Charles Spurgeon when preaching on Psalm 131said this, “Psalm 131is one of the shortest psalms to read but one of the longest to learn.” This is a ‘slam that calls us to resist the temptation to be prideful, it calls us to push against our arrogant ambitions. This is hard as it is in direct contrast to what the world teaches. This psalm also warns us against living a life of dependence, a life that seeks no responsibility and rely on others to solve our problems. Whole the world calls for us to seek the things of this world and to achieve and gain them by any means necessary, this psalm calls us to be humble and submit all to God. It calls us to move forward on faith, taking responsibility for our actions and our lives. To walk with God is to be perpetually moving forward in faith, to be seeking God.as will and God’s timing on all that we do.
Psalm 131
O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore.
I spent much of my teenage years in Washington State, a state known for growing some of the best apples in the world. If you were to walk by an orchard as they were pruning the trees you might wonder how these trees will ever produce fruit. But it is this pruning to the branches that strengthens the trees and then allows them to produce more fruit then if they were to be left on their own. Jesus makes this statement, “I am the true vine and my Father the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” There are things in our lives that need to be remove and thing that need to be pruned. Just because we are Christian, and we go to church on Sunday and read our bibles does not mean we are immune to the effects of living in this world, it does not mean that we are not tempted and fall back into sin. To keep us moving forward God will do some routine maintenance on our lives, so that we remain on the right path. We need to also do some maintenance and remove and prune those things that keep us from focusing on what is of God and not that which is of man.
“O Lord my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised to high; I do not occupy myself with things to great and to marvelous for me.”
One of the most damaging things that we need to remove from our lives is prideful ambition. Ambition when focused on the right thing is to be celebrated, ambition that is fueled by pure human desire, needs to be pruned. Words in the Bible are very easy to read, it is written in plain language, the hard part comes when we apply those words to our lives. It is hard for two main reasons. First our own sinful hearts and fleshly desires are often diametrically opposed to what God instructs us to do. Second the world e live in is opposed to the truth and will of God. We live in a world filled with stumbling blocks in our walk with God. Prideful selfish desires and ambitions are seen as good qualities in a world that seeks material wealth and popularity, but for the person who desires to walk with God they are road blocks and must be pruned on a daily basis, so that we can produce the good fruit that is sweet and pleasing to God.
Western culture encourages unbridled, prideful ambition, they celebrate those that have reached the top no matter the cost and celebrate them as examples of how to succeed. They promote the idea that we have the power and the right to use any means necessary to reach our goals. This prideful ambition often leaves compassion and empathy behind, as people step over and on whoever they need to in their quest for wealth and fame. They claim all the glory for themselves setting aside any moral standard and any honor to God. Their hearts become hardened, and they see themselves as righteous and free.
This is a condition that predates man. In the book of Revelation, we learn of Satan’s fall from heaven. Satan saw himself as God’s equal, as he become full of prideful ambition, convincing himself that he was equal to God in all ways. When he was cast out, he used that same prideful ambition to initiate the fall of man, into sin. Telling Adam and Eve they could be in equal footing with God if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was their desires to be like God that lead to sin, and death being released upon the world. This same curse, results in the same results every day in lives of many.
There is a legend about a man named Johann. Johann was a gifted medical student, philosopher and theologian. He quickly became frustrated by the limitations of his studies, feeling he was better than those that were teaching him, he knew there was so much more to know than any of his teachers were able to teach him. In his quest for greater knowledge and power he struck a deal with the Devil. For twenty-four years he would be granted unlimited knowledge, power and wealth. He would know no moral limitations. Johann was in total control and was able to unleash his pride and ambition on the world. In the twenty-fourth year the Devil came to collect his due. Johann had one final dinner with his so-called friends, he suddenly realized the price he was about to pay, and he warned them not to take a path like his, but to repent and seek a moral and godly path in life. Johann dies a horrible painful death alone in this life and forever separated from God. Sadly, in our modern culture there are far too many Johannes, buying into the Idea that this world is all about wealth and power. And sadly, some of these people are in our churches today and even sadder some are in positions of leadership. They have forsaken the calling of God and embraced the calling of man all for their own gain. Like Johann there will come a day when they will have to pay the price.
