Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 131 (MT) / Psalm 130 (LXX) is the shortest Davidic psalm — just 3 verses — and one of the Psalter's tenderest pieces. The 'I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother' (v. 2) is one of Scripture's rarest images: the SOUL-QUIET-LIKE-A-WEANED-CHILD. The weaned child (past-the-demanding-nursing-phase) rests with the mother not needing-anything, simply BEING-WITH her. Contemplative-tradition has made this verse a cornerstone of rest-in-God spirituality.
Notable Variants
131:2 'like a weaned child with its mother' contemplative-rest imagery; the brevity-and-depth pairing characteristic of Songs of Ascents; the mother-God-analogy implicit in the verse's subtext.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 131 = LXX Ps 130. 3 verses. Twelfth Song of Ascents. Davidic-attributed.
A song of ascents. Of David. LORD, my heart is not lifted up, and my eyes are not raised high. I do not walk among things too great or too wondrous for me.
'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' tracks MT. ANTI-PRIDE stance. The renunciation of ambition-beyond-one's-measure. Paul's Romans 12:3 ('not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think') and 12:16 ('do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly') parallel.
Instead, I have leveled and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child, so is my soul within 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' tracks MT. WEANED-CHILD-WITH-MOTHER. One of the Bible's most-tender images. The weaned child is PAST the crying-for-milk stage; rest is not utility but simply being-with. The contemplative-tradition (Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux) draws deeply on this image. The maternal-divine subtext is unmistakable: God as the mother with whom the soul rests. Isaiah 66:13 ('as one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you') extends the mother-God imagery.
Let Israel wait for the LORD from now until forever.
'O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore' tracks MT. HOPE-IN-THE-LORD closing — from personal-contemplation (vv. 1–2) to corporate-hope (v. 3). The liturgical close shared with other Songs of Ascents.