Scripture: Psalms 131; Isaiah 49:8-16; Matthew 6:24-34
Title: The Contemplative Life
King David shares with us some key concepts of the Contemplative Life - 1. It is a life of Realized Humility 2. It is a life invested in Study, Stillness and Silence and 3. It is a Life founded in Hope in God
INTRO:
Have you ever found yourself envying the life of a dog or cat? One person listed these five reasons why they envy their dog:
+They are allowed to lay around or sleep most of the day
+They get to hog the bed
+Everyone wants to feed them
+They get all kinds of free back massages
+They never have a bad hair day
In our family we have these two wonderful border collies, one fantastic little sheltie and an adopted outside orange mackerel tabby cat. I cannot begin to tell you the pleasure and joy we all experience sharing life with them. At times that life is hectic; especially in the mornings when it involves meal time. Or when the two border collies are playing Frisbee trying to avoid the cat who does his best to jump in every now and then. Sandi, our sheltie has decided that with all that activity she just likes to sit on the porch and watch. More than once she has been bowled over by a mad crazed border collie trying to catch a Frisbee.
And then there are those other times. When all of them take some time and simply lay down and rest. Over the years I have noticed that all three dogs enjoy their own time out period. Each of them will go to an area of the house and lay down and rest. The cat of course just finds a sunny place and settles down for a long time of rest. I am not sure he is doing anything more than being lazy but of the four animals it appears that he takes his rest time more religiously.
Over the years, I have been amazed at how they are able to shut the world away, get away from all the noise and take some time to rest. I have also watched that afterwards they seem to have more strength and are ready to engage in some play time or one on one time. They seem to need those quiet moments of rest and repose.
We can see parallel patterns in other animals as well. This is especially true of the golden eagle. Each day the golden eagle has to fly up to its centering place. It's a place where they are able to quieten down and regain their strength. Afterwards they are able one more to soar into the heavens and hunt for their food and take care of their families.
In our Gospel reading our LORD makes some similar statements concerning the birds of the air and the grass of the fields. They also know how to rest in the Lord's care and protection. They seem to know that everything is in the Lord's hand. They instinctively sense that the Lord their God will take care of all of their needs.
But what about us this morning? Are we able to do what all these animals, the birds and even the grasses of the field are able to do? Are we able to find a life of contentment? Are we able to find a life filled with inner peace and serenity? Or are we condemn to a life of relying on things like Xanax. Librium, Valium or Ativan? In our modern nanosecond world are we condemned to live a life filled with anxiety, worry and angst? Does the LORD have an answer to all of this?
I am so glad you asked. It allows us this morning to turn back to one of the greatest little songs in the Old Testament. We find it in Psalm 131. Psalm 131 is only three verses long, but, those three verses are packed with great spiritual truth and enlightenment. The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon referred to Psalm 131 as one of the shortest psalms to read but one of the longest to learn. He said that it's " a short ladder yet one that rises to great height."
Psalm 131 has also been called the Psalm of Contemplation. It has been called the Psalm of Realized Humility, the Psalm of Interior Silence and the Psalm of Steadfast Hope. Let's take a few moments and reflect on this Psalm as it reveals to us some ways that we too can experience a life of peace, contentment and tranquility. And who this morning doesn't want a little more peace, contentment and tranquility.
Notice that our psalm comes from the hand of King David. Now, we don't know when David put these words down to parchment but as you study the life of David I believe we can be certain that they come later in his life. The words of someone who has experienced his share of real life and has found that inner peace and tranquility one needs to exist in such a life.
This psalm is a real life psalm. It is one that comes out of the heart of a man who had experienced his share of rejection, heartache, pressure, pain, joy, faith, love and success. While it does have tinges of mysticism, it is mysticism that has its feet firmly planted on the ground. It is a song from a man who is not living either in the past or in the future. Instead, he has learned that great art of living in the here and now. He is not allowing his regrets nor his past sins to overwhelm him while at the same time he is not borrowing worry, blind longings or fears from the future.
It is the psalm of a person who is the picture of contentment and composure. It is the psalm of a person who is living the life that Jesus spoke of in our Gospel passage.
