God’s Kind of Peace For Us
2 “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the LORD, From this time forth and forever.” Psalm 131:2-3 NKJV
It is important to me to realize in this Word, a fact that I always believed and now see spelled out for daily application. Here the Psalmist (who is thought to be David) is saying that he can quiet and calm His own soul. In fact he has done so. We pray to the Lord to bring us peace in our lives and peace in our thoughts, that we would be set free from worry and apprehension by His hand. The Psalmist however has calmed and quieted his own soul.
That is good news. It means that already invested in us is the ability to calm ourselves when we are worried or troubled. I don’t have to wait on Him to do something, for He has already done it! I have the ability through Him to quiet the restlessness in my thoughts and remove the troubled anxieties from my mind. I have the ability to do that and I do not need to be asking Him for the peace that He has already provided for me. As the Psalmist knew he could do this, how much more can we do so today? The Psalmist did not have the victorious Savior yet defeat and publicly show up the enemy, but you and I do. We have all the power already in us to achieve that peace in our souls. The peace is in our hands.
It is that fullness of peace that will be with contentment despite the situation, much as a child is contented and at peace when at the mother’s breast. Think of that kind of peace and security! Now worries, fears or doubts. The baby does not question anything in their life because at that moment they have all they need and they are wrapped in care free security.
Our hope and assurance are in the Lord forever and forever. That means it does not matter what may appear to be taking place. It does not matter what you think may be coming in the days, weeks or months ahead. Those are only fears, unrealized fears that have no reality because they are merely speculations about “what ifs”. They are meaningless because we have the assurance of deliverance and favor from the Lord. Our souls should be as the weaned child with his mother, carefree and perfectly provided for. Our souls should be that portrait of peace.
J Todd Hostetler