Psalms

Psalms 131

3 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Yahweh, my heart isn’t arrogant, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me. 2Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3Israel, hope in Yahweh, from this time forward and forever more.

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2 commentators · 4 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17141

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–3

Here are two things which will be comforts to us: - I. Consciousness of our integrity. This was David's rejoicing, that his heart could witness for him that he had walked humbly with his God, notwithstanding the censures he was under and the temptations he…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–17633

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Lord, my heart is not haughty,.... The heart of every man is naturally so, and everything in civil life tends to make it more so; as riches and honour, birth and blood, wisdom, knowledge, and learning, strength and beauty, especially where there is a…

v. 2

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself,.... Or "my soul" (o); behaved quietly and peaceably towards all men, even his inferiors in Saul's court and elsewhere, and had given no tokens of a restless, turbulent, and ambitious spirit; as well as behaved…

v. 3

Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever. What he did himself, and found it good for him to do, that he knew was good for others, and therefore exhorts and encourages to it, to hope in the Lord and wait for his salvation; and which should be…

World English Bible — Public domain