◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 131 (A child upon its mother’s breast); Proverbs 12:22-28 (Anxiety burdens the heart); Philippians 2:19-24 (Timothy’s worth) (New Catholic Bible)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 131

Psalm 131^[a]

Childlike Trust in God

¹A song of ascents. Of David.

O Lord, my heart^[b] is not proud,
    nor are my eyes raised too high.
I do not concern myself with great affairs
    or with things too sublime for me.
²Rather, I have stilled and calmed my soul,^[c]
    hushed it like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child held in its mother’s arms,
    so is my soul within me.
³O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.^[d]

Footnotes

Psalm 131:1 Certainly the Prophets dared to state that God was like a mother for his people (see Isa 66:12f; Hos 11:4). But here is a man who has not fled from the experience of life; he lays bare the depth of his heart: the soul of a child before God. This psalm strikes us with great freshness and simplicity, and it is the most moving and evangelical of the psalms. A believer of the Old Testament has discovered the voice of spiritual childhood: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).
We can pray this psalm with the awareness that after practicing abandonment to God’s hands, Jesus offers it as an ideal for us also, for like him we are children of the heavenly Father: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). We must flee from all desire to go beyond God and his help (see Mt 23:11; Jas 4:6f; 1 Pet 5:5f). The Father alone can make our labors fruitful through Christ (see Jn 15:1-17; 1 Cor 3:5-8); without Christ we can do nothing (see Jn 15:5).
Psalm 131:1 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8. The psalmist has completely submitted himself to God in all humility (see Mic 6:8). He is not like the proud who rely only on themselves (see note on Ps 31:24). He knows that true holiness begins in a heart bereft of pride (see Prov 18:12), with eyes that do not envy (see Pss 18:28; 101:5; Prov 16:5), and a manner of life that is not presumptuous, not preoccupied with great things (see Jer 45:5) and achievements that are too sublime, i.e., too difficult or arduous, beyond one’s powers (see Deut 17:8; 30:11).
Psalm 131:2 Soul: see note on Ps 6:4. The psalmist keeps a guard over his desires. He is like a weaned child, who no longer frets for what it used to find indispensable and walks trustingly by its mother or lies peacefully in its mother’s arms.
Psalm 131:3 Likewise all Israel, all God’s people, must hope only in the Lord. Weaned away from insubstantial ambitions, we must hanker for the sole solid fare: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34).

Proverbs 12:22-28

²²The Lord abhors lying lips,
    but he delights in those who are truthful.
²³A prudent man does not flaunt his knowledge,
    but the heart of fools proclaims their folly.
²⁴Authority will be granted to the diligent,
    but the lazy will be enslaved.
²⁵Anxiety in the human heart weighs it down,
    but a kind word makes it glad.
²⁶A righteous man gives good advice to his neighbor,
    but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
²⁷A lazy man never reaps a rich harvest,
    but the diligent man acquires precious wealth.
²⁸The way of righteousness leads to life,
    but the way of vengeance leads to death.

Philippians 2:19-24

¹⁹Timothy Commended.^[a]I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by hearing news of you. ²⁰I have no one else like him in his genuine concern for your welfare. ²¹All the others serve their own interests more than those of Jesus Christ.

²²His reputation is well known to you. Like a son helping his father, he has worked with me in the service of the gospel. ²³I hope to send him to you as soon as I see how things will go with me. ²⁴And I am confident in the Lord that I myself shall also come before long.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 131[a]

Childlike Trust in God

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 131^[a]