I have calmed and quieted myself.Psalm 131:2 (NIV)

"But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content." — Psalm 131:2 (NIV)

Three verses is the whole psalm. It is one of the songs people sang on the road up to Jerusalem, and it begins with a man deciding not to concern himself with great matters, or things too wonderful for him. Not because they do not matter. Because they are not his to settle, and he has stopped trying to settle them at this hour of the night.

Then the picture. A weaned child is not a baby crying to be fed. It is an older child, past needing anything in that moment, content simply to be near. That is the kind of quiet he means — not the quiet of having no questions, but the quiet of not needing the answer tonight.

And he does it to himself. I have calmed and quieted myself. It did not arrive of its own accord. It was a decision, made on purpose, and almost certainly made more than once.

Whatever is too big for you tonight was always too big for you. You do not have to be its equal. Being quiet in front of it will do.