Ps. cxxxi. 2. My soul is even as a tveaned child.
AMONG the great variety of representations whereby the Christian's character is set forth in the Holy Scriptures, that of a little child holds a very distinguished place a. To this we annex the idea of humility, and teachableness, and resignation to the will of our heavenly Father. In this last view more especially the behaviour of a child was beautifully exemplified in the conduct of David. He had been anointed to the kingly office by God's command; yet he waited patiently for many years without ever aspiring to the kingdom, till the Lord's time came to give it him. Though he was persecuted with mur- derous rage and jealousy by Saul, he would never lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed, or give occasion of offence to the government under which he lived : on the contrary, he appeals to God in this psalm, that he had not indulged any ambitious thoughts, or interfered in any affairs of state, but had acquiesced in the disposals of an all-wise Pro- vidence, even as a weaned child does in the direc- tions and government of his mother b.
To illustrate this disposition of mind, we shall shew,
I. What those things are from which we ought to be weaned —
[The circumstances alluded to in the text will serve to direct our thoughts. David's indifference to all the pomp of royalty shews, that we should be weaned from pleasure, from riches, from honour, from every thing which we possess in this world.
Pleasure is but ill suited to the advancement of a soul in the divine life. There are indeed pleasures which we may law- fully enjoy : but if the heart be set upon them, we cannot pro- perly engage in that race which we are to run, or that warfare we are to maintain: nor can we have anymore decisive evidence of our being still unrenewed by divine grace c.
Riches also may be possessed with innocence ; but they must
a Matt, xviii. 3. l) ver. 1, 2.
r Luke viii. 14. 2 Tim. iii. 4. Jam. v. 1, 5. 1 Tim. v. 6.