Sweating for Babel When We Could Be Vacationing in Eden

Psalm 131

It is a bit early for a Christmas song, but I want to play for you one that Jason Gray wrote, “Rest, the Song of the Innkeeper.”

I found them standing in my door
In the clumsy silence of the poor
I’ve got no time for precious things
But at least they won’t be wandering
If they’re sleeping on my stable floor

There were no rooms to rent tonight
The only empty bed is mine
‘Cause I’m overbooked and overrun
With so many things that must be done
Until I’m numb and running blind

I need rest, I need rest
Lost inside a forest of a million trees
Trying to find my way back to me
I need rest

As a boy I heard the old men sing
About a Kingdom and a coming King
But keeping books and changing beds
Put a different song inside my head
And the melody is deafening

I need rest, I need rest
Like a drowning man in the open sea
I need somebody to rescue me
I need rest

To Rome we’re only names and numbers
Not souls in search of signs and wonders
But we’re waiting for the day of our salvation
The messiah who will be our liberation
We’re waiting, I’m waiting

I need rest, I need rest
Oh come oh come Emmanuel
With a sword deliver Israel
I need rest

Tonight I can’t get any sleep
With those shepherds shouting in the streets
A star is shining much too bright
Somewhere I hear a baby cry
And all I want is a little peace

These lyrics are based on the traditional understanding that there was no room for Jesus in the inn and so he was born in a stable. I preached last Christmas about why this is most likely not what happened. Mary and Joseph were welcomed into a home where the stable was attached to the home, but because the guest room was full, when Jesus was born he was laid on the straw of the feeding trough. But that is a historical detail. What made me want to use this song to introduce Psalm 131 is the refrain of the innkeeper who was “numb with the things to be done,” who was “lost inside a forest of a million trees.” We resonate with the innkeeper who longs for rest.

I drove to meet a friend for lunch this past week, leaving just after noon, in the midst of the lunchtime traffic crunch. I left in a good mood, but half an hour later when I arrived at my destination, I was filled with the adrenalin of stress. People are so aggressively self-centered when they drive here in Rabat it sucks life out of me. The half-hour of driving probably cost me a couple weeks of my life.

Studies have been done with rats, mice, and other animals showing that when our living space becomes too condensed, we develop neuroses and diseases. Congested living is not the ideal for us. I like to say that God created a garden of Eden, not a city of Eden. Unfortunately, more than half the world’s population lives in cities and even more unfortunately, I am living with the majority.

I dream of living in the country with a five mile walk through countryside and forests into a small town where there are just a few stores, including a small restaurant where I could have breakfast with a few other men, share reflections from the Bible, pray for each other, and then walk the five miles back to home where the dominant sounds are the squirrels and birds and the wind blowing through the trees.

The stress of city life is tiring and many of us cry out, “I need rest.”

But the rest we need is not simply relief from the hustle and bustle of city life. There are many people living in the country who also cry out, “I need rest,” and there are people living in the cities of the world who are living restful lives. There is a deeper rest that we need and the innkeeper sings about that at the end of his song.

To Rome we’re only names and numbers
Not souls in search of signs and wonders
But we’re waiting for the day of our salvation
The messiah who will be our liberation
We’re waiting, I’m waiting

I need rest, I need rest
Oh come oh come Emmanuel
With a sword deliver Israel
I need rest

This is the rest Psalm 131 speaks about.
My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.

A nursing child greedily sucks at the breast for milk. A nursing child is demanding. A nursing child worries, straining for the breast, crying when it does not get the milk it craves. But the picture here is of a weaned child at rest in its mother’s arms. The child no longer demands milk, it has learned to find its own food. The child is not grasping, demanding, struggling. The child is at rest in the arms of the one who protects and nurtures. The child is content.

Likewise, the soul of the psalmist is not struggling and striving. The soul of the psalmist is not consumed with worry and anxiety. The soul of the psalmist is not trying to be the adult, in charge and in control of all around him. The soul of the psalmist does not worry if God accepts him and loves him. The soul of the psalmist knows he is loved and safe in the arms of his Lord.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

The psalmist has learned to put his hope in the Lord and is at peace. This is a deep rest that helps us to be at peace even when we have to endure rude traffic behavior in cities.

