Hope in the Lord

Heavenly Father speak to us today by your living Word that we might know you better and learn to love you more. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Ramzi's been unwell so you have me instead this evening. Earlier we read Psalm 36 but we're going to take a look at another Psalm, a little gem – Psalm 131. Please find that on p519 in the Bibles. It's very short. Let me read it to you. Psalm 131:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;my eyes are not raised high;I do not occupy myself with thingstoo great and too marvellous for me.But I have calmed and quietened my soul,like a weaned child with its mother;like a weaned child is my soul within me.O Israel, hope in the Lordfrom this time forth and for evermore.

A long time ago, when he was a bit older than I am now, my dad had heart trouble. He was given an extraordinary operation that transformed his health for years to come. Maybe I should arrange another check-up! The truth is that the condition of our physical heart matters. And the state of our spiritual heart matters even more. Even if hope fades from a physical point of view as you get older, spiritually there's always hope of a return to health, however bad things are at the moment, whether we're eighteen or eighty.

So, regular check-ups are vital. And Psalm 131 gives us just such a check-up. It gives us a great opportunity to take our spiritual pulse as we approach this coming momentous autumn season. Because here's a picture of someone who is spiritually healthy. And it comes with an invitation to get spiritually healthy ourselves, and a simple, powerful prescription as to how to do that. The heading tells us that these are the words of David – the great King of Israel. It's a picture of a healthy spiritual heart and soul and mind. Do you remember how Jesus talked of what makes a healthy life? He was quizzed about what is the most important command of God. He said (this is Mark 12.29-30):

The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's the key to eternal health. And if you want to know what that looks like, Psalm 131 isn't a bad place to start. Here's a picture of a heart and soul and mind focussed on God. God is right at the centre, so the heart is healthy.

I've tried to summarise the three marks of spiritual health that this wonderful little Psalm challenges us to look for in our own lives in my three headings. First, 'A Heart that's not Haughty but Humble'. Secondly, 'A Soul that's not Dissatisfied but Peaceful'. And thirdly, 'A Mind that's not Ambitious but Hopeful'. As we go through these, take your own spiritual pulse, measured against these benchmarks. And on the safe assumption that we're all unhealthy in one way or another, we'll also see how the gospel of Jesus heals our wounds, cures our diseases and gives us the health we need.

First, A Heart that's not Haughty but Humble. Verse 1:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;my eyes are not raised high;I do not occupy myself with thingstoo great and too marvellous for me.

So the contrast here is between pride and humility. Pride is the supremely dangerous, deadly spiritual heart disease. It is arrogance founded on our own achievements or status or possessions. It tries to rob God of the glory and honour that belong to him alone. When I am proud, I worship myself rather than worshipping God. I become the centre of my life, and God is relegated to the margins. I derive my sense of my own identity and worth from what I have done, or what I have, or from my position of superiority in relation to other people. I become my god. And there is also a kind of inverse pride that says, 'I'm worthless because I haven't achieved enough, I don't have enough stuff, I have no standing in the world.' The value system is the same: what really counts is achievement or status or wealth. I am still my god. It's just that I'm a failed god.

A right kind of humility, on the other hand, is not at all a grovelling subjection to other people, or hero worship, or obsession with our own failures. It is measuring who we are against God, and not in comparison with other people. He is the maker and ruler of the universe, not us. Everything revolves around him, not us. He is not at our beck and call, there to fulfil our every whim. We depend on him. Utterly. Just like everyone else. And that cuts us down to size. It also gives us the tremendous dignity that comes from knowing that we belong to God, and he made us.

So what does David mean here when he says, 'I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me'? He's not saying we should be lazy and complacent and not bother about trying to do anything useful. He's not saying we should have no vision for trying to change things. He's not saying we shouldn't watch the news and read the papers and get involved in issues other than our own domestic lives. This man became King. He spent his days dealing not only with his own family, but also with national governance and international relations. It would not have been godly for him to say to his staff, 'I can't be bothered with any of that any more – I'm just going to potter about the garden.' That would have been a dereliction of his God-given duties and responsibilities.

