Noisy Inside: Anti-Psalm 131

Sometimes, it's helpful to think in opposites. In Psalm 131, we encounter someone who has found true peace: a quieted soul who hopes in the LORD. In the chapter "Peace, Be Still" in his book, Seeing With New Eyes, David Powlison shows what the opposite of this Psalm looks like:

Self,
my heart is proud (I'm absorbed in myself),
and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people),
and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.
So of course I'm noisy and restless inside; it comes naturally,
like a hungry infant fussing on his mother's lap,
like a hungry infant, I'm restless with my demands and worries.
I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.

If we're honest, we can find ourselves living out"anti-psalm 131" instead of Psalm 131. We become focused on ourselves instead of our God. Brothers and Sisters, let us instead find peace and rest in our God. Let us hope in the LORD, both now and forever.

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. -Psalm 131 (ESV)