teachers and they can lead these discussions when they have no idea what they're even doing. You know, that's why James said, don't be many among you teachers, knowing you're going to receive a stricter judgment. There are people who say, oh, I can do that. I got my Bible. I can do it just as good as anybody else. No, you can't. No, you can't. We all have skills. We all have abilities. We all have different talents that have been given to us by the Lord. And David was not the kind of guy who said, I'm going to involve myself in something that's way over my head. He knew what his limitations were. That's what honest humility does, you see. Honest humility before the Lord is not afraid to say, I don't know. Honest humility before the Lord is not willing to say, you know what, that person probably knows more in that field than I do. That's truthfulness, and that's the way David was. One who's right with the Lord recognizes God gives different skill sets to different people in different areas, and they're not ashamed or afraid to admit that. But you see, pride won't let somebody admit it. Pride always wants to be on top. They want to take charge. They want you to think that they're at a high level, when in fact, it's all just a proud, arrogant heart that's causing it. Which brings us to the fourth reality, he composed and quieted his soul, verse two. He says, 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. Watch it and notice the emphasis on I have composed, I have quieted my soul. How'd he do that? How'd he quiet down his soul? By being humble. You'll never quiet down your soul by being proud. Stick your nose in areas where you shouldn't stick your nose and just meddle in things you don't know anything about. You'll not have a quiet soul. It was his relationship with the Lord based on truth that quieted him down. The composed soul means he had a smooth, even level character. Quieted soul means he was free from turbulence and chaos. He just was quiet. I love the illustration he uses. To accomplish this humility where you're not proud is a weaning process. I love that illustration. It's a weaning process. You have to wean yourself away from your pride. In a weaning process, the child breaks the dependency on the mother. And that's what you have to do to have spirituality. That's what you have to do to arrive at a relationship with the Lord that's wonderful. You have to break the dependency of pride in yourself. You have to wean yourself off that. Dr. Gabeline said, when a soul is weaned from all discontentment, ambition, self-seeking, pride, and selfishness, Your soul is quiet and it does have rest. Some of the people who can't sleep at night, some of them, the reason they can't sleep is their pride. They'll never get a good night's rest because they won't humble themselves to the Lord. Which brings us to the fifth reality. His hope is always forever in God. Now watch what he says in verse three. Oh Israel. Israel Israel if you would just Walk away from your stinking pride Israel if you would just humble yourself tonight tonight humble yourself to Jesus Christ and Trust in him trust in the Lord Hope in him you could have that quieted down spirit and Oh Israel. And David is clear to say, my hope is not in me. My hope is in the Lord. And that's what Israel needs to know. They need to understand that. Israel longs to be seen and esteemed as the nation of God. One day she will be seen as the nation of God. But it's going to take the tribulation to break her pride. Oh Israel. She's just too haughty. She won't admit she does not have the righteousness to get into that kingdom that only Christ can give her. And David knew about that. What Israel needs to know is we need to stop fretting and stop being proud and start trusting in the Lord because that's where we find peace and rest. I leave us with four practical lessons from this little potent psalm tonight. The first one is keep on the alert for any type of pride that creeps into our life and snuff it out immediately. Be on the lookout for anything that would be prideful because, and here's the reason, it'll ruin our relationship with God. That's the biggest reason. Not only won't we have peace and tranquility, it'll just ruin our relationship with the Lord. I hope in these days, and these are the days to be doing it because we are seeing the stage set for, I believe, the rapture of the church. I hope you're talking to the Lord about your heart. I hope you are privately, in prayer, talking to the Lord about your heart. That He would make your heart an award-winning heart. Because you won't do it yourself, nor will I. God can do it. I hope that's pretty much a daily prayer. Lord, I want to win. I want to get before You and be a winner. And in order for me to do that, I need You to work in my heart. And one of the things that needs to get knocked out of my heart is any pride. Pride that will not submit to You. Pride that will not submit to Your Word. Pride that would puff myself up. Get rid of it. I don't want it. Be on the lookout for anything that's proud that you get pride in your own life and get before God and get it out of there quickly. Secondly, we need to realize our limitations. Don't think more highly of ourselves than we ought. I've told this illustration before, but when we were out West, there was a guy in the church who was talking to people about hunting elk in the mountains. And I had put in some time in those mountains and had done quite a bit of elk hunting. And as he was talking to these people, I'm thinking, he's saying things that don't even make sense for mountain hunting. It's like he's just trying. He's got this little group around him. He's talking. So I stepped into the conversation and said, how many hunts have you actually gone on in the mountains? He goes, well, I haven't gone on any. Here he was lecturing people because he wanted them to think he was somebody important. He hadn't even been in the mountains in Hunted Elk. He's trying to lecture people on how to do it. Listen, we need to realize our limitations. Know what you can do, admit what you can't do. Don't be afraid to say that person's more skilled at it than me. That person can do a better job than I can. That's wisdom. Thirdly, we need to allow God to wean us away from any pride or limelight mentality. We need God to wean us away. Ask Him to do it. And finally, we need to know that oftentimes the turmoil that's in our own lives is due to our own pride. That's what David found out. He said, so my heart is not proud, my eyes are not haughty. That's what is taught in Psalm 131. There's a lot in that little Psalm, isn't there? That's Psalm 131.