How The Propitiation Brings Us Perfect Peace
A short overview of Psalm 131
Some Notes On A Great Psalm
1) Psalms 120-134 are “Songs of Ascent” which means that these would’ve been sung by the people as they “ascended” upon the high hill where Jerusalem sat. This would’ve happened during the times of major Feasts (i.e. Passover). No doubt these would’ve been what came to Jesus’ mind when He went to Jerusalem for the final time in order to die. One can only imagine Jesus fighting to rest in the Father’s plan like “a weaned child”. But for Jesus, He would have to enter into the opposite if He was going to enable a multitude to embrace such a relationship with the Father.
2) John Walton says, “Later Jewish tradition suggests that these 15 songs were sung by Levites at the Festival of Tabernacles as they stood on each of the 15 steps leading to the main court of the second temple.” Once again, you can’t help but think about how Jesus is described in John 1:14 as “tabernacling” amongst us (in which He would become the new temple). The point of Psalms 120-134 is surely pointing us forward to Someone who would come to fulfill each of these psalms. These psalms would’ve fixed the pilgrims’ gaze upon the God of the Temple. When Jesus was “ascending” into Jerusalem He was no doubt fixing His mind upon His need to fulfill the ultimate purpose of the Temple.
3) Ps. 131 opens up with humility where the psalmist (maybe it is from David or the psalm is written in light of David) expresses that he is not like the proud people who think that they’re up high looking down at all those “sinners”. When the psalmist talks about how he has quieted his soul like a weaned child it is showing the picture of a perfectly resting newborn in his mother’s arms. He does not have a care in the world. Like Jesus asleep on the boat in Mark 4:34-50, the child of God (when they remember their God) can literally lay down to sleep knowing that God is working for them and protecting them.
It makes us look forward to when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane when His soul was “greatly distressed and troubled”. This phrased literally means He was scared to the point of death. It’s because Jesus entered the true “unrest” and chaos of God’s wrath that we can look to our Father and have perfect peace.
Overall Encouragement
When our hearts are troubled it is a sign of our unbelief in who He is for us. Like Jesus, the Father is gentle and lowly (Mt. 11:28-30). He is a Lion to our enemies and a Lamb towards those who are “bruised reeds”. What will help us rest more and more (literally and in our conscience) is meditating on who the Father is for us. Notice what the psalmist does. He fixes his eyes upon the Covenant Keeper and takes his thoughts off of the cares and troubles of his circumstances. No doubt this is what the “songs of ascent” would do as the pilgrim’s would journey up to Jerusalem to worship God in the Temple. We, too, are on our pilgrimage to the Celestial City, the Heavenly Jerusalem. And on our way we need to sing this psalm to remind ourselves of who is protecting us along the way and where we are going.