A song of ascents. Of David.
1 My heart is not proud, LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
3 Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.
PSALM 131 BEGINS WITH A VOCATIVE, “LORD,” followed by three negated statements, each meant to indicate the piety of the psalmist. The first two statements refer to the psalmist’s relationship with others, while the last statement, to God.
My heart is not proud. The verb, gabah, translated as “proud” in the NIV, means to be high. The term itself is value neutral and can have a positive connotation. In Isaiah 52:12, for example, the prophet refers to the servant of Yahweh who shall be lifted high, hence suggesting a positive assessment of the servant; but when gabah appears with “heart” (leb), as in Psalm 131:1, a negative assessment is frequently expected. Perhaps this sense is no more strongly worded than in Proverbs 16:5a. In that proverb, the two words from Psalm 131:1a—gabah (“high”) and leb (“heart”)—appear. The Hebrew text reads literally, “every heart that is lifted high [’arrogant’] is an abomination [to‘abah] to the LORD.”
My eyes are not haughty. The language used in reference to the psalmist’s eyes is similar to the language associated with the psalmist’s heart—both refer to being lifted up or high. In verse 1b the verb is rum, which means “exalted” or “lifted up,” but with a negative connotation. For a similar use of “lifted up” (rum) with “heart” (leb) see Hosea 13:6. Twice before in the Songs of Ascent the “lifting up” of eyes has been mentioned. In Psalms 121:1 and 123:1 the psalmist lifts up his eyes. In those instances, however, the verb was nasa’ (“lifted up”), whereas in Psalm 131:1 the verb differs (rum). The former usage (nasa’, “lifted up”) suggests a posture of piety; the latter suggests arrogance.
I do not concern myself with great matters. As noted in the introductory comments, the English translation in the NIV fails to capture the image conveyed in verse 1c–d. The verb employed is halak, which means literally “to walk,” but in the piel form the verb could be rendered “to walk about.” Like the words mentioned above, to walk about is not a particularly negative activity. William Brown has convincingly argued that the “pathway” metaphor functions as one of the major images throughout the Psalter, and subsumed within that image is that of walking.3 What matters, however, is where one walks and in what posture. The opening lines of Psalm 1 exhort the psalmist not to walk in the counsel of the wicked or the way of sinners. Such wisdom should lead one down the right pathway. In Psalm 131 the psalmist invokes the image of pathway but in a nuanced manner. He explains that he has not attempted to walk (halak) in a way that concerns himself with “great matters or things too wonderful” for him. The phrase “great matters” or “wonderful things” (gedolot wenipla’ot) appears elsewhere in the Psalter typically to refer to God’s salvific acts in Israel’s history (e.g., Pss 86:10; 136:4; 145:5–6). Even when used individually, these terms refer to moments in Israel’s savlation history.4 Lest the interpreter misunderstand, the psalmist is not advocating that the humble person refrain from seeking to understand the world (i.e., “great matters”); rather, he is confessing that he is not God, nor does he try to do the things of God. Such attempts are little more than vain ambition.5 The humble walk otherwise.
INTERPRETERS HAVE SUGGESTED that perhaps Psalm 131 was composed by an Israelite woman. Verse 2, in particular, is suggestive of this possibility. The Hebrew in verse 2c literally reads, “My soul is like the weaned child upon me.” Could the author be an Israelite woman carrying a child while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Without question, women did compose prayers that were recorded. Miriam utters a prayer in response to Israel’s deliverance at the hands of the Egyptians (Exod 15:20–21), and Hannah utters two prayers in her desire for a child (1 Sam 1:10–11; 2:1–10). Other prayers by women appear elsewhere in the Old Testament (Judg 5:1–31; Ruth 4:14). In the apocryphal literature the prayers of women appear as well. For example, Sarah prays in Tobit 3:11–15, and Judith prays repeatedly in the book that bears her name (Jdt 9:2–14; 16:1–17). Perhaps best known is Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:47–55. This evidence suggests that the prayers of women, or scenes that reflected women at prayer, were collected as part of canonical or deuterocanonical Scripture.
