Psalms 131:2. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
That is a very blessed thing to be able to do, to quiet yourself when, like a weaned child, you are crying under the afflicting hand of God, when you feel a proud spirit murmuring, or when you want to pierce the darkness that veils divine truth, and want to understand what cannot be understood, and you worry because you are not omniscient. Oh, it is a blessed thing, then, to say to yourself, "Be quiet, child! Be quiet! " What art thou but a child, after all, at thy best? What dost thou know? What canst thou know? Art thou not satisfied to hear thy Father say, "What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter"? Dost thou not know that here we know but in part, and see but in part? By-and-by, we shall know even as we are known, but not yet. "I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother:"-as a child who sucks his finger, and goes to sleep sobbing "my soul is even as a weaned child." David did not say, "My soul is even as a weaning child," fretting, worrying, wanting to have its own will. There is no happiness in that state; but when it is not the weaning, but the weaned,-not the present participle, but the past,-then we get into comfort: "My soul is even as a weaned child," who has given up his old comfort, that which he thought was as necessary to him as his life. He finds that, after all, he can live without it, and grow without it, and come to a better manhood without it than with it: "My soul is even as a weaned child."
Psalms 131:2. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
That is a very blessed thing to be able to do, to quiet yourself when, like a weaned child, you are crying under the afflicting hand of God, when you feel a proud spirit murmuring, or when you want to pierce the darkness that veils divine truth, and want to understand what cannot be understood, and you worry because you are not omniscient. Oh, it is a blessed thing, then, to say to yourself, "Be quiet, child! Be quiet! " What art thou but a child, after all, at thy best? What dost thou know? What canst thou know? Art thou not satisfied to hear thy Father say, "What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter"? Dost thou not know that here we know but in part, and see but in part? By-and-by, we shall know even as we are known, but not yet. "I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother:"-as a child who sucks his finger, and goes to sleep sobbing "my soul is even as a weaned child." David did not say, "My soul is even as a weaning child," fretting, worrying, wanting to have its own will. There is no happiness in that state; but when it is not the weaning, but the weaned,-not the present participle, but the past,-then we get into comfort: "My soul is even as a weaned child," who has given up his old comfort, that which he thought was as necessary to him as his life. He finds that, after all, he can live without it, and grow without it, and come to a better manhood without it than with it: "My soul is even as a weaned child."