In David Powlison’s excellent book Seeing with New Eyes, he titles the fourth chapter, “Peace, Be Still.1 The reason he uses these familiar words as the title of the chapter is because he wants the reader to have an image of the topic he wants to discuss right off the bat. We know that these words, “Peace, be still,” were spoken by Jesus as he and the disciples were in a boat crossing the sea when a great windstorm arose, the sea was raging, and the waves were crashing against the boat so high and so hard that the boat began filling up with water. Crazy enough, Jesus was actually sleeping during this storm that had the disciples terrified. So they woke him, and Mark writes, “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39).
The reason Powlison wanted that image of the raging sea all of the sudden being quieted and calmed in the mind of his reader is because Powlison’s focus in the chapter is how it is that we quiet and calm down our souls when they are raging and out of control within us. To use his terms, he was discussing how to become peaceful inside when our souls are “noisy.”
And I don’t think it takes a great imagination for most of us to realize what he means by “noisy.” Aren’t there times when you find yourself restless inside for a number of reasons? Maybe you’re constantly filled with anxiety, frustrations, fears, anger, envy, despair, or a number of other things so that you find it almost impossible to calm or quiet your soul within you. Maybe this morning you’ve come in anxious about your health, your marriage, your child’s behavior, or how to do your job well. You’re anxious about not having a spouse, enough money to pay for things you want or need, or a job altogether. You’re frustrated because people don’t seem to recognize all that you’re doing and give you the praise you deserve, they don’t seem to understand that you’re right and they’re wrong, or they’re putting burdens and expectations on you that are too great. You’re envious because someone else is getting the glory or riches or happiness or things that you wish would come to you. You’re despairing because you just don’t know what else to do to start feeling better, or fix your marriage, or get your kids to respond to your discipline. Or perhaps there are a number of other emotions or struggles or a combination of these things so that you’re soul is extremely restless or “noisy” this morning.
In fact, it may be that this noisy condition of your soul isn’t a reality now and then but has become the rule rather than the exception so that at any given point that is likely to be where you are. Maybe you even find it hard to imagine what it would be like to be quiet and calm inside. Maybe it’s become so foreign to your experience that you’re even having trouble right now imagining what it would mean to be quiet and calm.
If that’s the case, then Powlison helpfully describes an individual who has attained this calm, quietness, and peace within him. Powlison writes, “This man isn’t noisy inside. He isn’t busy-busy-busy. Not obsessed or on edge. Pressures to achieve don’t consume him. Failure and despair don’t haunt him. Anxiety isn’t spinning him into free fall. Regrets don’t corrode his inner experience. He’s not stumbling through the minefield of blind longings and fears. He’s quiet.2
But who is he talking about? Is this someone real or make-believe? Someone he knows? Someone who’s actually lived? He is indeed describing a real person who actually lived. He’s describing David, king of Israel. But how does he know David actually had arrived at this point of quietness and calmness in his soul? It’s because we read in the superscription to Psalm 131 that this is “of David.” That is, it was written by David. And listen to what David says in these three verses: “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. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.”
His soul is indeed calm and quiet. He is as peaceful as a weaned (and full) child, sitting on his mother’s lap. Isn’t this something we’d like to achieve? Isn’t this peace that passes understanding something that we’d like to experience? After all, it’s not just that it’s not enjoyable to have these anxieties, fears, frustrations, and feelings of envy, bitterness, anger, and resentment within us. These are or can be sinful feelings or lead to sinful words, actions, or thoughts. And if Psalm 131 provides us guidance into how to calm and quiet our souls from such things, then it isn’t an aid in helping us feel better; it’s an aid in helping us fight against sin. So, with that said, let’s see what these three verses teach us in our fight against sin.
First, we see from verse 1 (and this may be hard for us to hear since we probably easily identify with the noise and restlessness in our souls) that . . .
Now, if you’ve come in this morning thinking, “Great. I really want to get rid of this inner feeling of envy or frustration or anxiety,” you may feel like we’re taking a step backwards because our first realization is that we’re also struggling with pride. It’s like going to the doctor and for your chest pains only to hear him say, “If I could just get past this cancerous tumor I just found then I could get a good look at your heart.”
Now, the reason I say that our inner restlessness is likely rooted in our pride is because of what the psalmist says in verse 1. If by verse 2, David is able to say that he has exercised means of quieting and calming his soul, then verse 1 surely tells us how. So, how does he begin verse 1? He says, “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up [that is to say, proud]; my eyes are not raised too high [that is to say, haughty].” So, he begins by saying, “I’ve first dealt with any pride and removed it from my heart.”
You see, a number of times the reason for the restlessness in our souls is our pride. We say we struggle with anxiety, but if we pressed ourselves, we are often anxious about someone getting something that we want, aren’t we? We are anxious about someone getting the praise we deserve, the enjoyment we want to have, the riches we covet. We are anxious because we just want others around us to see that we’re right and whoever is opposing us is wrong, and we’re anxious others may not see that.