When the interpreter turns to Psalm 131, however, there is not sufficient evidence to determine the gender of the psalmist either way.12
While the psalmist’s gender may be difficult to determine, the presence of feminine imagery is not. The imagery in Psalm 131 is that of an infant being comforted by its mother, with the psalmist self-describing as an infant and presumably God as the comforting mother. The use of feminine metaphorical imagery for God is not unique to Psalm 131. Although metaphors such as king, judge, and warrior appear with much greater regularity throughout the Old Testament, there are a number of texts that use feminine imagery to capture a particular understanding of God. In Isaiah 49:15, for example, God inquires, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the cild she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Similarly, in the final chapter of Isaiah God explains, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you” (Isa 66:13). In the book of Jeremiah, following the anguished cry of Israel to God concerning their desperate estate, God announces, “Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore, my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him” (Jer 31:20). While other texts use feminine imagery in different ways, the texts from Isaiah and Jeremiah employ feminine imagery to draw attention to the very compassion of God.13 This connection may inform our reading of Psalm 131. The psalmist portrays himself as an infant on the lap of his mother. His future is not secured by arrogance, “haughty” eyes (v. 1a–b), or an obsession with “great matters” (v. 1c). To the contrary, his future rests with the nourishing, consoling, life-sustaining God, whose care for his people is marked by his compassion. The psalmist can rest easy in the certain care of God, and likewise, all Israel can “hope” (v. 3) in the same.
AS SUGGESTED IN THE introductory material, this psalm can rightly be labeled a psalm of confidence. In this poem the psalmist confesses his trust in God. Trust is a frequently employed term throughout both the Old and New Testaments, yet despite its frequency, its precise definition remains elusive for most modern readers. Regrettably, because the term is so difficult to define, it has become minimized at best, if not altogether trivialized. For many people, a posture of trust simply signals a passive stance—the individual waits for God to do something. Such a definition of trust, however, grossly misunderstands all that trust involves. Trusting requires us to reject some things so that we might receive other things, as is particularly true in the midst of challenging and uncertain times. In the most difficult of circumstances we are prone to believe that we must save ourselves, and that, if anything, we must work harder, faster, and with greater determination to secure our future. Thus far the Songs of Ascent have included several poems that recount the troubling circumstances plaguing the lives of those who prayed these prayers (cf. Pss 120; 124; 125; 126; 129; 130). In light of the frequent references to difficult circumstances, we might anticipate that the final psalms in this collection would invite us to push back, to work harder, and to do more in the face of such trials. The psalmist does indeed call for us to take action, but this action comes in the form of relinquishment. We are called to relinquish our sense of self-reliance, hubris, and pride, and in its place to adopt a posture similar to that of a child—a posture that positions us so that we might experience the fullness of God’s compassion. James Mays explains this posture further by suggesting that “the stance adopted is that of a calm and patient soul, calm because ultimately it does not have to depend upon itself and patient because it does not believe that the present time is a prison.”14 Such a posture, however, runs counter to the reality that we know; we are anything but calm and patient, and we have been lulled into thinking that we can deliver ourselves. In such moments of delusional thinking we need the compassion of God to sweep over us, thus calming us, reassuring us, saving us. In that moment and every moment we need the posture of a child, the very model of the one invited into the kingdom of God (Matt 18:1–4).
1. Crow, The Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), 94. To say so is not to suggest that the psalm itself lacks elements associated with particular forms or genres. For example, Mitchell Dahood observes that the psalm has elements of a royal psalm (Dahood, Psalms 101–150, 180).
2. Walter Beyerlin, Wider die Hybris des Geistes: Studien zum 131. Psalm, SBS 108 (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1982), 71–80.
3. Brown, Seeing the Psalms, 31–54.
4. Crow, The Songs of Ascents, 95.
5. H. Stephen Shoemaker, “Psalm 131,” RevExp 85 (1988): 89–94.
6. John Goldingay translates that the verb shawah as “conformed” based on the qal form of the verb, which means “to be the same.”According to Goldingay, the psalmist has “conformed” his spirit to be like or to resemble the image that appears in the latter half of the verb, the nursed child (Goldingay, Psalms 3, 536 n. 13). In Ps 131:2, however, shawah appears in the piel, not the qal, thus making the preferred translation “to even out” or “to settle down.”