In the Parenting Children course some in the church have taken, there are interviews with children to illustrate points that are being made. In discussing the importance of physical affection, one brother and sister talk about koala hugs. This is when they climb up their mother as if she was a tree and hold on. When asked how that feels, the boy said, “It feels relaxed and safe.” Another child said being hugged by his parents, “makes me feel like I’m not surrounded by nothing.” Another child said it was “like sitting in a blanket.”

A weaned child in its mother’s arms is a child who feels safe and secure, who is not anxious or worried, who feels loved and cared for. A child can feel scared and come to its mother and feel safe. A child can have a bad dream and come to its mother and feel protected. A child can be anxious about going to school and come to its mother and be held safe and secure and the fears about school will seem not so large. A child can go out to play, go to school, experience the world, and then come back to its mother, climb in her lap, and rest.

Young children experience this with their mother. But it still feels good as an adult to have the arm of a loving parent around your shoulder. In the oral history I wrote with my father, there is a picture of us sitting on a sofa with his arm around me. I remember when that picture was taken. I remember how I felt when that picture was taken. It was a rare event in our lives, but much appreciated by me.

Young children have little difficulty running to their mother to be held, but it is more difficult for us to do this as adults. We have difficulty as adults being at rest but we still want to know that there is someone older, stronger, and wiser who loves us and can help us and make us feel safe and secure. As we step out into the world and become aware of the larger issues of life, a parent’s lap is not sufficient. We need to sit in the arms of God and realize that all is well. God is in control. We are safe and secure. We need to rest in the presence of God who assures us: (Hebrews 13:5)
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

Psalm 131:1 points out two obstacles to this sense of rest.
My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

The first obstacle to rest is the sin of pride.
My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;

Pride places me in front of the line, at the center of the world. Pride makes me more important than anyone else. Pride is being self-centered, evaluating people and the world to see how I am affected. Pride prevents us from relaxing because it demands we pay attention to see that we get what we want. Pride keeps us on our toes to protect our position, to make sure we are getting the attention and respect we deserve. Pride worries about how our actions are perceived. Pride tells me I can take care of myself and I don’t need anybody else. Pride wants me to solve my own problems and not share them with someone else. Pride is tiring. Pride sucks up a lot of our energy.

What is the antidote to pride? As with everything else of worth, the antidote to pride is seen in the life of Jesus who was a servant leader. (Philippians 2:1–5)
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

The antidote to pride, which undervalues other people, is to value people by serving them. This was modeled by Jesus who humbled himself to serve us. On the night he was arrested he was with his disciples and modeled for them how to lead. He got on his knees and washed the feet of those he loved. He did the work of a servant and then told them: (John 13:12–17)
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

On a day when we have installed Patrick as our Associate Pastor, it is a good reminder that a pastor is to lead by being a servant. There are some cultures that elevate the pastor to an exalted state. This is not at all Biblical and must be resisted. A pastor does not live to be served. A pastor lives to serve those whom God has given him as his charge.

All of us, pastors or not, need to value the people around us more and not place ourselves at the center of our universe. We need to spend less time focusing on ourselves and more time considering what it would be like to live the lives of those around us. We need to spend more time praying for the people we pass in the streets, the halls of our workplace, and in our homes and neighborhood. We need to consider how God wants us to love them and care for them. When we live to serve, pride is diminished. When we are no longer the center of our world, it is easier for us to rest.

Pride is one obstacle to rest and the second obstacle that David mentions in verse one is the sin of presumption.
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

Pride undervalues other people, presumption overestimates and overreaches ourselves. Presumption assumes we can completely understand the mysteries of the universe, it tries to make us masters of our own destiny.

It is good for us to be intellectually curious. Adam was instructed to name the animals of Eden and the continuation of that effort is to seek to understand animal behavior and seek to understand the rising of the sun and the movement of the stars. This is good and healthy, but then we begin to take pride in all we know and presume that we are masters of our world. We press on and on and while we make progress, incredible progress in recent years, we still bump our heads against mysteries that are too great for us to understand.

We bump against the mysteries of the universe but even more so we bump against the mysteries of God. Why does God allow evil to reign? If the devil was defeated when Jesus rose from the dead, why is he allowed to continue to cause such misery in the world? Why does God allow a good person to die in their youth and a greedy, selfish person to live to an old age? Why does God allow the suffering of the world to continue? Why has God not called an end to time? Why does God save some people and not others?