Ambition is not always a bad thing, like many things in life it can do great good when focused in the right direction. When we seek to reach our goals for the right reasons, ambition can accomplish great things for the kingdom of God. Saul in his younger years had great ambitions, he was a prideful Pharisee seeking the demise of all those who followed the way. He was convinced hat he was doing God’s work, because this brought him notoriety and power among his peers. God knew Saul had potential for the kingdom of God and so Saul was humbled on the road to Damascus and his named was changed to Paul as he became a new creation in Christ. The ambition that was in his soul was refocused, he would no longer strive for his own glory but for the glory of God. With his refocused desires, he would plant churches and spread the word of God throughout the land. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus made me his own. Brothers I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what is ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” God had pruned and cut away at Paul’s pride, leaving the bad behind so he could produce abundant fruit for the kingdom of God.
How each of us channels our ambition will have a profound effect on how our lives influences others. We can us it for our own selfish gain ignoring the needs of others focused solely on our own selfish desires, we can pridefully deny God, claiming to be His equal and in the end we will pass from this life to eternity, eternally separated from God. Or we could be like Paul and humble ourselves before God, becoming a new creation, letting God prune away the selfish desires of our won hearts so we can produce much fruit for God’s kingdom. We can choose to live a life the build others up, a life that gives all the honor and glory to God and when we pass into eternity we pass into the presence of our Creator. Both paths take energy and focus, both paths take devotion and determination, yet each path has a drastically different destination.
There is another side to this coin and another ever growing stumbling block that is present in this world, and this to needs to be pruned from the lives of those that follow Christ. It is the ever-growing sense of entitlement that many people are embracing. There is a failure for people to grow up, they remain emotionally dependent upon others and expect the world to bring them everything with no effort on their part. They refuse to take any responsibility for the actions in their lives blaming everyone and everything but themselves, for their circumstances. Sadly, as with pride this to has infect churches, and there are some that are taking advantage of this by promoting the prosperity gospel. Pulpits no longer preach of sin and repentance, they ignore God’s holiness and justice, as people find this harsh and offensive. They instead speak of God’s love and willingness to do anything for you, it has become a call of what God can do for me, not what can I do for God. They promote the lie that God’s existence is one dedicated to making them happy and giving us whatever our hearts desires. This childish dependence has three effects, it paralyzes people from growing in Christ as they believe they have no need nor power to change, second is that it deprives them of the wonderful blessings that God has for those that put the effort in to grow in their faith. The blessing of knowing that whatever our circumstances God will provide what we need not what we want. And saddest is that many people will walk away from the church and God, when their expectations of who God is are not met, based on some false sense of entitlement.
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter.” This is not a picture of some neurotic dependency on God, it is a picture of a person who has a willingness to be taught, led and blessed by our heavenly Father. It is a picture of a relationship built upon trust, the trust a child has for a parent. It is a person who has put aside their pride and self-righteousness and they come to God humbly seeking his grace and mercy. The difference between the self-entitled world and a child of God is the Child of God is encouraged to grow and become more mature. Paul writes: “When I was a child, I spoke like a chld, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man I gave up my childish ways.” Every person who first come to Christ comes as a child, and God meets them where they are, he meets the, as they feel insecure trapped in sin. We are not to stay in that place we are to grow beyond that child. We need to cut the apron strings of the world and become men and women who stand firm in the faith, unwavering in our trust in God. Confidently standing on the truth found in God’s word. The old has passed away and we have become a new creation, our minds transformed, and our hearts cleansed.
We must be diligent in guarding our hearts against becoming prideful and arrogant, against becoming entitled and dependent. There will be times we become prideful and self-righteous, there will be times we feel entitled thinking the world owes us something. In those times God will prune those things from our lives and at times that might seem painful, and it might leave a scar or two. The rewards in the end is that we will have peace and we will produce much of the sweet fruit God desires from us.