7. Crow, The Songs of Ascents, 95.
8. In 2 Macc 7:27 the mother speaks to her youngest son prior to his murder at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes. In the course of her exhortation, she mentions having nursed her son for three years.
9. Suggested by Nancy deClaissé-Walford in deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, 931.
10. Brueggemann and Bellinger, Psalms, 553; Goldingay, Psalms 3, 537; Keet, A Study of the Psalms of Ascent, 84–85.
11. Goldingay, Psalms 3, 538.
12. For a similar assessment see Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 448; deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, 932.
13. For other uses of feminine imagery associated with God see Deut 32:11–12, 18; Hos 11:3–4; 13:8; Isa 42:14; Ruth 2:12.
14. Mays, Psalms, 408.
AS SUGGESTED ABOVE, Psalm 131:1a–d included three negations (lo’) as part of a threefold declaration that indicated the behaviors rejected by the psalmist. In verse 2 the word lo’ appears again, but this time as part of the first phrase in the line, ’im-lo’, which often functions as an asserveration and is translated “indeed” or “surely” (cf. NASB, JPS). Alternatively, the term can be translated “but,” as rendered in the NIV. The latter usage captures well the the distinction between verses 1 and 2. In verse 1 the psalmist explains his posture of piety by highlighting what he is not (lo’) doing. By contrast, in verse 2 the psalmist explains his piety in the light of what he is doing.
I have calmed and quieted myself. The verb shawah means “to even out” or “to level” ground (Isa 28:25), or figuratively, “to settle down.”6 The second verb, “quieted,” comes from the root dmm, which means “to be silent.” The idea of “quieting oneself” or “being still” occurs elsewhere in the Psalter, though synonymous terms are employed in those contexts (e.g., Pss 46:11; 76:8). This language and imagery comports well with the larger concept of “abasing oneself,” or humbling oneself, in the presence of God. As Loren Crow suggests, perhaps this language refers to the “cultic postures intended to secure the divine favor” for the psalmist.7
I am like a weaned child. The metaphors in Psalm 131:1–2a provide a contrast between the posture of pride and that of a proper petitionary stance. In verse 2b–c the psalmist introduces the final image in this comparison, the mother-child relationship. Although the image appears obvious enough upon first reading, two questions have dominated scholarship on this psalm: the meaning of gamul (“wean”) and the sense and object of the preposition ‘al (“upon”). The verb gamul can refer to the time when a child has finally become weaned from her or his mother’s breast, typically around three years of age. This moment in the life of the family was marked with a family feast. Genesis 21:8 records the time at which Isaac was weaned from Sarah—and a “great feast” was held. Later, in 1 Samuel 1:20–23, the narrator refers to the time Hannah intends to take Samuel to Shiloh as soon as he is weaned.8 These passages could suggest that the metaphor of the weaned child in Psalm 131:2b would be beyond the age of three and consequently one “who no longer cries out in hunger for the mother’s breast, but who seeks out the mother for her warm embrace and nurturing care.”9 The preposition ‘al appears in the clause and is translated “with” in the NIV. More often, however, the preposition would be rendered “upon,” which would slightly alter the reading of the clause: “like a weaned child upon its mother.” If the above-mentioned proposal for the weaned child is adopted, then the preposition would imply a young child that is being carried by its mother (i.e., “upon its mother”). The image of trust is evident in this image.
While such a reading remains plausible, the image in Psalm 131 seems to point the interpreter in a different direction. The image of the weaned child likely refers to an infant who has just come off the breast, still resting upon (‘al) its mother.10 The child has received all that is necessary for life and physically enjoys the close bond between mother and child; the young child rests peacefully, assured that her life has been cared for and will continue to be so. Even as the young child trusted that her mother was the source of life, so too the psalmist trusts that his life is being cared for by God.
