The weaned child

An aged minister once made the confession to another concerning this passage--“I wish it were true of me; but I think I should have to make an alteration of one syllable, and then it would exactly describe me at times: ‘My soul is even as a weaning rather than a weaned child,’ for,” said he, “with the infirmities of old age, I fear I get fretful and peevish and anxious, and, when the day is over, I do not feel that I have been in the calm, trustful frame I could desire.” And we have often to make the same confession. We wish we were “as a weaned child,” but then we are not. To the child weaning is one of its first troubles, and no doubt it is a terrible trouble to the poor little heart. But it gets over it somehow. It is a very happy condition of heart which is here indicated, and I desire to promote it in you. So--

I. Let us think what the psalmist meant by it. Look at the context and you will see that he meant--

1. That pride had been subdued in him. “Lord,” he says, “my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty.” We are all proud by nature. The Lord Mayor is not a bit prouder in his gold chain than the beggar in his rags. Great I grows without any watering, for the soil of nature is muddy, and the rush of pride takes to it mightily. You need never be troubled about a man’s keeping up his opinion of himself; he will be pretty sure to do that. David could say, “My heart is not haughty.” His brother Eliab said that he was proud when he went down to carry his father’s present to his soldier brothers, but it was not so. Whatever faults he had, he certainly had not that of vanity. Now, it is a great blessing when the Spirit of God keeps us from being proud. After all, we are nobodies, and we have come of a line of nobodies. The proudest peer of the realm may trace his pedigree as far as ever he likes, but he ought to remember that, if his blood is blue, it must be very unhealthy to have such blood in one’s veins. The common ruddy blood of the peasant is, after all, far healthier.

2. And next he tells us that he was not ambitious. “Neither do I exercise myself in great matters.” He was a shepherd; he did not want to go and fight Goliath, and when he did he could say, “Is there not a cause?” Else he had kept in the background still. We shall never be as a weaned child if we have got high notions of what we ought to be, and large desires for self. Baruch thought he was somebody, tie had been writing the Word of the Lord, had he not? But the prophet said to him, “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” We often seek after great approbation. And sometimes we are ambitious to do great things in the Church. The great destroyer of good works is the ambition to do great works. He is the best draughtsman, not who draws the largest but the most perfect circle.

3. He was not intrusive. “Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” Many men vex themselves because they will do what David did not. They want to understand everything. Some want to shape the Scriptures to their creed, and they get a very nice square creed too, and trim the Bible most dexterously; it is wonderful how they do it; but I would rather have a crooked creed and a straight Bible, than I would try to twist the Bible round to what I believe. The same evil comes up when we want to know all the reasons of the Divine providence. Why this happened and why that. When we begin asking, Why? Why? Why?--what an endless task we have before us! Now, from the simile itself we gather that the condition of heart David spoke of was like one who was able to give up his natural food. What nature loves the soul gives up. And that he had conquered his desires. Paul had, for he had learnt in whatever state he was therewith to be content. And doubtless, also, therewithout. And that as the child depends upon its mother entirely, so he depended upon the Lord.

II. The excellence of this condition. Desires will no longer worry you. You give your thoughts to something better than the things of earth. Note the psalm which follows this, for there David declares he will build for the Lord of Hosts. When you are free from fretting, worrying, and self-seeking, you are free to work for the Lord.

III. Is this state attainable? Certainly. David said, “My soul is even as,” etc. Not that he hoped it would be. What is the way to get it? The psalm tells us. “Let Israel hope in the Lord.” “Easier said than done,” says somebody. Yes, except by faith; but to faith it is easy enough. You unconverted, may the Lord make you first a child, and then “as a weaned child.”