Psalm 131
1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
3 Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.
For anyone that is not familiar with Psalm 131, that is all the verses, just three. In the brevity of this scripture is danger of overlooking an important lesson because there is not a lot of setup, context or observation material. There is however one image which should be startling, the mother’s weaned child.
Thankfully in life we do not have an abundance of examples of children weaned unnaturally late. There is only one example I can draw from in a scene from the series Game of Thrones. A child of ten is seen nursing and as disturbing as the scene might be, it is compounded when revealed that this boy is the Lord of the Vale.
Relate this in biblical terms. The woman represents the church in scripture. The weaning represents the churches insistence that its child must grow in Christ and be dependent upon the church as the only source of spiritual nourishment. It is the churches responsibility to see that its children are weaned and not made dependent solely upon the church for growth in Christ.
I can think of nothing more disturbing than turning over church leadership to men who have not been weaned.
1 Timothy 3:8-10 Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.