Degrees, come to Psalm 131. Psalm 131, a song of degrees
of David, which reads as follows. Lord,
my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I
exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me.
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned
of his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from
henceforth and forever. Lord, my heart is not haughty
nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. This short psalm is placed in
the providence of God in this position amongst these songs
of degrees near the end as we come as it were to the summit
to the to the final resting place in the journey as the children
of Israel have climbed up towards Jerusalem up towards Zion as
they've come towards the city, as they've looked by faith towards
the priest, taking an offering on their behalf and sacrificing
it and shedding its blood and taking that blood in to the holiest
of holies, sprinkling it upon their mercy seat, and making
peace with God on their behalf. As they come into Zion on blood-sprinkled
ground, into the Lord's presence, spiritually speaking as they
come to the brink of heaven's glory, to Jerusalem above, to
Zion on high as the one people of God to come around the Lamb
of God, and to worship him as one company. Having come to this place, having
come to the altar and the sacrifice, having beheld, as Manoah and
his wife did, the sacrifice of God offered up, having seen the
Lord work wondrously on their behalf, the people of God, as
it were, fall down upon their face. and worship. And in this context, this Psalm
of David is recorded, placed here. And it comes, as it were,
as a sailor in this sequence of Psalms, as a pause, as a moment
to take one's breath, It's almost as though the psalmist,
as though David, is so awed by what the Lord has shown him,
so awed by the sight of the sacrifice, so awed by the glimpse of his
Savior, of Christ's work on his behalf, that he pauses, that
he sinks down to his knees, that is humbled before God and cries
out unto his God, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes
lofty. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. Surely I have
behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his
mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from
henceforth and forever. This is a psalm of humility, where David protests unto his
God, his humility. His God wrought humility in him,
how the Lord has brought him low. And the Lord has brought him
down before him to come before him as a child. And he stands
beholding the work of God, beholding the gospel, beholding
Christ's saving work by faith. And he's filled with awe and
with wonder. He feels his own position before
his God, that he is nothing in himself, that he has no strength,
that he has no might, that he has no ability, that he has no
righteousness, that he is nothing before a holy God. All that he
has, he has received by grace. All that he sees, God has shown
him. All that he has made to be, God
has made him to be. He sees everything that he's
put his own hand to, that everything he did was wicked and sinful in the
sight of God. If David looked back over his
lifetime, he'd have remembered The many things he did were returned
from God, and he went in his own strength, and he sought his
own way, and he brought trouble upon his head. But he would remember
also the long suffering and the grace of God that forgave him
in spite of all that he did and all that he was, that was gracious
unto him, That grace that restored him, that grace that kept him,
that grace that protected him, that grace that watched over
him, that grace that wrapped him up in the love and the mercy
of God. That grace that sent God's Son
in David's place to the judgment and the wrath of God in his stead. David throughout the Psalms,
throughout his life, was brought by God to see things hid from
multitudes, to see by faith the work of God in Jesus Christ for
him. His eyes were opened to look
through time to the sacrifice, the slaying of the Lamb of God
on his behalf. He looked through time to the
coming of that seed promised through his lime, the seed of
David, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He looked by faith and
beheld Christ sacrificed on his behalf. He looked by faith and
beheld Christ as the priest. going into the temple before
him, and slaying the lamb, Christ himself, and shedding the blood, and sprinkling that blood before
the mercy seat, and sprinkling the mercy seat with that blood,
washing David's sins away, answering every charge of God's broken
law against him, forgiving him of every transgression. By faith,
David was brought to see these things, and it brought him low,
it humbled him, it brought him to be able to say truthfully
out of his heart, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes
lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in
things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted
myself as a child that is weaned of his mother. My soul is even
as a weaned child." What a place to be brought to. Lord, my heart is not halted,
nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. Only God's grace can make a man
like this. Only God's grace and mercy in
the gospel can bring you or I to this place that David was brought. Only God's grace can bring us
to this Salem towards Zion, to behold the death
of Christ, to behold the sacrifice, to behold the blood of the Lamb
of God shed, and to be brought to be, to fall upon our knees
in awe and wonder at the work of God. And only God's grace
can bring down our heart our proud heart, our arrogant heart,
our striving hearts. Only God's grace can bring down
our heart to the point where we can say honestly that my heart
is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise
myself in great matters or in things too high for me. By nature
we are the very opposite, every one of us in our own way, puffed
up by our own pride, our own loftiness, our own self-importance,
arrogant by nature, self-serving, self-righteous. We are anything
but to you. Our eyes are lofty. Our heart is proud. We seek after
great matters and great things. We go after those things that
are too high for us. We desire them. We desire everything
we can gain. We desire the riches of this
world. We desire the position of this
world. We desire the praise of this
world, the adulation of this world, the status. We desire
power. We desire glory. We love the
