“Oh, it’s hard to be humble . . .!”
Have you ever heard that little tune, “Oh, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re prefect in every way?” It’s a little tune I remember from growing up. And I read a couple of stories this week that sort of illustrate this song very well.
The first was about Henry Augustus Rowland. He was once a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University, and was once called as an expert witness at a trial. During cross-examination a lawyer demanded, “What are your qualifications as an expert witness in this case?” The normally modest and retiring professor replied quietly, “I am the greatest living expert on the subject under discussion.” Later a friend well acquainted with Rowland’s disposition expressed surprise at the professor’s uncharacteristic answer. Rowland answered, “Well, what did you expect me to do? I was under oath!”
Here’s another. George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut: “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”
“My heart is not lifted up”
Humility is the message of Psalm 131 and it tells us what humility is and is not. First it tells us two things that humility is not. Both have to do with how we think of ourselves. The first thing is pretty obvious. In verse one it says “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.” Here it tells us to avoid prideful and arrogant thoughts (“my heart [mind] is not lifted up”) and that the psalmist has avoided destructive behaviour that comes from pride (“My eyes are not raised too high”). And when the psalmist says that he doesn’t “occupy” himself with “things too great and too marvelous for me,” most understand these great and marvelous things to be the self-centred and arrogant pursuits that the psalmist rightly avoided.
Psalm 131 warns us against the sin of pride. And we can also think of the sin of pride as the sin of wanting to be our own gods—as Eugene Peterson says, “It is the oldest sin in the book, the one that got Adam thrown out of the garden.” The psalmist gives us an image of what a humble person does not do and that is this: we are called not to think too much of ourselves.
“Like a weaned child”
The second thing we find in verse two. This one’s a little less obvious. Here we have a serene image of a child with its mother. It’s a beautiful image. But notice that it makes a point of saying that the child is weaned. It does this twice: “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.” What is the difference between a child that is not weaned from a child that is? And what does that have to do with humility?
At this point, our daughter Ella is getting closer and closer to being weaned. She only nurses in the morning when she wakes up. But even then if Alisha doesn’t respond right away, Ella gets very upset. Her cry sounds desperate and insecure, as if she’s afraid she’ll not get what she wants. But we are to be like weaned children. This is the image that Psalm 131 is using to describe humility. But how does this image of a weaned child serve as an example of humility?
It corrects any notion that being humble means being an insecure person who lets people walk all over them. We’re called here not to be an insecure infant clinging to God but mature disciples of Jesus Christ. William Temple said that “Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts.” Being a humble Christian is not the same thing as being a doormat Christian.
Charles Swindoll says that “Genuinely humble people who have a desire to seek the well-being of others are generally very secure people.” C.S. Lewis says this: “a really humble man . . . he will not be thinking of himself at all.” It is this kind of person we hear speaking in Psalm 131. It is a person who has “calmed and quieted” their soul before God. We’re called to be secure and mature. If pride is thinking too much of ourselves, then the point here in verse two is not to think too little of ourselves.
“He humbled himself”
I once heard about a pastor who was voted the most humble pastor in America. And during their next Sunday service the congregation gave him a medal that said exactly that: the most humble pastor in America! I also heard that they took the medal the very next Sunday. They did so because when the pastor came out onto the platform to begin the service they saw that he was wearing it! Never vote me in as the most humble pastor in Canada, please! I don’t think I could ever live up to being such an example. Only One ever could be held up as an example of humility, and that is Christ. I want to mention three ways that Christ teaches us by his example.
The first way Christ teaches us by example is this: humility starts at the bottom. This is what we can call “the first shall be last principle.” We can see this in Mark 10. I’m just going to summarize what happens in this passage. Two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, come to Jesus and ask for positions of prominence. They ask Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Jesus tells them all, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them.” And we should note that the verb “lord it over” means not just taking charge but refers to aggressive domination. Jesus continues, “But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant”—I hear echoes of “my eyes are not raised too high” in these words—“and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” And then Jesus gives the reason why this must be so: “For the Son of Man came not be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus is telling them: “This is how you are to live—you must live as I do, you must be as I am.”