No, what he means is that he leaves to God what is God's business. He doesn't pretend to understand all that God is doing or will do. He doesn't imagine he has divine powers. God is in the driving seat, not him – and that's just as well. He makes his plans as best he can. But he knows full well that God will surprise him and things won't turn out the way he imagines. And that's OK, because he trusts God to do God's job.

Now King David was a long way from being perfect, and there were times when his life was far from healthy. But nonetheless, God contrasts David with Saul, the King before him. The prophet Samuel says to Saul (this is 1 Samuel 13.14):

But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.

David at his best is a fine example of humility. But the supreme example is Jesus. The apostle Paul holds Jesus up before us and says in Philippians 2:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing …he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

That's why the gospel is the antidote to pride. If you've been taking your spiritual pulse as I've been speaking, and realised that pride is still alive and well in your heart, then look again at Jesus. As we keep looking at him, our pride begins to melt away. As Paul puts it in Romans 3.27:

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.

What is your sense of worth built on? Do you look at your career and see how much further up the ladder you've got than others and say to yourself in the secret places of your heart, 'Look what I've done'? Do you contemplate your exam results and think, 'I'm pretty good'? Do you think to yourself, full of self-pity, 'I'm useless because they've done better than me'? Do you look at your bank statements and your investments and think to yourself, 'Look how much I'm worth'? Or 'One day I'll be rich and then I'll be OK'? Do you look down on others who are regarded as less significant in our society?

These are some of the symptoms of this deadly heart disease of pride. The remedy is to get close to Jesus. That's a humbling place to be. The Lord is looking for people whose hearts are not haughty but humble before him. That's the first part of this spiritual health check.

Secondly, A Soul that's not Dissatisfied but Peaceful. Verse 2:

But I have calmed and quietened my soul,like a weaned child with its mother;like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Pride is a persistent enemy and it always leads to dissatisfaction. We can never have enough, or achieve enough, or get enough glory to satisfy its lust for more. So there's always a gnawing dissatisfaction in the souls of the proud. That's something that we have actively to resist and fight against, as we recognise it within us. There is such a thing as a godly dissatisfaction, which is dissatisfaction with sin in the world around us and in our own lives. That helps to motivate the struggle for holiness, and that's good. If we're not dissatisfied with the sin in our lives, then we're dangerously complacent. But that's not what we're talking about here.

Our very sin plants within us ungodly desires. Those desires, when unfulfilled, make us dissatisfied. If they do get fulfilled, we discover that the sense of fulfilment is fleeting and we need more, so the dissatisfaction with our lives returns and deepens. David knew all about that. But he fought it. His struggle is reflected in that first phrase of verse 2: 'But I have calmed and quietened my soul…' It didn't just happen automatically. Contentment flows from a Holy-Spirit-empowered struggle against ungodly desires.

You can compare David here with his much loved but rebellious son Absalom. Absalom always wanted more – to the point where he sought to overthrow his father and take his throne. 2 Samuel 15 describes how Absalom conspired against his father the King, and (I quote) 'stole the hearts of the men of Israel'. David and his entourage had to flee Jerusalem, his capital city. David said:

Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.

There's a plan gone awry, if ever there was. That wasn't in the vision statement, to be sure. So how did David react? As he fled out into the desert, he sent the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God's presence, back to Jerusalem, and he said to the leaders around him:

If I find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. But if he says, 'I have no pleasure in you', behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.

