O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high;
  I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
  like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
    (Psalms 131)

A few Sundays ago, this psalm sung in the service caught my attention. It sounded very strange.
 
We love a “can do” attitude and I teach my children that nothing is too difficult. I would be less concerned about a high-achiever mentality than a lack of ambition. “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me” goes against my basic reflexes. However, I also find the psalm attracts, “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother”. It reminds me of John Whittier’s hymn “Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace”. It pictures Christian life in a posture of dependence on God and celebrates a life that rests transparently on the power that establishes one’s self.
 
Lest we think it is a matter of private piety, the converse of the pious life envisioned is one with a “heart… lifted up” and “eyes raised up”. The Bible often associates haughtiness with rebellious independence related to social oppression: “The wealth of the rich is their strong city, in their imagination it is like a high wall. Before destruction one’s heart is haughty” (Proverbs 18.11-12), “There are those-how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift!-there are those whose teeth are swords… to devour the poor” (Proverbs 30. 13-14). That the psalm ends with a call on Israel to hope in God is another indication that it is no mere private piety that is at stake.
 
On hind sight, it is a half truth that nothing is difficult in life. Its truth lies in encouraging us not to be deterred by challenges and may be necessary in cultivating self-confidence in some stages of life. However, surely there are things I cannot hope to do or do well. The danger is not simply psychological, having an impossible expectation of oneself and thereby creating strains and stresses. Not recognizing our mutual dependency and ultimately our dependency may indeed encourage an arrogance that devalues others and sows the seeds of social oppression or its connivance.

“Grant us to feel that without Thee we can do nothing—a feeling not of cowardly dependence but a feeling of hopeful strength, in the happy assurance that Thou art powerful among the weak”
   Soren Kierkegaard

Contributed by Hon-Wai
Sunday March 20, 2011
Liturgical Year A: Week 17
Liturgical Color: Purple
Sunday Gospel reading:

Second Sunday in Lent