Psalm 131 | How to Cultivate Humility and Trust in God

How to Cultivate Humility and Trust in God

Should you have an opinion on everything? Like you're supposed to be outraged about international crises, fix systemic problems, and campaign against every injustice whilst also maintaining your career, relationships, and mental health?

Dan Rogers recently unpacked Psalm 131 at Crowd Church, offering what he calls "an antidote to our increasingly anxious and agitated world." This ancient poem, written by King David over 3,000 years ago, addresses the need for the ability to remain calm and content when everything around us demands our attention, energy, and outrage.

Three Things Making Us Miserable

Before we can find peace, we need to understand what's stealing it. David identifies three specific things he had to wean himself off to achieve that calm, quiet soul. And interestingly, they're not the things you might expect.

1. Pride (When Your Heart Gets Lifted Up)

"My heart is not lifted up," David declares. But what does that actually mean?

Dan explains it brilliantly: "Imagine that pride is like a balloon of self on your insides, and as that balloon of self gets more inflated, there's less space for anything else or anyone else."

Think about what a proudly inclined person might say:

• How can I get others' attention and admiration?
• I'm not really interested in other people's ideas
• I only work with people who think like me
• I tend to be the exception to the rule
• I should be getting the credit for that

Sound familiar? Maybe not in ourselves, but certainly in others we know. The problem is that when we're full of self, there's no room for other people, new ideas, or God's Spirit. We become intellectually impoverished, under-resourced, and frankly, a bit of a liability.

Dan poses a challenging question: "No one who thinks they're the all-sufficient one is actually the all-sufficient one." Without outside input, we lack the necessary tools to understand others, relate well, see things clearly, and make informed decisions.

This is why James 4:6 tells us that God opposes the proud. Not because he hates proud people, but perhaps because he's trying to prevent them from causing too much havoc, thereby limiting the pain they inflict through their inadequate engagement with the world.

2. Haughtiness (When Your Eyes Are Raised Too High)

If pride is about being full of yourself, haughtiness is about looking down on others. David says, "My eyes are not raised too high", - which basically means his nose isn't stuck up in the air.

Dan found some brilliant synonyms for haughty: contemptuous, disdainful, snobbish, scornful, pretentious, and uppity. Haughtiness is the tendency to view ourselves as better than others, downgrading them in our minds.

Here's the frightening part: when King David's son Solomon wrote a list of things God hates, haughty eyes were first on that list. Before lying. Before murder. Why? Because if you've already downgraded people in your mind as less important or less valuable, treating them badly becomes much easier.

Dan challenges us to examine ourselves: "Are we vaguely disapproving of any particular groups of people? Ever scornful of people who behave differently? A bit snotty about people in certain positions?"

This isn't just about blatant prejudice. It's about inverted snobbery too - looking down on bankers, politicians, or anyone we distrust. Even cancelling people is a haughty act. "I cancel you. You don't deserve to be here."

3. Overreaching (Occupying Yourself With Things Too Great)

"I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me," David declares. Which sounds odd coming from a successful, popular king. What could possibly be too great for a king?

Dan points to several examples from David's life:

• He chose not to take vengeance on his persecutor's family when he had the chance
• He didn't resent God when God let his child die
• He declined to build the temple (his legacy project) when God said it wasn't his job

Even Jesus operated within limitations. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," he said. "The son can do only what he sees the father doing." Jesus, the King of Kings, was mindful of his remit.

However, we're not very good at this nowadays. Dan describes how we get "bombarded by other people's concerns, the things they get outraged about, and we get expected to get outraged about them as well." We're encouraged to campaign against international, complex economic issues outside our sphere of influence, let alone our understanding.

Why do we make those social media posts? Why do we get into arguments about things we can't change? Does it make us feel powerful, or do we just feel obliged because everyone else is doing it?

Dan's perspective is refreshingly different: "It is okay for us to not get involved in every issue which people are concerned about. It's not always our gig. We can say no."

