John Calvin Commentary Psalms 131:2

"Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child with his mother, Like a weaned child is my soul within me." — Psalms 131:2 (ASV)

If I have not set, etc. He here employs a figure which appropriately explains what he meant, and likens himself to a weaned child. By this, he means that he dismissed all the anxieties which trouble the man of ambition and was willing to be satisfied with small things.

This assertion, which some might be inclined to disbelieve, he makes with an oath. This oath is expressed in that particular form which I have noted elsewhere, in which the imprecation is not stated directly but is left to be understood, to teach us caution in using God’s name.

Regarding the words, to set his soul like a child, it is as if he had said that he would frame it into such a likeness. And this he does, as he declares, with the aim of composing himself to silence.

For דוממתי, domaintee, is formed from דום, dum, and has the active sense of reducing to silence. The quiet of soul to which he alludes is opposed to those tumultuous desires by which many cause trouble for themselves and which throw the world into agitation.

The figure of childhood is used elsewhere in another sense, to convey rebuke (Isaiah 28:9).

Whom shall I teach knowledge? them that are weaned from the milk? and drawn from the breasts?

Here the Prophet censures the people for their slowness of understanding and for being as incapable of profiting from instruction as infants. In the passage now before us, what is recommended is that simplicity of which Christ spoke:

Unless you become like this little child, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3).

The vain desires by which men are carried away originate in their seeking to be wise and careful beyond what is necessary. David adds accordingly, my soul over me is quieted, not as expressing the language of self-confidence, but speaking as if his soul lay sweetly and peacefully on his bosom, undisturbed by inordinate desires.

He contrasts the wayward and tumultuous agitation which prevails in those of a discontented spirit with the peace which reigns in the man who abides in the calling of the Lord. From the verse with which the Psalm closes, we see the reason why David asserted that he had undertaken nothing in the spirit of carnal ambition.

He calls upon Israel to hope in the Lord. These words would have seemed abrupt if it had not deeply concerned the common safety of the Church to know that he sat upon the throne of the kingdom by Divine appointment. In that case, the faithful would be certain of the bestowal of the promised blessing.

Our hope is of the right kind when we cherish humble and sober views of ourselves, and neither wish nor attempt anything without the leading and approbation of God.