Andrew Murray describes the humble man this way: “The humble man . . . can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised while he is forgotten because . . . he has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and who sought not His own honor.”
The second thing that Christ teaches us from his example, therefore, is this: Humility grows out of gratitude. We can see this in the Philippians passage that was read earlier: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”
Paul here is showing us how Christ looked to our interests—he looked at our need for salvation, for rescue and redemption, and willingly came in the flesh and went to the cross so that this is exactly what we could have. He was obedient to his Father no matter what this cost.
I heard someone say this: “The more I comprehend how Christ humbled Himself and served me, the more I’m able to put my needs below those of others. When I remember the suffering Christ endured on my behalf, how can I remain conceited for even a moment? When I appreciate that every breath I suck into my lungs is a gift from God, purchased by His Son’s agony on the cross, how can I waste it on self-interest?” The gratitude I experience when I contemplate the cross is the soil out of which my true humility springs. How can I not be humbled? As D. Martyn Lloyd Jones once said, “Nothing but the cross can give us this spirit of humility.”
This third thing that Christ teaches us from his example is this: Humility is an exercise of faith. In 1 Peter 5:5 – 7, we have these words: “And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
It’s possible that here Peter, when he tells us to “clothe” ourselves with humility, that he’s thinking about the cloth that Jesus wrapped around himself when he washed the disciples’ feet on that last night together. That cloth was one typically worn by a slave. We have already heard that Jesus calls us to be slaves to one another, and Peter reminds us of that fact here.
Last week we had all kinds of kids come to our door to get junk food, and they were all dressed is various costumes. I even took Ella out for a little while in her Pooh outfit! And it was hard not to notice the costumes, right? They definitely stick out when you compare to what people normally wear. Well, imagine a community of people doing what both Jesus and Peter are telling us to do—dressing ourselves in humility, being servants to one another, putting the interests and needs of others ahead of our own, being active in taking care of one another. This too would stick out. This too would be hard not to notice.
Now, you may ask, how is humility an act of faith? Peter tells his people here to clothe themselves with humility and to “cast” their worries and cares upon God. Now if I am worried about how I am going to have my own needs met, I am much less likely to focus on meeting the needs of anyone else. But I trust that God will take care of my needs—my legitimate needs from God’s perspective, that is—then I am freed up to look after the needs of others.
Humility is an act of faith in another way, too. We cannot become humble on our own power—yes, it is a discipline, but it is also God’s work within us. We know this because humility is fruit of the Spirit, and one of the ways that God transforms us more and more into the character of Christ. To quote Andrew Murray again: “It is the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ’s redemptive work on Calvary’s cross, manifested in those of His own who are definitely subject to the Holy Spirit.” We are called to exercise faith and trust that God can and will form Christ in us.
Remembering that humility leads to sacrifice
Our example on the path of humility is of course Jesus; and we see that the ultimate act of humility leads to self-sacrifice. Christ died so that we might live. In that way, the humility of Christ and the sacrifice of Christ go together. As we recall the humble sacrifice of our Lord with our celebration today we need to remember that true humility leads to sacrifice.
Today is also, of course, Remembrance Day Sunday, and we remember, too, the sacrifice of so many men and women, of those who have given their lives that we might live ours. Ultimately the sacrifice of Good Friday is infinitely greater and more important—but the sacrifice of men and women in the armed forces reminds us of the price of life and freedom. Such sacrifice—if it is truly sacrifice—is only possible if the person making the sacrifice is truly humble and truly seeks to serve others and to attend to their needs while considering not their own. We do this imperfectly; Christ has done it perfectly. Draw nearer to Christ, and in so doing your heart will grow in humility.
I end today with a poem that expresses the fact that there is no task too small or unimportant if it is done with a humble heart and out of a sacrificial love that seeks to serve both the Lord and others.
“Father, where shall I work today?”
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed me out a tiny spot,
And said, “Tend that for me.”
I answered quickly, “Oh, no, not that.
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me!”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern,
He answered me tenderly,
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Art thou working for them or me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.”