INTERPRETERS HAVE SUGGESTED that perhaps Psalm 131 was composed by an Israelite woman. Verse 2, in particular, is suggestive of this possibility. The Hebrew in verse 2c literally reads, “My soul is like the weaned child upon me.” Could the author be an Israelite woman carrying a child while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Without question, women did compose prayers that were recorded. Miriam utters a prayer in response to Israel’s deliverance at the hands of the Egyptians (Exod 15:20–21), and Hannah utters two prayers in her desire for a child (1 Sam 1:10–11; 2:1–10). Other prayers by women appear elsewhere in the Old Testament (Judg 5:1–31; Ruth 4:14). In the apocryphal literature the prayers of women appear as well. For example, Sarah prays in Tobit 3:11–15, and Judith prays repeatedly in the book that bears her name (Jdt 9:2–14; 16:1–17). Perhaps best known is Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:47–55. This evidence suggests that the prayers of women, or scenes that reflected women at prayer, were collected as part of canonical or deuterocanonical Scripture.
When the interpreter turns to Psalm 131, however, there is not sufficient evidence to determine the gender of the psalmist either way.12
While the psalmist’s gender may be difficult to determine, the presence of feminine imagery is not. The imagery in Psalm 131 is that of an infant being comforted by its mother, with the psalmist self-describing as an infant and presumably God as the comforting mother. The use of feminine metaphorical imagery for God is not unique to Psalm 131. Although metaphors such as king, judge, and warrior appear with much greater regularity throughout the Old Testament, there are a number of texts that use feminine imagery to capture a particular understanding of God. In Isaiah 49:15, for example, God inquires, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the cild she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Similarly, in the final chapter of Isaiah God explains, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you” (Isa 66:13). In the book of Jeremiah, following the anguished cry of Israel to God concerning their desperate estate, God announces, “Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore, my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him” (Jer 31:20). While other texts use feminine imagery in different ways, the texts from Isaiah and Jeremiah employ feminine imagery to draw attention to the very compassion of God.13 This connection may inform our reading of Psalm 131. The psalmist portrays himself as an infant on the lap of his mother. His future is not secured by arrogance, “haughty” eyes (v. 1a–b), or an obsession with “great matters” (v. 1c). To the contrary, his future rests with the nourishing, consoling, life-sustaining God, whose care for his people is marked by his compassion. The psalmist can rest easy in the certain care of God, and likewise, all Israel can “hope” (v. 3) in the same.
AS SUGGESTED IN THE introductory material, this psalm can rightly be labeled a psalm of confidence. In this poem the psalmist confesses his trust in God. Trust is a frequently employed term throughout both the Old and New Testaments, yet despite its frequency, its precise definition remains elusive for most modern readers. Regrettably, because the term is so difficult to define, it has become minimized at best, if not altogether trivialized. For many people, a posture of trust simply signals a passive stance—the individual waits for God to do something. Such a definition of trust, however, grossly misunderstands all that trust involves. Trusting requires us to reject some things so that we might receive other things, as is particularly true in the midst of challenging and uncertain times. In the most difficult of circumstances we are prone to believe that we must save ourselves, and that, if anything, we must work harder, faster, and with greater determination to secure our future. Thus far the Songs of Ascent have included several poems that recount the troubling circumstances plaguing the lives of those who prayed these prayers (cf. Pss 120; 124; 125; 126; 129; 130). In light of the frequent references to difficult circumstances, we might anticipate that the final psalms in this collection would invite us to push back, to work harder, and to do more in the face of such trials. The psalmist does indeed call for us to take action, but this action comes in the form of relinquishment. We are called to relinquish our sense of self-reliance, hubris, and pride, and in its place to adopt a posture similar to that of a child—a posture that positions us so that we might experience the fullness of God’s compassion. James Mays explains this posture further by suggesting that “the stance adopted is that of a calm and patient soul, calm because ultimately it does not have to depend upon itself and patient because it does not believe that the present time is a prison.”14 Such a posture, however, runs counter to the reality that we know; we are anything but calm and patient, and we have been lulled into thinking that we can deliver ourselves. In such moments of delusional thinking we need the compassion of God to sweep over us, thus calming us, reassuring us, saving us. In that moment and every moment we need the posture of a child, the very model of the one invited into the kingdom of God (Matt 18:1–4).
1. Crow, The Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), 94. To say so is not to suggest that the psalm itself lacks elements associated with particular forms or genres. For example, Mitchell Dahood observes that the psalm has elements of a royal psalm (Dahood, Psalms 101–150, 180).
2. Walter Beyerlin, Wider die Hybris des Geistes: Studien zum 131. Psalm, SBS 108 (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1982), 71–80.
