Psalm 131

A Bible Devotion from Psalm 131

Too Great and Marvelous

1 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.

131st Psalm, NKJV

Why do we bow our heads when we pray? The answer is found in verse 1:

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.

God is too great and too marvelous for us, and when coming into His presence we cannot even lift up our eyes, but instead will fall down before Him. He is everything; our beginning and our end; our only help and our only hope! Only before Him can we calm and quiet our soul.

This is the message to the whole world (verse 3): Hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

We are prone to turn to every source of comfort and hope we can find in ourselves and from those around us. The world is filled with self-help therapy. I do believe we should help ourselves in every way we are able and also should help those around us. The point here in the 131st Psalm is that ultimately when considering our soul and eternal life, there is no help other than Christ. I've noticed that heaven and angels are popular themes for entertainment. Unfortunately, heaven is portrayed as a place you can go to if you are good enough. The truth is, no one is good enough! No one except Christ. Unless we go to Christ and accept His payment for our sins, there is no other way.

Pray today that you would hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Next: Psalm 132 - Zion Forever!

Another devotion on the 131st Psalm from my blog, Daily Bible Devotions.

Simple Trust, verses 1-3