praise of men. We are anything but humble. Only God's grace can take us
and break us and bring us to this place. Here the psalmist
is meek. He's humble. Consider who the
psalmist is though. This is David writing. King David. He who was brought to reign over
the children of Israel, to reign over Judah, he who ruled, he
who led armies in battle to great victories, he who dwelt in the palace, he
who was praised and sung about by those who said that he'd slain
his thousands, He who had slain mighty Goliath
when all the soldiers of Israel feared at the very sight of him,
this man whom the Lord had raised to a great height in the kingdom
of Israel, King David, someone who could in an earthly
sense, speak of those things that he had and did and was before
men, was brought before God inwardly in his heart to know that he
was nothing. My heart is not haughty, nor
mine eyes lofty, Neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in
things too high for me." Outwardly, there were those who
said he did. Before he came to be king in
the house of Saul, there were those who accused him, who felt
that he was after Saul's position. There were those who attributed
evil to him, who would have thought that David sought the throne, that he sought great matters
and things that were too high for him. This humble shepherd
boy, this nothing, who comes in our presence, who
does these mighty deeds, who does he think he is? He comes
as a shepherd boy and defeats Goliath and oh, who does he think
he is now? Who does he think he is? They
accused him. They derided him. But David knew
inwardly that he was nothing. God taught him this. Through
many trials, through much suffering, through many falls, David himself
turned from the ways of righteousness. He turned into his own strength.
He turned to his own wisdom many times. He was overcome by his
own natural passions and desires. The flesh overcame him. He fell
greatly. He was an adulterer, a murderer,
a liar. And yet God used these events
to bring him down, to break him. and to bring him back to his
Lord and Saviour. God humbled him. So many of the
Psalms we read David's heart when God broke him. Psalm 51,
have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me freely from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, the only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit." David
knew what it was to be full of sin, wretched, and for his only
hope to be that God should have mercy upon him, that God should
purge him with hyssop, that God should wash him and make him
whiter than snow, that God should blot out his transgressions. God broke him. God brought him
down. And here, humbled under the work
of God's grace and mercy, humbled at the work of God on his behalf,
humbled at the sight of the sacrifice, coming unto the cross as a wretched
sinner and falling down before Christ, lifted up before him
by faith, lifted up before the gaze of faith, seeing the Lamb
of God slain because of his sin. knowing that God's Saviour, God's
Son came because of his sin and died because of his sin, was
beaten because of David's sin, was bruised because of his sin,
was spat upon because of his sin, was cast out by all men
because of his sin, suffered under the wrath of God
because of his sin, knowing that Christ drunk the cup of God's
wrath, endured the darkness, felt the sword of God's justice,
endured the fires that are never quenched, was plunged into eternity
and hell in the darkness, for those three hours. Knowing that
Christ endured this, he went into the abyss for David's sake
and David's sin. David falls to his knees before
his God and says, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes
lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in
things too high for me. Oh Lord, what thou hast done
for me, In thy sight, how humble, how meek he is. And in so saying, he echoes the
heart and the words and the faith of Jesus Christ. We see in this psalm and in David's
words, as in so many others, Christ speaking. Christ is savior. in his place. How meek, how humble. David himself was accused of
thinking highly of himself, of seeking great things, as was
Christ. Christ's enemies accused him
of all manner of evil. They turned his words against
him. They tried to trap him in his
words. They tried to accuse him of things
which were not true. They accused him of being a winebibber. And because Christ came unto
sinners, they accused him of being a sinner like them, mixing
with them. "'Whereunto shall I liken this
generation?' Christ says. "'It is like unto children sitting
in the markets "'and calling unto their fellows and saying,
"'We have piped unto you, and you have not danced. "'We have
mourned unto you, and you have not lamented. "'For John came
neither eating nor drinking, "'and they say, he have a devil.
"'The son of man came eating and drinking, "'and they say,
behold, a man gluttonous, "'and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans
and sinners. but wisdom is justified of her
children. No matter what John did or what
Christ did, whether they ate or did not eat, whether they
drank or did not drink, their enemies would find that as a
reason to accuse them. Whatever Christ said, they would
have charged him with thinking too highly of himself. Or if in humility he came to
the place of sinners in the darkness, in the depths, in the valley,
and went to where they were, they accused him of mixing with
sinners. Oh, the opposition that we see. Matthew 13. From verse 53 we read, And it
came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables,
he departed thence. And when he was come into his
own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that
they were astonished and said, Whence have this man this wisdom
and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary
and his brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas? And his
sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then have this man
all these things? And they were offended in him.
But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honour, save in
his own country and in his own house. And he did not many mighty
works there because of their unbelief. They came and said,
who's he think he is? We know who he is. We know he's
the carpenter's son. We know he's Joseph's son. We
know his background. And here he comes speaking and
acting like some great one. How can he know all these things?