We, in fact, create all kinds of reasonable arguments as to why we’re all restless, and they all make sense to us. Powlison provides us with a glimpse of how this logic might sound in our minds. He writes, “I just want a little respect and appreciation. Of course I want the home appliances to work and the car mechanic to be honest. That’s pretty normal. I want approval and understanding. Is that too much to ask? I want the church to thrive and my sermon to go well. It’s for God, after all. I want satisfaction and compensation for the ways others did me wrong. I don’t want much. If only I had better health, a little more money, a more meaningful job, nicer clothes, a restful vacation, then I’d be satisfied. I want a measure of success – just a bit of recognition – as an athlete, a beauty, an intellectual, a musician, a leader, a mother.3
But do we see that much of those concerns are built on pride? So, the first step is to say, “I’m going to recognize that I am less important than I think I am. The world doesn’t revolve around me. I’m not always right. I’m not as necessary to every issue as I think I am. Some of the things I think I deserve praise for are simply things I should be doing, and if people don’t recognize I’m as good at something as I think I am, then I’ll use that to be a little more humbled.” That seems to be where we can start – confess our pride as sin, asking the Lord for forgiveness, and asking the Lord to remove this element upon which much of our restlessness stands.
Second, we recognize from this psalm that . . .
I’ve tried to think of a better way to say that in a brief point, but I think that you can see what I’m saying. Sometimes the things that cause us frustration or envy or anxiety or whatever else that causes our souls to be restless and noisy are things that are beyond our control. So, for example, we might paralyze ourselves fretting about whether or not someone will respond a certain way to us, when we simply have no control over their response. Or we fret over the stock market will be like when we retire, when (again) that’s beyond our control.
This seems to be what David is saying when he confesses to the Lord in verse 1, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” I mean, he could be referring to those things that are beyond our contemplation such as what would happen if the earth got sucked into a black hole, but I doubt it. It seems rather that he recognizes that there are things beyond his ability to control, and he’s choosing not to occupy himself with those things. After all, what good is it to occupy our minds and hearts with such concerns when our fretting or anxious thoughts do nothing to change them?
So, gaining inner peace allows us to say that we are going to acknowledge our inability to control certain things and entrust them to the Lord. This is no doubt the picture David provides for us in verse 2. He says that he is like a weaned child sitting on his mother’s lap. No doubt, we are to contrast this with the child who is not weaned, is hungry, and who is anything but calm when sitting in his mother’s lap.
This is, then, David saying that he’s resting content because the issue that might have been causing his anxiety or rage or whatever other emotion in his inner soul has been surrendered to the Lord. And this brings us to a third point . . .
To say to you, “Stop occupying yourself with things beyond your ability to control” is more easily said than done. If tackling sin were that easy then we could list all of the sins we could think of out on a long sheet of paper, and I could start reading out don’t _________ (supplying the name of any particular sin in the blank), and we’d all be fine.
The reality is, however, fighting against sin requires . . . well, fighting. And calming down your restless soul will often require wrestling your soul into submission. It may mean that you preach to yourself that your anxiety isn’t helping, that you remember your place in this world, and that you entrust the issue to the Lord and go through that process repeatedly. It may look like desperate prayer, meditating on Scripture, and screaming the truth at yourself, saying, “Soul, you will submit.” After all, we know that we must tackle a number of other sins like this, but our inner restlessness is no exception. It is a process of dying to yourself – your pride and your desire to control life – which are deeply rooted within us.
And this brings us to our final note.
Note how David ends this Psalm. He’s been addressing the Lord is verses 1-2, but in verse 3, he turns to address the people, Israel. He writes, “O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.” I think there are two lessons here. The first is that the only way to overcome our inner restlessness after making war on our pride and turning our focus away from those things that are beyond our control is to then entrust those things into the Lord’s hands and trust him.
I think that entrusting things unto the Lord and then trusting him to deal with them is key because I think David is simply exhorting Israel to do in verse 3 what he’s done. That is, he’s saying, “This is the key to inner peace – hope in the Lord.”
And it makes sense because you’re not going to be able to stop thoughts of uncontrollable things from coming to you. Temptations will come. You will be tempted to want what you have no power to get or be anxious that a needed confrontation goes well or be frustrated because things aren’t turning out like you hoped they would. Those temptations to inner restlessness will come. You can’t do anything to stop them. What you do have control over is what you do with them when they come. And when they come, you can pray against your pride, not occupy your heart and mind with things beyond your control, and entrust them to the Lord, trusting him to do what is best.
After all, isn’t this what Jesus did? How did Jesus handle the suffering that was approaching him as he faced the cross? Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:23, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” The Son continually entrusted himself to the Father. And Peter tells us to do the same.
I’ll also note as a last point that I think this text also reminds us that we’ll only find ourselves truly free to minister when we learn to quiet and calm our souls. It is no doubt not by mistake that verse 3 of this psalm follows verses 1-2. What I mean is, it’s not by mistake that David ministers to the people in verse 3 only after quieting and calming his soul in verses 1-2.
When you’re gripped with the inner noise and restlessness of anger, frustration, anxiety, fear, and envy, there is a great temptation to tear down others. Perhaps it’s because these inner noises are rooted in pride and haughtiness, and pride tears down others. Perhaps it’s because, knowing you can’t control the things that bother you, you try to grasp for something controllable and feel that’s found in being able to tear down others. But it is only when we feel the security of knowing that the things causing all our anxiety or frustration or fear or pain are entrusted to the Lord that we will find ourselves free to turn to others and encourage them to do the same.
Therefore, let us this morning entrust our souls to the one who lived, died, and was raised for us. Let us repent of our pride and busying ourselves with things beyond our control. And let us trust in one who has proven himself loving and faithful. Amen.