Side by side
Psalm 131
Our plain-language guide next to the Bible text. Each row lines up one section with the verses it explains.
Section 1: The Quieted SoulVerses 1 to 2
"My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me" (131:1).
Three renunciations: no proud heart, no haughty eyes, no grasping for what is above. This is not lowly self-pity — it is deliberate, chosen humility.
"Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me" (131:2).
The image is precise: not a nursing child, crying and demanding. A weaned child — past the stage of urgent hunger, now simply resting with its mother. Content to be near.
1A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me. 2Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Section 2: O Israel, HopeVerse 3
"O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore" (131:3).
This closing line is identical to Psalm 130:7. What the individual has found — the quiet place, the stilled soul — is offered to the whole community.
3O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, both now and forevermore.
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