"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 for ever."
The weaned child
Children were weaned around age two or three (compare Hannah and Samuel, 1 Samuel 1:22–24; Isaac's weaning feast, Genesis 21:8). A weaned child no longer cries to be fed but rests contentedly on its mother. The image is of trust without demand. Because the verb forms can be read as a woman's words, some interpreters suggest the speaker is a mother holding her child.
Humility
Three verses: humility (v. 1), contentment (v. 2), hope for all Israel (v. 3). The heading names David; the library's Vulgate has "Canticum graduum David." The image of a mother God appears also in Isaiah 49:15 and 66:13. The heading "A Song of degrees" (Vulgate "Canticum graduum") marks it as one of the fifteen Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134; see Psalm 120 for the possible meanings).
Later readers
No New Testament writer quotes Psalm 131. In Christian spiritual writing it became a classic text for humility and contemplative rest; the library's Vulgate renders v. 2 "sicut ablactatus est super matre sua."
What the evidence shows
- Psalm 131 may be spoken by a woman.
Continue the journey
Connected elsewhere in ScriptureHannah at Shiloh1 Samuel 1:22–24: Samuel weaned.More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- Samuel weaned.
- "As one whom his mother comforteth."
- "Become as little children."