It is the psalm that many Israelites choose to sing as they would travel to Jerusalem for the different festivals. This song and others like it (called the Ascent Psalms) enabled them to prepare their hearts for a time of great reflection, sacrifice and worship. They would help them prepare to spend some quality time in God's presence obeying and listening to His voice.
With all of that in mind let's take a few moments and see what kind of life King David shares with us in Psalm 131:
I. It is a Life of Realized Humility
Now, all of us know about something about humility. It's one of those words and ideas that we hear around the church. Humility is one of our buzz words. It's one of those things that we all hope that we already have in our lives and yet if we dwell too long on the idea that we possess it we therefore lose it.
We must understand that genuine humility is not merely self-denigration or belittling oneself. Self-denigration can in and of itself be another aspect of pride. For example, we can take great pride in possessing a type of false humility that at its core is still a subtle desire for all eyes to be focused on us as we act "humble".
St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that humility or the Latin "humilitas" comes from the core word humus. Humus is the dark organic matter that forms in the soil when plant and animal matter decays. Humus therefore refers to that which is lowly; that which is underneath our feet. "Humus", "humilitas", and humility all are words to remind us that we are from the earth and to the earth we shall return (Genesis 3:19b).
King David's words in verse 1 are expressive words of humus/humility. David is neither haughty nor is he self-absorbed. He does not place himself on a pedestal to look down on people. He does not chase things that are too great or too difficult for him. Instead, he spends his time living as one of God's anointed, loved and blessed children. He spends his time living around still waters knowing that His Heavenly Father will take great care of him. David is at peace. He is at peace with God, with himself, with others and with creation.
The opposite of humility of course is self-pride along with arrogance and self-centeredness. While we may not want to admit it we all face times when we are tempted to be one of those words rather than being humble. We face times in which we are tempted to be prideful, arrogant and/or self-centered.
Recently, my daughter Katherine and I saw this on full display while we were shopping. Katherine was waiting in line when out of the blue this lady came blustering along and physically moved her out of the way. She proceeded to stepped in front of Katherine saying something like this - "I'm in a hurry and you have nothing to do so I am going to get in front of you." She didn't apologize, she didn't give a good reason, she merely started putting her stuff down thinking that she had a right to move to the front of the line. At first Katherine was shocked and then she was a little upset at this lady's display of arrogance and self-centeredness.
We are all tempted at times to fall into such "pedestal" thinking. No doubt, there are times that we all merely want things to go our way. We don't want long lines nor do we want distractions. We want things to go our way. For example:
+We all want all of our home appliances to work all the time.
+We want all of our repairmen to be honest, quick and inexpensive.
+We want our life at the office, at school or wherever to go well - we want to be well liked, we want to receive great rewards (grades or a pay raise) and want others to look at us with great esteem and admiration
+We want our enemies to endure some type of "spiritual karma" or divine retribution for their inappropriate words or actions against us
+We want better health, more money, nicer clothes, more days off
+We want more appreciation from our spouse, our children and others
And if we are not careful all those "wants" turn into noise. They turn into the noise of selfish ambition, anxiety and irritation. They cause us to think that we are to be some type of pedestal person who gets to look down at all the people living in the "pit". It gets us into believing that either we deserve or that we are smarter, better looking or have more possessions than others.
It's that noise that King David is determined to get rid of in his life. It's the noise of fretting, being self-preoccupied, being easily offended, being competitive or comparing what you have, what you are wearing or how you look with other people. It's the noise of having to be #1 and the noise of having to think that we are superior to someone else or at least knowing that we have the ability to put them down in some way or other.
In writing about this psalm one writer made mention that King David had learned how to no longer foolishly attempt to grasp the wind. King David had come to the point in his walk with the LORD that he had learned to be content with the fact that there are some things that were beyond his reach. There were some things that now resided in the land of impossibility. For example, He knew he could bring the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem but he also knew that he would never be God's chosen person to build the Temple. He could raise money and materials for the project which he did by the millions but God had chosen his son, Solomon to build the Temple.
This morning, there may be some things that we need to let go. And if and when we do we will experience the same contentment that King David experienced. What are some of those things? Things like these:
+We need to allow God to give us our Daily Bread - we say those words of the LORD's prayer and yet we do all we can to get as much bread as humanly possible. We say that prayer while at the same time wrecking our bodies, putting our marriages in turmoil, abandoning our children all for a few more dollars. I'm not saying that we don't need to do make all we can but we must always remember our Heavenly Father loves us and has promised us that He will take care of us. We don't have to kill ourselves to make a leaving. The Lord doesn't give us a license to be lazy but at the same time He also doesn't give us a license to make money our god.