What we can do—and should do—is pray. "We're making a direct appeal to the highest office in the universe. What better thing can you do?"

God's Framework: The Weaning Process

So how do we actually change? How do we move from pride, haughtiness, and overreaching to something healthier?

David uses a powerful illustration: "Like a weaning child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me."

Dan explains that weaning is a process. "It wasn't immediate, it wasn't magic, he didn't click his fingers and God didn't deliver him out of pride overnight. He had to work on it."

Just as babies are gradually weaned off milk onto solid food, we need to wean ourselves off pride, vanity, and presumption. It's not easy, but it's necessary. Dan humorously points out: "Who wants to marry a 25-year-old who hasn't been weaned yet?" Similarly, who wants to entrust responsibilities to someone who's anxious and agitated?

The emphasis in the psalm is telling. It's the only line that's repeated: "Like a weaning child, like a weaned child." This is to emphasise that this is the process. You have to wean yourself.

But wean yourself off onto what? That's where it gets interesting.

Making It Real: Hope in the Lord

David's specific instruction comes at the end: "O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore."

Dan offers several insights on what this means:

It's a summary of everything David has said about pride, haughtiness, and overreaching.

It's the opposite of those things David weaned himself off:

• Opposite of pride → humility
• Opposite of a heart lifted up → a heart bowed down
• Opposite of haughtiness → respectfulness

It's personal, not abstract. We're not hoping for some vague concept like "the universe." We're hoping in a person—the God-man Jesus, the Lord of the universe. Someone with a brain, who speaks words, makes decisions, and to whom we're accountable.

It's everlasting. Not a one-time activity you do when you're needy and abandon when you've got it figured out. It's a lifelong way of being. "From this time forth and forevermore."

What Changed: A Calm and Quiet Soul

The result of this weaning process is profound: "I have calmed and quieted my soul."

In our anxious, agitated world where everyone expects you to have strong opinions on everything, where social media constantly demands your outrage, where there's always another crisis to fix - this promise of a calm, quiet soul sounds like paradise.

It's not about ignoring real problems or avoiding genuine responsibilities. It's about discerning what's actually yours to carry and what isn't. It's about being humble enough to admit you don't have all the answers. It's about respecting others enough to see them as image bearers of God. It's about limiting yourself to what God actually asks of you.

Your Next Step This Week

Dan leaves us with several questions worth pondering:

About pride: When has pride led to pain, and was it avoidable?

About haughtiness: When has haughtiness caused harm, and was that fair?

About overreaching: What things are not your concern, but what things are your concern?

About hoping in the Lord: What does it mean for you today to hope in the Lord? Where could you make a good start? What should you avoid? How would you know if you're doing it well?

Here are some practical steps:

1. Audit your outrage - Look at what you're getting worked up about on social media. Is it actually your concern? Can you do anything about it? Or would prayer be more effective?
2. Check your heart - Where are you full of self? Where is there no room for other people's ideas, God's Spirit, or genuine connection?
3. Examine your eyes - Who are you looking down on? Which groups do you dismiss? Even inverted snobbery (looking down on the wealthy or powerful) is still haughtiness.
4. Limit yourself - What does God actually ask of you? Not everything. Not all the world's problems. What specific things is he calling you to engage with?
5. Hope in the Lord - This isn't passive waiting. It's active trust in a personal God who sees, who knows, who acts. It's bowing your heart before him and saying, "I trust you with this."

A Question Worth Asking

In a world that demands you fix everything, have an opinion on everything, and be outraged about everything, what would it look like to follow David's example?

What if you weaned yourself off pride, haughtiness, and overreaching? What if you limited yourself to what God actually asks of you? What if you learned to hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore?

Maybe you'd discover what David discovered: a calm and quiet soul. Not because you're ignoring problems, but because you're finally engaging with the right ones in the right way with the right Person.

As Dan says, "It is okay for us to not get involved in every issue which people are concerned about. It's not always our gig. We can say no."

And maybe that's the most counter-cultural thing we can do.