When We Focus on Self

I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother. —Psalm 131:2

Several years ago I picked up the booklet Stress: Peace Amid Pressure, an exposition on Psalm 131. In that booklet, the author included an alternate version of this psalm, written as if we don’t have a quiet heart. Instead of being Lord-focused, it was self-focused.

Self,
My heart is proud,
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 everything all the time.²

If I don’t live according to Psalm 131, my heart will be restless and fussy with worry. But when I set my hope on God, I’ll have a quiet heart.

² David Powlison, Stress: Peace Amid Pressure (Philipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2004) 6–7.