+We need to allow God to help us age gracefully and naturally. We need to understand that aging in and of itself is not an illness. Last year nearly 300 billion dollars was spent on all kinds of products that promise that they could turn back time. So many people have listened to the false marketing messages that many people have begun to feel that getting older is somehow their fault. That they have to do this or that to make sure they don't get older. And so they go out and buy this product or have this surgery or take this medicine all in an attempt to somehow stop Father Time. However, according to such doctors/scientists like Dr. Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine the truth is "there are no treatments that have been rigorously shown to reverse aging." The very best we can do is mask the symptoms but eventually Father time wins out.
Again, is it wrong to help your body or mind out over the years? Of course not. Is it wrong to put a little new paint on the old vehicle? Of course not. But when we as a society spend more money on anti-aging products than we do giving to the poor then something is amiss and that is the direction we are heading to in the US. Last year the number for each were very close. If we continue down this road in a few years we will spend more money as a nation on anti-aging products than we do on helping the poor, the disenfranchised and the marginalized.
+We need to allow the LORD to work on other people instead of trying to fix them ourselves. If we don't allow the LORD to work on other people then we will live a life filled with despair, rage, short lived happiness and manipulation. We don't have it in our power to change another person's heart, mind and soul. That is the work of the LORD. What we do have is the power to intercede for them in prayer, to be an encourager and to be a mentor and friend.
There are of course other impossibilities that we must hand over to the LORD that include our bodies, our friendships, our jobs and other phases of our lives that we don't have time to go over in detail this morning. What we see in Psalm 131 is that King David had learned through humility how to be comfortable in his own skin. This leads us to our second point which is:
II. Psalm 131 shows us a life invested in Study, Stillness and Silence
Verse one is the end game. Verse one is the life of a person who has realized humility. It is the life of a person who is content with the person that they have allowed the LORD to shape them to be. It is the life of a person who is enjoying the walk and adventure that God is leading them.
But how did King David get to experience such a life? He reveals the answer to us in verse two in a rather interesting way. He paints for us a picture of a young child and his mother.
The picture David paints is that of a young child and not that of an infant. That is important for us to understand. The reason that we know this is because the words that David uses refers to a child who has been weaned from his mother. David uses the word גָּמַל (Gamal). It refers to a time when something is ripen or comes to fulfillment. In this case it refers to a child who has graduated from breast milk to a normal full diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, meats, nuts and beans.
In ancient Israel that time was around the age of three. Most women breast feed their children until they were three years of age. We have to remember that this was not a time where they could go to the local store and buy some baby formula or some bottles. Mother's milk was vital for life itself. It was around the age of 2 1/2 to 3 years of age that most mothers would begin to compliment their children's diet with other food sources until they were weaned and were eating solid foods.
David here is dealing with two things - the process of weaning and the process of being at rest and having a composed soul. In verse one he shares with us the necessity of having a proper mindset/attitude - that of humility. Now, he leads us to understand the process in which that happens.
It happens as we learn to allow the LORD to wean us from our own self-pride, arrogance and self-centeredness. Like a child we will not wean ourselves. We will stay spiritually, emotionally and socially immature as long as someone else takes care of us. As long as someone allows us to think that we are the center of the world we will live that way. As long as someone allows us to act arrogantly or self-centeredly then we will continue that way.
A mother has to purposely begin to substitute other food for her child. She does this not to deprive the child but to help them get to the point where they can live a fully enriched life. She knows that her child cannot survive on mother's milk alone. She knows that her child is going to need a diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, meats, nuts and beans. She knows that is the only way for her child to experience the life God wants them to experience.
In a very similar way, we must allow the LORD to wean us off of a complete spiritual milk diet. We must allow the LORD to help us spiritually, emotionally and socially grow up. We have to get beyond the belief that the only spiritual diet we need are our Sunday morning services. We must get to the point where we are in fact doing some of our own spiritual digging, planting and harvesting.