3. Brown, Seeing the Psalms, 31–54.
4. Crow, The Songs of Ascents, 95.
5. H. Stephen Shoemaker, “Psalm 131,” RevExp 85 (1988): 89–94.
6. John Goldingay translates that the verb shawah as “conformed” based on the qal form of the verb, which means “to be the same.”According to Goldingay, the psalmist has “conformed” his spirit to be like or to resemble the image that appears in the latter half of the verb, the nursed child (Goldingay, Psalms 3, 536 n. 13). In Ps 131:2, however, shawah appears in the piel, not the qal, thus making the preferred translation “to even out” or “to settle down.”
7. Crow, The Songs of Ascents, 95.
8. In 2 Macc 7:27 the mother speaks to her youngest son prior to his murder at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes. In the course of her exhortation, she mentions having nursed her son for three years.
9. Suggested by Nancy deClaissé-Walford in deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, 931.
10. Brueggemann and Bellinger, Psalms, 553; Goldingay, Psalms 3, 537; Keet, A Study of the Psalms of Ascent, 84–85.
11. Goldingay, Psalms 3, 538.
12. For a similar assessment see Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 448; deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, 932.
13. For other uses of feminine imagery associated with God see Deut 32:11–12, 18; Hos 11:3–4; 13:8; Isa 42:14; Ruth 2:12.
14. Mays, Psalms, 408.
IN THE FINAL VERSE OF PSALM 131 the poet repeats Psalm 130:7a, “Israel, put your hope in the LORD.” (On the meaning of “hope,” see the comments on Ps 130:7.) Further, the psalmist reminds Israel that they are to hope and wait “both now and forevermore.” Goldingay suggests that this final line has a more immediate application to the audience. He writes:
the psalm commends a quietism that lasts forever. Israel needs to be prepared to settle down for the long haul with circumstances such as those of the Persian period described in Ezra and Nehemiah and forgo any attempt to bring in the kingdom of God, which is the venture of a lofty heart and eyes that look high. It needs to be prepared to wait forever.11
The first two verses of Psalm 131 refer to a proper posture of trust, and the same posture seems to constitute the rhetorical force of the final verse as well. The issue is not simply how long Israel will wait (i.e., “now and forever”) but that, as long as they do wait, they do so with a proper posture of trust. Like the infant child resting upon its mother, all Israel is called to trust in God, with the assurance that its collective life will be cared for “both now and forever more” (v. 3b).
INTERPRETERS HAVE SUGGESTED that perhaps Psalm 131 was composed by an Israelite woman. Verse 2, in particular, is suggestive of this possibility. The Hebrew in verse 2c literally reads, “My soul is like the weaned child upon me.” Could the author be an Israelite woman carrying a child while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Without question, women did compose prayers that were recorded. Miriam utters a prayer in response to Israel’s deliverance at the hands of the Egyptians (Exod 15:20–21), and Hannah utters two prayers in her desire for a child (1 Sam 1:10–11; 2:1–10). Other prayers by women appear elsewhere in the Old Testament (Judg 5:1–31; Ruth 4:14). In the apocryphal literature the prayers of women appear as well. For example, Sarah prays in Tobit 3:11–15, and Judith prays repeatedly in the book that bears her name (Jdt 9:2–14; 16:1–17). Perhaps best known is Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:47–55. This evidence suggests that the prayers of women, or scenes that reflected women at prayer, were collected as part of canonical or deuterocanonical Scripture.
When the interpreter turns to Psalm 131, however, there is not sufficient evidence to determine the gender of the psalmist either way.12
While the psalmist’s gender may be difficult to determine, the presence of feminine imagery is not. The imagery in Psalm 131 is that of an infant being comforted by its mother, with the psalmist self-describing as an infant and presumably God as the comforting mother. The use of feminine metaphorical imagery for God is not unique to Psalm 131. Although metaphors such as king, judge, and warrior appear with much greater regularity throughout the Old Testament, there are a number of texts that use feminine imagery to capture a particular understanding of God. In Isaiah 49:15, for example, God inquires, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the cild she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Similarly, in the final chapter of Isaiah God explains, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you” (Isa 66:13). In the book of Jeremiah, following the anguished cry of Israel to God concerning their desperate estate, God announces, “Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore, my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him” (Jer 31:20). While other texts use feminine imagery in different ways, the texts from Isaiah and Jeremiah employ feminine imagery to draw attention to the very compassion of God.13 This connection may inform our reading of Psalm 131. The psalmist portrays himself as an infant on the lap of his mother. His future is not secured by arrogance, “haughty” eyes (v. 1a–b), or an obsession with “great matters” (v. 1c). To the contrary, his future rests with the nourishing, consoling, life-sustaining God, whose care for his people is marked by his compassion. The psalmist can rest easy in the certain care of God, and likewise, all Israel can “hope” (v. 3) in the same.
