Keys To Contentment

Introduction: I remember watching a Mayberry episode in which a fancy New York preacher came to town. He preached a sermon about slowing down. He said, "All we do is rush, rush, rush. Slow down, enjoy life." After the service the people of Mayberry decided to build the band stand in the park, drag out the old band uniforms, and assemble the band again. They were so busy trying to relax that they drove themselves crazy. I want to talk to you this morning about contentment, or peace of mind. Not this kind of contentment however. Not the kind that comes from inactivity and peaceful circumstances, but a contentment that will travel, a contentment that will be with us through any and all circumstances that life has to offer. David, in the psalm we are looking at expresses three keys to the contented life.

Psalm 131 is psalm of ascent. It was a psalm written to be sung as the Jewish pilgrims made their way up to Jerusalem to observe the feasts of the Lord. In this psalm the singers were claiming that they had found the contented life by renouncing pride. This is the kind of song you better mean when you sing it to God. I know a man who said he refused to sing "wherever He leads I’ll go." For years he said he just hummed these words because he really didn’t mean them. I heard of another man who instead of singing, "take my life and let it be", sang "take my wife and let me be." Lets look at this psalm of contentment. In it I see three keys to peace of mind. Three things that will bring us what thousands of dollars on doctors, and

pills, and vacations can never bring us.

The first Key to contentment is:

I. HUMILITY

David said, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty". When he says "my heart is not haughty" he is saying, my heart or my mind is not exalted. In other words, "I am not high minded". I don’t have an inflated sense of self importance. I don’t have to be pampered. I don’t have to be right. I don’t have to be served. In other words, David was saying that he was a humble man.

Now this statement would’nt mean as much if it was coming from the shoe shine boy in the palace. But it wasn’t. It was coming from the King. And not just any King, the King of Israel, David who’s throne would stand forever. Yet he was not haughty.

Do you know why I think David was such a humble man? Because even though he was a king, he never stopped being that shepherd boy that Samuel annointed. He never let his success or the place God had given him change him. He remained a servant.

Do you know anyone like that? I think Billy Graham is a lot like that. When he is interviewed he is so humble and real. He never stopped being a farm boy from North Carolina at heart even though God made him one of the greatest evangelists of our day.

The key to humility is humble servanthood. You see, If we always have to be right, and pampered, and treated with kid gloves, then we are going to be miserable people. If we are always selfishly sensitive, then we are always going to have our feelings hurt. One key to contentment is to die to self importance, and to take upon ourselves the attitude of a servant. Jesus, who alone deserved all praise and honor, girded himself with a towel and washed the disciples feet. He came not to be served by to serve. Pray that the Lord will produce a servants heart in you.

The second key to contentment is:

II. SIMPLICITY

David says, "neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me." Literally David says, "I don’t walk intensley in things that surpass me, in great things." I believe here David is saying, "I don’t have to figure everything out." He is saying, "There are some things in this life that I don’t understand because they are beyond me, but I don’t bother myself with them."

Now there are some people that don’t have to have all the answers. They just naturally go through life blissfully igonrant. On the other hand however, there are those who want to be able to understand everything, and they are anythying but content because there are too many things in this life that we simply cannot and will not understand.

If we are going to find contentment we must stop trying to figure out God. God has gone through great pains to make himself known to us through His Word, His Son, and the presence of His Spirit in our lives. However, there is much about God that is still concealed in mystery. Things we will never understand. Why he allows certain things to happen in our lives, etc....