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Psalm 131: Contemplation

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Psalm 131: Contemplation Psalm 131: Contemplation Jesus said: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Mt 6:6) Did Jesus practice what he preached? Well, yes. We never read about him locking himself into a private room but we do read about him going into the wilderness (Lk 4:1), getting up before dawn so he could be alone (Mk 1:35), spending a whole night in the mountains alone (Mt 14:23), wandering away from his disciples in Gethsemane so he could pray in solitude (Mt 26:36). Jesus did not tell us how he spent that time. It was private. His intimate communication with God. What we do know, however, is that the book of Psalms was his prayer book. All memorized. Jesus and the disciples were singing psalms on that evening after the last supper (Mk 14:26). And they did not have an LCD projector to remind them of the words. Both Jesus and the disciples quoted the psalms repeatedly, especially the parts that spoke of the Messiah. We have no less than 15 direct quotes by Jesus from the Psalms. We have many, many more quotes by the disciples from the Psalms – some 75 in all1. One website claimed that there are three hundred allusions to the Psalms in the NT. So there is good reason to see the book of Psalms as a key to understanding how Jesus prayed. There is a wide range of forms of prayer in this prayer book and we find all human emotions reflected here: Joy, Sadness, Love, Hate, young exuberance and aged reflectivity. We find praise there and crying out in despair; victory and defeat; people who express their God-given self-worth and people who are broken and beg for mercy and for life itself. So whatever we feel, whatever we want to express towards God, there is always a psalm to fit our situation. Let us now look at a psalm that is all about how we can have intimacy with God. Psalm 131 (NIV) 1 My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. 3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. A note on translation: There tend to be many different translations of any psalm and psalm 131 is no exception. Psalms are poetry and poetry always has multiple layers of meaning. Translators struggle to convey all the meaning that is being communicated. Also, the Hebrew is often very old and it is not unusual to find words there that are rarely found anywhere else in the Bible. I have attempted 1 http://www.jesuswalk.com/psalms/psalms-NT-quotations.htm Johan Velema, May 2016 Theologica.nl Psalm 131 –p.1 my own synthesis based on the Hebrew and a number of different translations. You will see the reason for my choices as we go along. Psalm 131 (my version) Yahweh, not proud is my heart, not arrogant my glance; I do not pursue grand schemes or things beyond my capacity. On the contrary, I have prepared my soul and quieted it as a baby that has just finished drinking from its mother’s breast as just such a baby is my soul within me Israel, put your trust in Yahweh now and for ever. Now at the heart of this prayer is this image of a baby. No not a weaned child that is no longer breastfed. That child would be 2-3 years old and quite restless. Many translations now have ‘little child’ and do not refer to weaning2. This idea comes from the Greek translation of the OT (the Septuagint) that has “a child that no longer needs milk”. No, more like the baby in this picture: 3 months old; who has had enough to drink; who is ready to smile. When a baby has everything it needs – food, warmth, a clean nappy - this is the golden time for interaction with your baby. It is a time of comfort, safety, peace, bonding. Gradually the baby begins to distinguish the mother’s features and recognise her. It’s a moment where the mother has time just for her baby; a time for which she will lay down her duties and shut out the noise of the world. It’s a time for mutual enjoyment, for loving smiles. notice: no words are needed here or enter in. So this psalm is telling us: it is possible to have such a time with God. A time where you are safe with Him. Where you enjoy being together – where the communication is not verbal; where bonding takes place; where there is peace; where you get all God’s attention and He yours. Of course, it will always be an unequal relationship. In the old traditions of the church, this would be called contemplation. This psalm 131 is trying to tell us a number of important things of how we can come to such a place. How we can come to enjoy God’s presence. Where it seems our soul/heart/spirit (that what makes you a person, your inner being, the place where you are most vulnerable) is in direct and intimate connection with God. Where words no longer apply. Lesson 1. This requires that you give God some time. Time without distraction, without disturbance. Time to be quiet, silent, alone. Time where you give all your attention to Him. I am not talking about the kind of meditation where you blank your mind. I am talking about being fully present. Here. Now. And where you ask God to allow you into his presence. Where you shut out the noise and the chatter. If you want to go anywhere as a person and as a believer, you have to learn to be alone with God at regular intervals. 2 I counted at least eight including the Good News Translation and the Revised Standard Version Johan Velema, May 2016 Theologica.nl Psalm 131 –p.2 Lesson 2. This baby is fed with mother’s milk. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual3 milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” 1 Peter 2:2 What milk was Peter talking about? The Word of God. By meditating on the word of God, our spirits are fed and become satisfied and ready for contemplation. This is a lesson that is here in this text by implication. Don’t forget it is poetry. Peter brings out this lesson for us. There are interesting parallels between this passage and Ps 131. Monks would affirm that that is also their experience. Lectio Divina, ‘listening Bible reading’ if you like, leads to contemplation – brings you to intimacy with God. Lesson 3. Prepare your heart But there is more. This verse also says: I have calmed and quieted my soul. (I am mixing heart and soul as referring to your inner, vulnerable self. The real you.) You could also translate: I have prepared and silenced my soul. This word prepared is used also in Isaiah 28. It is a passage where the prophet tries to draw lessons from agricultural practices current in his day. “When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?” Isaiah 28:24-25 This word leveled – that is the same word that is used in this psalm for “I have prepared my soul”. And so we get something like this: (image of a prepared plot of land in Bennekom – next page). This soil is ready to receive the seeds. It is fertile ground. It was hard but has been ploughed to open it up. Big lumps of clay have been broken up. Weeds, thorns and thistles have been taken out. In the Middle East there are often stones in the ground which have to be removed so that you can grow things there (Isa 5:2). The soil has been worked so that the seeds can go deep into the ground and fertilize. It reminds us of the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. “The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Mt 13:23) What is the lesson here? It is that we should deal with rocks and lumps in our hearts; with hardness of our hearts. Things that keep us from being fertile ground for what God wants to sow in our hearts. Rather than be superficial Christians, we should open our hearts so that the word of God can enter deeply in and bear fruit i.e. change us from within. 3 The greek adjective is ‘logikos’ which some translate as ‘of the Word (Logos)’. Johan Velema, May 2016 Theologica.nl Psalm 131 –p.3 (image of prepared soil). Did you ever notice? When you kneel down to pray – suddenly you have to think of all the things that need doing. And your mind starts racing with all the people you need to contact, the things you have to write, the shopping you need to do.
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