AS SUGGESTED IN THE introductory material, this psalm can rightly be labeled a psalm of confidence. In this poem the psalmist confesses his trust in God. Trust is a frequently employed term throughout both the Old and New Testaments, yet despite its frequency, its precise definition remains elusive for most modern readers. Regrettably, because the term is so difficult to define, it has become minimized at best, if not altogether trivialized. For many people, a posture of trust simply signals a passive stance—the individual waits for God to do something. Such a definition of trust, however, grossly misunderstands all that trust involves. Trusting requires us to reject some things so that we might receive other things, as is particularly true in the midst of challenging and uncertain times. In the most difficult of circumstances we are prone to believe that we must save ourselves, and that, if anything, we must work harder, faster, and with greater determination to secure our future. Thus far the Songs of Ascent have included several poems that recount the troubling circumstances plaguing the lives of those who prayed these prayers (cf. Pss 120; 124; 125; 126; 129; 130). In light of the frequent references to difficult circumstances, we might anticipate that the final psalms in this collection would invite us to push back, to work harder, and to do more in the face of such trials. The psalmist does indeed call for us to take action, but this action comes in the form of relinquishment. We are called to relinquish our sense of self-reliance, hubris, and pride, and in its place to adopt a posture similar to that of a child—a posture that positions us so that we might experience the fullness of God’s compassion. James Mays explains this posture further by suggesting that “the stance adopted is that of a calm and patient soul, calm because ultimately it does not have to depend upon itself and patient because it does not believe that the present time is a prison.”14 Such a posture, however, runs counter to the reality that we know; we are anything but calm and patient, and we have been lulled into thinking that we can deliver ourselves. In such moments of delusional thinking we need the compassion of God to sweep over us, thus calming us, reassuring us, saving us. In that moment and every moment we need the posture of a child, the very model of the one invited into the kingdom of God (Matt 18:1–4).
1. Crow, The Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), 94. To say so is not to suggest that the psalm itself lacks elements associated with particular forms or genres. For example, Mitchell Dahood observes that the psalm has elements of a royal psalm (Dahood, Psalms 101–150, 180).
2. Walter Beyerlin, Wider die Hybris des Geistes: Studien zum 131. Psalm, SBS 108 (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1982), 71–80.
3. Brown, Seeing the Psalms, 31–54.
4. Crow, The Songs of Ascents, 95.
5. H. Stephen Shoemaker, “Psalm 131,” RevExp 85 (1988): 89–94.
6. John Goldingay translates that the verb shawah as “conformed” based on the qal form of the verb, which means “to be the same.”According to Goldingay, the psalmist has “conformed” his spirit to be like or to resemble the image that appears in the latter half of the verb, the nursed child (Goldingay, Psalms 3, 536 n. 13). In Ps 131:2, however, shawah appears in the piel, not the qal, thus making the preferred translation “to even out” or “to settle down.”
7. Crow, The Songs of Ascents, 95.
8. In 2 Macc 7:27 the mother speaks to her youngest son prior to his murder at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes. In the course of her exhortation, she mentions having nursed her son for three years.
9. Suggested by Nancy deClaissé-Walford in deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, 931.
10. Brueggemann and Bellinger, Psalms, 553; Goldingay, Psalms 3, 537; Keet, A Study of the Psalms of Ascent, 84–85.
11. Goldingay, Psalms 3, 538.
12. For a similar assessment see Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 448; deClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, 932.
13. For other uses of feminine imagery associated with God see Deut 32:11–12, 18; Hos 11:3–4; 13:8; Isa 42:14; Ruth 2:12.
14. Mays, Psalms, 408.