Root of Anxiety

The fifth ‘Psalm of the Day’ is Psalm 131. It is a Song of Assents. Of David. The first verse says, “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.”

The second half of that verse has often caused me to stop…why would he not occupy himself with things too great and too marvelous? Isn’t God the essence of that description? If our eyes are set on God…isn’t our mind set on things too great and too marvelous?

Well, today I decided to chase that rabbit trail and see where it led. The problem is I forgot to let the context set the interpretation. I would be easy to just let the second half of verse one become an excuse to not meditate, study theology, or doctrine, but that isn’t what David is saying.

Look at the first half of the verse, “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high…”. The context is pride. How often do we become anxious because we worry, because we stress, because we keep turning over and over again what we can do about a situation?

David is telling us something that is life-changing: the root of anxiety in our life is pride.

We become anxious because we cannot figure out how to answer the situation.

We have to learn to relinquish the prideful burden of managing the universe, at least our small part of the universe, of fixing every problem, and of having all of the answers.

What’s the answer? The first half of verse 2, “But I have calmed and quieted my soul.” When it becomes overwhelming, when you are tempted to become anxious, get alone, quiet your soul and remind yourself that God is God and you are not. Fix your eyes on Him and not the problem.

Step down, step out, step away…get quiet, breathe deeply, and focus on Him…He has this, and He can fix it. Isn’t that what we see Jesus doing when He gets away for some wilderness time?