Some of the ways we can do this is through such spiritual practices as Lectio Divina, meditation and contemplation along with some other spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting, service, solitude, simplicity, worship and celebration.
+Lectio Divina is one of the most wonderful ways for us to read God's Word. Instead of us hurrying through a passage of scripture we focus on slowing down. We invite the Holy Spirit to help us understand word by word, phrase by phrase and thought by thought what we read. We are not in a hurry. Our target is not to gain breadth but depth. We want to allow the Scripture to come alive. We allow ourselves to breath in its smells, to taste its sweetness (or bitterness with some passages), to hear its voice, to feel its warmth (or coldness) and to see its wonders. We want to allow our bodies, our minds and our souls to encounter God's Word and be enriched by it. We want to allow the Bible to read us as well.
2 Timothy 2:16- 17 tells us that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
Did you hear that? Scripture is breathed out by God. So, in a sense when we read and when we allow God to use His words we share breath with God. God's Word - God's breath mingles with our breath. From His breath we gain new life. Much like a person bringing new life into a drowning victim so too does the LORD through His Word bring new life into us who have been drowning ourselves in a life of sin, pride and rebellion.
This morning, have you ever breathed in scripture? Have you ever sat down with God's word and breathed in its fullness and richness? If you have you know what I mean. If you haven't then try it and you will find your life so much richer and fuller.
+ Meditation takes us one step deeper as we allow ourselves some "chewing time". The picture of meditation can best be seen using an agricultural metaphor. It parallels what we see when we watch a cow chew its cud.
A cow's stomach is made up of four separate compartments . Those compartments are the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum and the abomasum. Each compartment has its own specialized duty in the digestive process. To begin with, when a cow eats something that food goes into the rumen where it begins to be processed. However, many times that food is still too clumped up to get sent on to the reticulum. Therefore, the cow will regurgitate it and begin to chew on it a second and sometimes a third time. We call this - "chewing the cud".
You can see a cow chewing its cud if you take the time. Sometimes they are standing while at other times they are sitting down. They are taking what they have eaten, allowing it to go through one stage of digestion, bringing it back up and further chewing it so that it can go through the other three processes. It all sounds rather gross but it's the way God made cows.
The grace of meditation is very similar. We take bits of scripture or thoughts or ideas and we allow the Holy Spirit to help us chew on them all day long. Sometimes even longer as we co-partner our minds, our hearts and souls to that of the Holy Spirit. We want to get the most out of our time with the LORD so we go back for another chew.
Psalm 63:6 - "I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night." This is what it means to meditate.
+Thirdly, there is the grace of contemplation. Contemplation is the grace of centering ourselves in the LORD. It's a designated time of stillness and silence. It's a time of letting go of everything else and spending time in God's presence. Christian contemplation is not trans meditation. Whereas the goal of trans meditation is that of negation and emptying the mind the goal of Christian meditation is just the opposite. Christian contemplation is allowing the LORD to fill the mind, heart and soul. It's goal to give ourselves wholly to the LORD in which we become a more authentic human being made and living in the likeness of the LORD.
Christian contemplation is what we read about in verse two. It is experiencing the safety and calm of resting in the arms of our Heavenly Father. It is experiencing His peace and tranquility. It is being content to be in His care as a weaned mother is in the care of its mother.
None of this happens by accident. It is all by grace. It is all when we co-operate with God's grace. When we allow ourselves to become still and quiet. When we take the time to put away the noise of the world and allow the LORD to fill us with His peace and comfort.
It happens when we practice Sabbath. When we practice a time each day and hopefully a more extended time each Sunday just resting in the LORD. It happens when we put all things away and rest in Him. It happens when we allow the LORD to hear our heart beat as we listen for His heart beat. It happens when we allow the LORD to share our breath as we share His holy breath - the Holy Spirit. It happens when we allow the Lord to speak to us through silence.
Christian contemplation can be threatening to us. It can seem threatening because it boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of our Heavenly Father. It reminds us that our Father is willing to speak to us heart to heart, mind to mind and soul to soul. It reminds us that the Jesus' prayer of John 17 can be a personal reality. We can be one with the God of all Creation.
All of these things - Lectio Divina, meditation, contemplation along with the other spiritual disciples have the innate ability to lead us to a transformed life. A life that goes well beyond a diet of spiritual milk. A life that enjoys all the richness of God's richest spiritual wonders.