The antidote to pride is to value others and serve them. The antidote to presumption is to direct our intellectual curiosity, our desire to understand, our creative energies. The way we do this is to understand that what we do in this world cannot have ultimate importance because it is not going to last. We work at our jobs but we long for heaven. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:12–14:
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We live life with a joyful expectancy. We don’t have all the answers but we know who loves us. We live as Paul encouraged us to do in Romans 8:15 (The Message):
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”

We live in a world that we cannot control and that is unnerving. I watch the news and see a world that is continually frightening. The civil wars in Central African Republic and Syria are creating misery in the lives of their citizens. When these civil wars end, others will erupt. The typhoon in the Philippines will not be the last typhoon or hurricane to inflict great damage. Because of climate change, the storms of the future will be more severe, not less. Tectonic plates continue to move and somewhere in the world, silently, the pressure is building and about to create havoc in the lives of unsuspecting people above ground. Politicians use their positions for personal gain. They rule at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve.

How can I be at rest when I live in a world that is so unsettling? I need to rest in the arms of someone who is bigger and stronger than I am and who can tell me I am safe and secure when I am in his arms.

Only Jesus has arms big enough for me. Only Jesus can make me feel safe and secure in this unsettling world. And it is pride and presumption that stand in the way of the rest I need. Eugene Peterson wrote about this psalm.

Ambition is aspiration gone crazy. Aspiration is the channeled, creative energy that moves us to growth in Christ, shaping goals in the Spirit. Ambition takes these same energies for growth and development and uses them to make something tawdry and cheap, sweatily knocking together a Babel when we could be vacationing in Eden.

I borrowed this phrase for the title of this sermon. When I read this it grabbed me on an emotional level. Sweating for Babel when I could be vacationing in Eden.

Paul Simon wrote:
We work at our jobs
Collect our pay
Believe we’re gliding down the highway
When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away

We sweat for Babel, making our work our god. We use up our emotional energy worrying about how our career is advancing, how we will get the money we need for a house, car, and vacation. We try to live up to the expectations of others. We want to impress people we grew up with by being successful in life. And meanwhile we’re slip slidin’ away. We sweat for Babel when we could be vacationing in Eden.

Charles Spurgeon said about this psalm:
Psalm 131 is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn.

This is a life-long struggle. To gain the proper perspective will not happen overnight. Eugene Peterson wrote about what we need to find rest:
I will not try to run my own life or the lives of others, that is God’s business. I will not pretend to invent the meaning of the universe. I will accept what God has shown its meaning to be. I will not noisily strut about demanding that I be treated as the center of my family or my neighborhood or my work, but seek to discover where I fit and do what I am good at. The soul, clamorously crying out for attention and arrogantly parading its importance, is calmed and quieted so that it can be itself, truly.

When we quiet down our pride and presumption, we begin to allow our soul to climb into the arms of God and be at rest.

Perhaps part of what we need is a renewed focus on keeping the Sabbath. Annie has been reading and thinking a lot about Sabbath living. In her most recent blog she wrote that  Jews spend Sunday, Monday and Tuesday remembering the Sabbath, and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday preparing for it. Sabbath is not just a day off, it is an intentional day directed at relaxing, remembering, and restoring.

You may be in a period of life when taking a restful Sabbath is not really feasible, but any effort we put toward this will be helpful. And the benefit is that when we do, we will be able to come in from the worries and anxieties of the world, sit down in the presence of Jesus and be held in his arms.

I have shared my strongest adult memory of this before. It was when I was in seminary and overwhelmed with papers and exams and relational problems. I pulled my feet up on the chair, pulled a blanket over my head, climbed back into the womb, and prayed. And as I prayed I felt the arms of God embrace me and I felt safe and secure.

I need that experience again. I need this psalm to be my experience. You also need this psalm to be your experience. I don’t have to know the details of your life. The fact that you are a human being, created in the image of God, tells me you need this experience. You may be skilled at taking care of yourself and others, but you need to be loved, held in the arms of Jesus, where you will feel safe and secure.

Give up your self-sufficient pride. Humble yourself and cry out to God for help. Take time to be with Jesus. Put your worries and anxieties in his hands. Let those hands encircle you, hold you. Surrender to his presence and experience his peace. Be at rest in the arms of Jesus who loves you and assures you that all will be well.