A Weaned Child

“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” – Psalm 131:2

What is the manner of a weaned child with its mother? It’s easier to picture what a nursing infant is like: when hungry, quite fussy, demanding the one thing it wants. Dave used to tell me how frustrating it felt not to be able to soothe the kids the way I could by nursing them, because sometimes nothing else he tried would help. There were always the lovely, milk-drunk moments afterwards, but inevitably they would get hungry again.

A weaned child has a history of nursing; there is a sense there of established dependency, closeness and trust, but there is no longer a demand to have that particular need filled. The New Bible Commentary says this is “like a child grown past the instinctive demands and fretfulness of infancy and now content, as a toddler, simply to be with mother.” 

How often we approach God like a nursing infant: with our own demands, heedless of his concerns, purposes or plans. How often we go to God solely because of what we want to get from him, on some level. It is because we function so often like this that David’s words here are strikingly beautiful. He comes to God in meekness. He calms and quiets his own soul. He is with God for the sake of his presence, but not just anyone’s presence: a presence like a mother’s. Safe, seen, secure, relaxed and at home, not afraid to express delight or need or desire or sadness. As Ruth Haley Barton writes, “simply being with God with what is.” Sitting with God about what is true at that moment, trusting him with ourselves, allowing him to be with us as a mother is with her child. And coming into a contentment that goes against natural tendencies or circumstances, finding we no longer need what we used to crave.