The Lap Of God; Our Place Of Rest

The Lap Of God; Our Place Of Rest

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever. (‭Psalms‬ ‭131‬:‭1-3‬ NASB)

I want to take just one of my children as an example this morning. Elsa is our three year old girl. She is the cutest thing to walk the planet, yet has a deceiving spirit about her so deep that she was lock eyes with you anticipating the instant you look away so she can do something forbidden to her. She is both sweet and sour.

Most days she gets into some sort of trouble. Whether she is carrying the dog about the house, hitting her brother with a lego, rummaging through Mom’s top drawer and polishing her body with homemade lotion, or grabbing her sister’s phone off the counter; she is mostly getting into trouble. Yet, there is one place in all of creation where she sometimes rests with a quieted soul; Mom’s chair.

Karie (my wife) has a worn, leather recliner that sits cornered in our living room. She spends her mornings there in study and her evenings relaxing and learning. It is where she camps when we watch an evening movie.

Elsa loves to grab her blanket and snuggle just slightly on the right side of her Mom in the evenings. Elsa will rest her head against Karie’s chest and have the perfect quieted soul. It is sweet. It is her place of respite.

When I first read Psalm 131 this morning I couldn’t get my mind around David’s words. How can a man get to a place where he says he is not proud, nor does he have haughty eyes? How can he not be filled with pride while boasting he is not proud? Then it came to me this place of rest he was describing while he rested against his God.

We might find ourselves running here and there throughout the day and getting into all sorts of trouble. We might find that we have sinned yet again out of a mouth that boasts of great things. Yet there is a place of rest that is not far from each of us. This place is intended to make the sinner forget about himself to the point where a proud heart and haughty eyes are forgotten. This place is found in the arms of Jesus. My beloved wife is imaging her Savior every time she opens her arms wide to allow Elsa to climb up and rest her soul.