Psalms 131 – 133

Verse 131:1 focuses on one of my “pet peeves” that is addressed frequently in the Bible:

O Eternal One, my heart is not occupied with proud thoughts;
    my eyes do not look down on others;
I don’t even begin to get involved in matters too big, matters of faith, state, business,
    or the many things that defy my ability to understand them.

Pride is one of those emotions that is not addressed in the Ten Commandments, but is very much a problem in man’s heart. Pride takes our focus off God and somehow we think it’s about us. Personally I get slammed every time I get full of myself and lose my attention from God. Ironically, racing motorcycles “getting slammed” had physical ramifications, so I was humbled painfully. We need to keep the focus on God and not think we are the reason for our success.

This “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” mantra is good for action, but it needs to be “God and me” and not just “me”. We cannot just pray and sit, we need to pray, listen and take action. We learn that sometimes we did not hear right and need to adjust things, but if you are following God these mistakes tend to be easier to rectify. Again as we have successful ventures we can easily shift the focus away from God, since the “world” is giving us the “at-a-boy” and not God. Key is be humble and don’t believe the lie God is not involved in our daily lives.

Verse 132:11 talks about David’s linage:

The Eternal made His own promise, sworn in truth to David,
    an oath which He cannot, will not break:
“I will continue your dynasty, David;
    one of your descendants will sit on your throne.

There was a period between the kings of Israel and Jesus where this was not true since Israel was occupied. Jesus fulfilled this promise once and for all. Think about all the kings of Israel since Jesus and since there are none it should be obvious that Jesus is the one. God has made a promise and kept it with the people of Israel and the world, we just need to embrace it.

Verse 133:1 talks about peace:

How good and pleasant it is
    when brothers and sisters live together in peace!

We tend to dream about world peace, yet family squabbles are frequent. It’s funny how we can be most pleasant to someone we don’t know, yet someone we love gets verbally abused without hesitation. I have seen this recently in our family dynamic which is very sad and disturbing. We need to learn peace within our family so we can live it truly in the world. The family works much better when we learn to work together and not against, imagine if that dynamic could then be moved into the world. Then peace would get a chance!!