1A song of ascents for David.
LORD, my heart has not been haughty,
nor have my eyes looked too high,
nor have I striven for great things,
nor for things too wondrous for me.
2But I have calmed and contented myself
like a weaned babe on its mother–
like a weaned babe I am with myself.
3Wait, O Israel, for the LORD,
now and forevermore.
PSALM 131 NOTES
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1. LORD, my heart has not been haughty. This simple, concise, and affecting expression of humility shows no signs of cultic or public function, and is a good illustration of how the psalm as a poetic form of spiritual expression often stands outside the generic categories that scholars have constructed.
striven for great things. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “gone about in [or among] great things.”
2. I have calmed and contented myself / like a weaned babe on its mother. There is some margin of doubt about the precise meaning of the two Hebrew verbs. The first sometimes has the sense of “to level” or “to make even,” which may be applicable here. The second probably means “to quiet.” The evident image is of a newly weaned baby embraced and comforted (the force of the preposition “on”) by its mother and therefore calm, even though deprived of the breast.
like a weaned babe I am with myself. The Hebrew says literally “like a weaned babe I am on myself.” The wording is cryptic, though the idea that emerges is quite touching: the person content with his lot, who does not aspire to grand things, is able to give himself the kind of reassuring calm that a loving mother gives the weaned child whom she comforts. After the rejection of images of reaching beyond—the eyes looking high, the striving for or going about among great things—the speaker evokes a sense of beautiful self-containment, an embracing of one’s self like a child.
3. Wait, O Israel, for the LORD. Either this conclusion on a collective note is an editorial addition, or the condition of quiet contentment of the speaker is being proposed as a model for how a trusting Israel should wait for the LORD.