Psalm 131:2

2 Surely * I have ¹composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned ²child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.

Psalm 131:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 131:2

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 patiently under all his troubles and afflictions, reproaches and calumnies: or "if I have not" ^F16, being in the form of an oath or imprecation, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra observe; if I have not thus behaved, let it come to me so and so, or let me be as a weaned child. Noldius renders it by way of interrogation, "have I not composed and quieted myself?" &c. The Targum is,

``if I have not put the hand to the mouth, and caused my soul to be silent, until it heard the words of the law;''

as a child that is weaned of his mother:
and, for the further confirmation of it, it is added,

my soul [is] even as a weaned child;
innocent and harmless, had no more ill designs against Saul than a weaned child; humble, meek, and lowly, and had no more aspiring and ambitious views than such an one; like that, weaned from the world, the riches, honours, pleasures, and profits of it; as well as from nature, from self, from his own righteousness, and from all dependence on it; and as a child that is weaned from the breast wholly depends on its nurse for sustenance, so did he wholly depend upon God, his providence, grace, and strength; and as to the kingdom, he had no more covetous desires after it than a weaned child has to the breast, and was very willing to wait the due time for the enjoyment of it. The Targum,

``as one weaned on the breasts of its mother, I am strengthened in the law.''

This is to be understood not of a child while weaning, when it is usually peevish, fretful, and froward; but when weaned, and is quiet and easy in its mother's arms without the breast.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (yvpn) "animam meam", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus
F16 (al Ma) "si non", Montanus; "male sit mihi si non", Tigurine version.

Psalm 131:2 In-Context

1 O LORD , my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me.

2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever .

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 62:1
• 2. Matthew 18:3; 1 Corinthians 14:20

Footnotes

• [a] Or "upon"
• [b] Or "upon"