How can he say all these things? How can he do what he does? And though Christ came humbled
and meek before them, they looked on upon a pedestal. In John 10,
they accuse him of blasphemy because he declared himself to
be one with the Father. I and my Father are one, he said. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. Jesus answered, there are many
good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of
those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,
for a good work we stony not, but for blasphemy, and because
thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, is
it not written in your law? I said, ye are gods. If he called
them gods under whom the word of God came, and the scripture
cannot be broken, say ye of him whom the father hath sanctified
and sent into the world, thou blasphemous, because I said,
I am the son of God. He was the son of God. He spoke
the truth. Yet they accuse him of thinking
greatly of himself. The opposite was true. Christ
humbled himself to come into this world as a man. He came
in meekness. He came in humility. He came
from heaven's height. down into the valley of this
world, down into the darkness, down to where we wretched sinners
dwell. He came to where we are. He gave
up his glory. He gave up his place at the Father's
side. He gave up all in order to come
to where we are, in order to deliver us from our sins. He
gave up all He humbled himself even unto the death of the cross. He gave up all. He gave himself
in order to save us from our sins, in order to save his people. He gave up everything. He gave up all the riches of
glory. He gave up his position. He gave
up the comfort. He gave up reputation. He suffered
the outpouring of men's wrath upon him. He suffered the mocking
and the scorn of men, the rejection of men, the hatred of men. He was derided. He was trodden
underfoot. He made himself of no reputation. As we read in Philippians 2,
look not every man on his own things, but every man also on
the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, fought
in not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of man. and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. He gave up everything, everything,
to die in the place of sinners. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Christ, like David, But say,
honestly, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty,
neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things
too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted
myself as a child that is weaned of his mother. My soul is even
as a weaned child, As a child, David knew what it was to be
brought before his God as a child. Though a grown man, though a
man who was made the king of Israel, before his God, he knew he was
a child, he was nothing. He was dependent. He needed the
care of his Heavenly Father. He was as a child that is weaned
of his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. He needed to be looked after.
He was helpless. He thought not highly of himself.
He knew he knew nothing. He was dependent upon the teaching,
the guidance, the leading, the wisdom of his God and Savior.
He's as a child before him, as a child. Salvation comes for those who
are brought to be children before Almighty God. As Christ says,
these things are hid from the wise and the prudent and revealed
unto babes. unto babes. Again in Matthew
11, which we just read a moment ago, where Christ is accused
by his enemies of being a wine-bibber. The passage goes on, just a few
verses later, to say that at that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
I have hid these things from the wise and prudent. them unto
babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight." His enemies, the Jews, the Pharisees, who
were well learnt, who were full of the wisdom of their religion,
full of the learning of men, even in the Scriptures, those
who thought they knew accused him and found fault with him. But those whom Christ came to
save were the publicans and the sinners that they despised, the
nothings in this world that the somethings looked down upon.
Those who were brought to know their nothings Those who were
brought to see their nothing. Those who were brought to know
that they're wretched sinners before a holy God. Those who
know their children, their babes. It's those that God comes to
in grace and opens their eyes, gives them faith to see a savior. Gives them faith to behold him. He teaches them their sin. He
teaches them their need, and he points that unto his son,
crucified for them. David had a need. He was broken. And he came as a child, weaned
of his mother before his God, and said, help me, Lord. Help
me, Lord. Christ said elsewhere, suffer
the little children to come unto me. Accept you be as a little
child. You cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven. God will make us childlike. He will break us. He will humble
us. He will bring us down. He will
take away the haughty spirit. He will take away the lofty eyes. He will take away the wisdom
of man, the learning of man, the wisdom of man in the scriptures,
the wisdom of man in religion. He will bring it all to naught.