That's a man who has struggled through to a peaceful soul, like a toddler walking quietly beside his mother, hand in hand, knowing that if he needs something, his mother will provide it in good time. You might say I must have completely forgotten what its like to have a toddler. But you mustn't stretch the analogy too far, and those moments do happen. And that's the image David uses in our Psalm:

like a weaned child with its mother;like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Once again, the supreme example of such peace is Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing he was about to die, Jesus said:

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

How do we get that kind of peace in our own lives, in place of the dissatisfaction that chews away at us all too often? We get it from the gospel. We get it by faith in Jesus. Romans 5.1 says:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And before he died Jesus said to his disciples:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Peace, not an ungodly dissatisfaction, is the mark of a disciple. A heart that's not haughty but humble. And a soul that's not dissatisfied but peaceful. Then there is a third mark of spiritual health here, which is my final heading:

Thirdly, A Mind that's not Ambitious but Hopeful. Verse 3:

"O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and for evermore."

What's the alternative to putting your hope in the Lord? It is to put your hope in your own plans. Ambition is a powerful personal drive towards achieving certain important goals that you've set yourself. If those goals are self-centred, and their achievement becomes the central aim of life, then ambition is a negative and dangerous thing. It is selfish ambition. The Bible says (this is Philippians 2.3):

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit.

There is nothing wrong with setting goals and making plans if they're God-centred, and directed to his glory and the extension of his kingdom. But that kind of Godly ambition is very different to selfish ambition. If your hope is in God, then your destination is certain but how you're going to get there is very uncertain and it is in God's hands.

We can have the certain hope that every detail of God's plans will be accomplished. We know that he's planned a new heaven and a new earth filled to the brim with his people, rescued from death and hell through the death of Jesus. That's as good as done. What we don't know is exactly how he's going to make it happen and who he's going to use to do what. We just have to go for it, do everything we can in his service, and leave the rest to him. And not concern ourselves with 'things too great and too marvellous' for us.

We need minds that are not ambitious in the selfish sense, but absolutely confident of God's promises, and content to leave the detailed working out to him. We just need to make ourselves available to him. That's a lesson that King David at his best had learned well. He wanted to build the temple. God said, 'No, I'll do it in my own time.' David fell in line. He knew that his life was totally at God's disposal to do with what he wanted. David's son Solomon did not learn so well. He allowed his own desires to overwhelm his faith in God. Obedience turned to disobedience. Hope turned to selfish ambition. 1 Kings 11.4:

For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Yet again, the supreme example of the triumph of hope over ambition is in the life of Jesus. Do you remember how he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness? Matthew 4.8-10:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

In the nineteenth century many, many missionaries went to the far corners of the globe, no doubt with minds full of what they could accomplish for God, and visions of great work. Thousands of them died before they could do anything much at all. Their plans fell flat. God's plans did not. In his own miraculous way he took up their seemingly pointless sacrifice and in the longer term brought about the greatest spread of the gospel the world has ever known. They died with their own plans in tatters, but with a God-given hope in their hearts. And where does that hope come from? From the gospel. The apostle Paul speaks in his letter to the Colossians (1.5-6) about…

… the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing …

We need minds that are not full of selfish ambition but overflowing with the hope of the gospel of Christ. The Lord can and will use us for his plans and his purposes – in ways beyond our wildest dreams – if we are men and women after his own heart, as David was. For all his many failures, in the end David was not haughty and dissatisfied and full of selfish ambition. His was a heart that was humble and peaceful and hopeful.

'Hope in the Lord,' he says to us across the centuries. 'Hope in me,' the Lord says to us today, through David. Love him with all your heart and soul and mind – with a heart that's not haughty but humble, a soul that's not dissatisfied but peaceful, and a mind that's not ambitious but hopeful.

What diseases of the heart have you identified in yourself as you've applied this penetrating little spiritual health check to your own life? Heart disease is dangerous. It is the gospel of Jesus that heals our wounds, cures our diseases and gives us the health we need. Let's pray:

Lord God our heavenly Father, help us by your Holy Spirit at work in us to have hearts that are humble, souls that are peaceful, and minds that are hopeful. In Jesus' name, Amen.