By Ashlie Miller

How do you make sense of the last 4+ years? Or let’s narrow it down to just 2024? Do you have more recent events in mind? Maybe you have been on edge with the political climate. Most of us are still very sensitive after friends and family have been devastated by Hurricane Helene. You may not even need to look further than your own address to find yourself asking God:  “What are You up to? Why are you allowing __________? Why are you not intervening in __________?”

The psalmist King David had many opportunities to ask such questions. We read lengthy psalms of his ponderings, but nestled within the book of Psalms is a concise psalm that beautifully reveals a man who is calm in extreme realities for which he does not have answers. 

Psalm 131

Verse 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.

As we look at things happening in our lives, it is tempting to expect answers to our questions about complicated things. It can be all-consuming. We can become anxious or hardened when we cannot comprehend or find access to answers. After all, at least we seem to get a story or explanation – even if it is misinformation – for almost everything. Google or social media seem to have at least molded our minds in that way. But David can live with the unreconciled mysteries. He knows fully well that wrestling with some questions could still leave him wanting or unable to grasp peace and understanding.

Verse 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.

David is poised with a presence of peace. How? He has learned to fully trust God, even when no answers are available or accessible for an undisclosed reason. He chooses to trust God – that reveals strength. It is not a lethargic, uneducated, unrefined blind trust. It is a response built on experience and relationship. Like a weaned child who has matured to the point of self-soothing and patience in the presence of his mother, David rests in what he knows is true about God’s love, care, and nature through his relationship with Him. That is all he needs. 

O Israel, hope in the Lord

 from this time forth and forevermore.

This may seem like a haphazard add-on to a psalm to the modern reader, but it is more than that. The king set the tone for the kingdom. Israel often lived in a holding pattern – a place of waiting and little explanation. Here, as in other psalms, David encourages the people of Israel to wait patiently and expectantly in the Lord because He has repeatedly proved Himself. While we wrestle with life’s hard questions and the mysteries of God, can we apply the psalmist’s lessons on His sovereignty?

Ashlie Miller and her husband, Chad, raise their family in Concord, NC.