Oh, you may say, well, I've read and I've studied, I've studied
these writers and those writers, and you think you know the way
to heaven. And so many come to religion
and so many come to the scriptures and the gospel. and they come
to have an idea of who they think Christ is and how they think
they shall be saved. And they come with their own
wisdom, their own knowledge, their own works. Ultimately they
come before God and think God will be pleased with them because
of their devotion and their study, and they're learning, and they're
praying, and their attendance at worship, and all the things
that they have done, and all the things they're persuaded
of. They decided to follow Christ. They received him. They used
their will. They exercised their will. They
followed. They worked. Lord, Lord, we've
done this in thy name and that in thy name. It's all about them. But Christ says, except you're
brought to be a little child, except everything you've learned
from the day you were born, all that you've learned, all your
wisdom, all that you've done, all the things that you can look
at and point to and say, well, look at all my mighty deeds,
everything David had done, His defeat of Goliath, his defeat
of the enemy armies, his rising to the throne, all the things
he might look upon and say, well I did this. Even though God brought
it to pass, even though God gave him those victories, even though
God put him in that position, as a man if he looked at anything
he did, Then he would have come before
God, seeking salvation by his own will, his own works, his
own worth. But David was brought down to
see he was nothing, and everything he did was nothing, and everything
he had was nothing. He was made to be a child. And except we're brought to the
same place, we will never see, we will never know, we will never
enter the kingdom of heaven. All God's people are brought
here. They are weaned as a child. They're
brought to Christ as little children. The truth is revealed unto them
as babes. Their haughty heart is broken
down and humbled. Their lofty eyes are blinded. As Paul was blinded on the road
to Damascus, he thought he saw, and God had to show him that
everything you thought you saw until this day, Paul, until this
day saw, you never saw, you never knew. It brought you to persecute
the Son of Glory. It brought you to persecute the
church. It brought you, like those Pharisees
who put my son to death, to put him to death. It gained you nothing. All that you thought was gain
yourself, Saul, was loss. As Paul comes to say later in
Philippians, I counted it loss. I counted it as done, that I
might know Christ. It was all taken away. He was
blinded. and accept we are blinded in
ourselves and brought to see we're blinded and that we have
nothing, we've done nothing, we are nothing, when we're brought
there. born again of the Holy Spirit,
born again of God. When he brings new life into
us and causes us to cry out under him, Abba, Father, as babes,
as children, then he brings us in before him. We stop seeking
great matters and things that are too high for us. And then
as children, we come around the throne of Jesus Christ. We come
to the foot of the cross We come by faith to look upon
a sacrifice, the Saviour crucified for us. Let Israel hope in the
Lord from henceforth and forever. There was David's only hope. There was Israel's only hope. Jacob, Israel, God's people,
Everyone for whom Christ died are brought to hope in the Lord
and nothing else. From henceforth and forever until
they're brought to this point, this day, this place, this point
of pausing on their journey, this point where they're brought
up to see the sacrifice, to see the Saviour, to see the bloodshed,
and they're brought to their knees, and they see the Lord
work wondrously, and they're brought as children before Him.
to hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever. When they stop hoping
in themselves, when they stop hoping in men, when they stop
hoping in all that they have here below, and all that they
can attain to here below, and all that they've worked out here
below, and all that they've sought after here below, when they're
brought to an end of themselves and brought to an end of everything
around them, when they stop hoping upon others and trusting in others,
when they're brought to cease ye from man whose breath is in
his nostrils, to stop trusting in others, to stop trusting in
others in the church, to stop trusting in other believers,
to stop trusting in the faith of others, to stop trusting in
the wisdom of others or themselves, when they're brought to an end
of everything, when they're brought to death's door, where they cry
out, I'm lost, I'm lost, I'm guilty before a holy God. He's
right to slay me. He's right to destroy me. When
they're brought to where Job was brought, everything was taken
away. Everything was stripped from
him. All his family, all his riches, all his friends, his
health, everything. There he is at death's door and
there's nothing he's got. There's nothing there but to
look up. By faith and hope in the Lord
from henceforth and forever. When David was brought there,
then he knew that his God reigned. Then he knew that his savior
lived. I know that my redeemer liveth,
Job cried out. Then David knew that his Redeemer
liveth. Now on this journey up to Zion,
we stand here as we pass through Psalm 131 on the brink of entering
into Zion's corpse, on the brink of entering into the city and
the temple and the presence of Almighty God with the one company
of God's people as a people were on the brink of coming into the
presence of the Savior. We've seen the sacrifice. We're brought to pause. Oh, may
God give us that grace that he gave unto David, that he gave
unto Job, that he gave unto Saul. May he bring us to an end of
everything we are and everything we're striving to do and all
our attempts to save ourselves, all our attempts to make ourselves
acceptable unto a holy God and come before him with our hands
empty, crying out, Lord, I'm guilty. "'If thou slay me, thou
doest right. "'If he slays me, yet will I
praise him. "'I've got nothing, Lord, I am
nothing. "'My only hope is in that lamb
slain for sinners. "'My only hope is in that priest
who's taken the lamb "'and slain it and goes into the Holy of
Holies. "'Oh, Lord, wash me in the blood
of that lamb. Lord, hear my cry. Help me, Lord. Our only hope
is in the Lord. Oh, may God bring us here to
pause, to, as it were, at the summit of the mountain, behold
the view, to gasp in awe and wonder. May he open our eyes
to behold Christ, sacrifice for sinners, May he show us the blood. May he take that blood and wash
us in it. And may we, with David, look
unto a saviour crucified for us and say with him truly, Lord,
my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I
exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me.
I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of
his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. My hope is in the Lord, today
and forth and forever. Help me, Lord. Save me, else
I die. you