This morning, have you allowed yourself the joy of spending 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes or more in stillness and silence before the LORD? Merely resting in His care - being open to hearing His voice - receiving His Love, Mercy and Joy?
If you have then you know how spending time with the LORD will benefit your physical body, your emotional body, your social body and most importantly your spiritual body. If you haven't, I would encourage you to travel this journey.
It is because of all of this - a life of realized humility and a life of interior growth that David can triumphantly say in verse three that finally, David's life is
III. A Life that puts its steadfast hope in God
David knew that the only hope for Israel was the LORD. If life had taught this man anything it was this foundational truth. He knew what it meant to defeat giants and to ascend to the throne. He knew what it meant to go from the sheep folds to the highest of men's thrones. He knew what it meant to amass millions and millions of gold, silver and brass. He knew what it meant to hold men's lives in the palm of his hands.
But he also knew that in a matter of seconds everything can turn to dust and ashes. He knew that one day a king could find himself barefoot and running for his life because his own son wants to kill him. He also knew what it meant to rebel against the LORD and suffer greatly for that rebellion. He knew what it meant to have the lofty aspirations of his children be crushed into heartache, despair and premature death.
In all of that David knew that the key to experience a genuine human life was being steadfastly grounded in the LORD. I David knew that the key to life was to put one's hope in the God of Israel. In the God who rescues, redeems, renews and restores. David knew that for himself and for his kingdom that their hope must be in the LORD. For out of that hope comes courage, strength and victory.
It is here that King David is much like the Early Church we find in the opening chapters of the book of Acts. At the time they were facing a great many problems that could have overwhelmed them. But they went and focused on Jesus' teaching and they got quiet before the LORD. We see this in chapter four of Acts. As a result they birthed a spirit of courage instead of fear. As a result they birthed a spirit of courage instead of a spirit of complaining . As a result they birthed a spirit of majesty instead a spirit of moaning.
The truth is this morning:
+Our hope was never to be placed in numbers. More than once Israel was outnumbered but experienced victory. The Early Church started off with only 120 people and now numbers in the billions.
+Our hope was never to be placed in our own strength.
Zachariah 4:6 reminds us:
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."
+Our hope was never to be put in some kind of human position. Moses was called when he was an exiled criminal from Egypt. Joseph was called out of a prison cell. David found the throne but only after he had been labeled a fugitive. And the Apostle Paul was called in the middle of an ambush on Christians.
In Psalm 40:2 we read these words:
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
The truth of the matter our only hope resides in the LORD. For He is the Creator. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
King David would have rejoiced alongside of Edward Mote who in 1894 wrote these words:
"My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is seeking sand."
This morning, in the Gospel lesson the LORD invites us to the life that King David experienced recorded in Psalm 131. It is the life of realized humility. It is the life of study, stillness and silence. It is the life of knowing that our hope is in the LORD.
As we close let me read you this psalm as it has been written in two different ways - the first could be labeled as an anti-psalm. That is to say, it is the direct opposite of what David wrote - however, there are many people that would have to say - that is my psalm. It goes something like this:
Self, my heart is full of pride (I am absorbed in myself - I love to take selfies), and my eyes are arrogant (I tend to look down on other people). I like seeing myself on a pedestal looking down at all the pit people that I believe live below me. I run after things that are beyond my reach and waste my time daydreaming about things I will never own or possess.
So, of course I am noisy and restless inside. My life is full of chaos. I surround myself with noise so that I can be distracted from God and my true self. Naturally, I am therefore like a hungry baby fussing on its mother's lap. I am like a squirming baby, fighting with my mother so that she will take care of my every need. I am persistently telling others of my needs, my demands and my worries.
I put my hope in whoever is providing my needs at the time. I scatter my hopes onto anyone and everyone as long as they provide me temporary satisfaction.
The other one goes of course like this:
Psalm 131The Message (MSG)
A Pilgrim Song
131 GOD, I’m not trying to rule the roost,
I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business
or fantasized grandiose plans.
2 I’ve kept my feet on the ground,
I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,
my soul is a baby content.
3 Wait, Israel, for GOD. Wait with hope.
Hope now; hope always!
Let us pray.
