THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXXXI. Handling Trials Too Hard For Us

(Psalm 131:1-3)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Some of the trials we face are far above our ability or capacity even to begin to address:

(1) Consider the massive abuse of Medicaid: “‘Right now, Medicaid has been diluted so thoroughly that people with disabilities are forced to compete for care with healthy, able-bodied adults . . . When states spend billions covering people who can work or who entered the country illegally, there are fewer caregivers and dollars left for those who truly cannot survive without help.’” (“Quotable,” Republican-American, July 7, 2025, p. A6, citing Bethany Mandel, “Democrats cry wolf over Medicaid cuts,” Washington Examiner, July 2).

(2) Another such trial is the Trump administration’s being blamed for the recent flood deaths in Texas: “Donald Trump has been accused of . . . killing children with flash floods” in “Central Texas” since (a) “Elon Musk’s . . . cuts to the National Weather Service (allegedly) gutted the agency with catastrophic consequences . . . The idea, though . . . is absurd . . . (for) (i)n keeping with standard practice, the weather service in Texas surged extra staff as the storm gathered . . . (T)he agency did its job . . . The private prediction service AccuWeather also issued warnings. It has said that these notices should have provided officials ‘ample time’ for evacuations . . . (b) Another . . . criticism (is that) the Trump administration . . . doesn’t care about climate change, and such . . . floods . . . are the . . . (alleged) result of global warming. Yet . . . this part of Texas (is) known as ‘flash flood alley’ (and) (w)eather maven Chris Martz points out that there were major floods of the Guadalupe River in 1838, 1869, 1906, 1921, 1932, 1936, 1952, 1978, 1987 and 1998 . . .” (Rich Lowry, “Don’t blame Trump for Texas floods,” Ibid., July 9, 2025, p. A7)

(3) One trial we cannot curb is the legacy media’s constant abuse of journalism even at great cost to itself: “Fifty-six million dollars” is what “major news and social-media outlets have paid President Donald Trump to avoid civil trials in cases that involved lies, censorship and political campaigning (against him), disguised as journalism . . . But millions still buy the charade.” (“President Trump shines light on media,” Ibid., July 8, 2025, p. A6)

(4) A big trial that afflicts devout believers that they cannot address is the many ways many other believers violate Scripture, and here are some cases we’ve recently faced or about which we’ve heard: (a) Teaching the Bible without relying on the Holy Spirit’s power and gifting as 2 Timothy 3:15-4:2 and 2 Timothy 1:6-7 direct; (b) not handling Scripture literally in its context like Jesus did in Matthew 5:18 and Mark 12:18-27 on prophecy (c) and on election and predestination; (d) insubordination to a church leader in violation of Hebrews 13:17; (e) a woman’s teaching a man in violation of 1 Timothy 2:12; (f) a wife’s not submitting to her husband in violation of Ephesians 5:22; (g) living off of others versus earning one’s own living in violation of 2 Thessalonians 3:10; (h) a head of household not taking adequate care of his family in violation of 1 Timothy 5:8; (i) church leaders not taking adequate care of the church in violation of 1 Peter 5:2a; (j) a church requiring its pastor to increase its numbers in violation of Matthew 16:18, Acts 2:47b, Matthew 13:1-50 and 2 Timothy 2:24-26 where Christ builds His Church and Satan opposes it by infiltrating local churches with unbelievers and taking ungodly believers captive to do his will, all of which leaves pastors in an angelic conflict war where they cannot control numbers (unless they compromise the truth with Satan’s approval and Satan’s influx of lots of unsaved and/or carnal believers)! [God thus calls godly pastors to focus on expounding Scripture for His reward, Matthew 13:51-52; Daniel 12:3!] (k) 1 Timothy 4:14-16 calls a pastor to use his spiritual gift to succeed, what was violated as a pastor left a church over an insubordinate former pastor’s relative and (l) that church then violated 2 Timothy 3:17 on Scripture’s sufficiency to get advice from an outside firm.

Need: So, we ask, “How does God want us to respond to trials that are beyond our capacity to address?”

I. In Psalm 131:1, David claimed that he had humbly learned not to address matters too difficult for him:

A. He claimed that he was not proud, what we know resulted from David’s exposure to Scripture that would check his personal pride even as a king according to Deuteronomy 17:18-20a (Psalm 131:1a).

B. David had learned that though he was a king, he still had a limited capacity to deal with great matters or matters that were too difficult for him, so he had ceased trying to address them himself, Psalm 131:1b:

1. The KJV expression “neither do I exercise myself” translates the Hebrew verb halak, meaning “move, tread” (B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 235) that here figuratively means “concern myself.”

2. The KJV phrase “too high for me” renders the Niphal stem of pala’, meaning “too difficult,” Ibid., p. 810.

3. So, David’s experience and Scripture taught him humbly to trust God to address what he could not handle!

II. Instead, David likened himself to a young, weaned child with his mother, he being like a child and God like his Mother, in humbly quieting himself to rely on God to address such difficult issues, Psalm 131:2:

A. Psalm 131:2a begins with the Hebrew words ‘im lo, literally rendered “if not,” but following the negative statement of verse 1, ‘im lo becomes an emphatic positive, meaning, “Surely,” Ibid., p. 50.

B. In a positive, humble way, David had “smoothed (fig. composed)” (shavah, Ibid., p. 1000-1001) and “quieted” (damam, Ibid., p. 198-199) his nepesh, what here refers to his inner man (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 1091; Robert B. Girdlestone, Syns. of the O. T., 1973, p. 56-59) like a weaned child with his mother, Psalm 131:2b.

C. Since a weaned child has learned that the hunger he feels will be met by his mother’s provision of food without his immaturely crying in demand to be nursed, David had humbly learned not to try to handle trials that he knew he could not handle but quietly wait on the Lord to meet his need in God’s will and timing!

III. David then urged his subjects, the people of Israel, to adopt this lesson for themselves, Psalm 131:3:

A. The phrase “Let Israel hope” (v. 3 KJV) translates the Hebrew verb yahal, meaning “wait for, await, hope for” (B. D. B., op. cit., p. 403-404), what carries an emphasis on waiting for a future fulfillment.

B. David urged Israel to wait for God’s solution to her overwhelming trials both now (‘attah, Ibid., p. 773-774) and ‘ad-‘olam, two words where ‘ad means “perpetuity” (Kittel; op. cit., B. D. B., op. cit., p. 723) and ‘olam means “forever” (Kittel, op. cit.; B. D. B., op. cit., p. 762), words that are joined by a dash (a maqqeph, Kittel, loc. cit.) to mean “to eternity” (J. A. Alexander, The Psalms, 1975, p. 523). David urged Israel to wait and wait and wait – however long it took – for God to address her trials that were too great for her to handle!

Lesson: From his exposure to Scripture and his experience as king, David learned that it was useless to try to handle trials that even he as Israel’s king could not address, so like a weaned child beside his mother, he had composed his inner man and waited for the Lord to address his trials for him. David then urged all of his subjects in Israel to wait on the Lord like he did for as long as it took for God to address what they could not handle.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) If we face trials that we are not able to handle, may we expose ourselves to Scripture and learn that we must humbly quiet our inner man like a weaned child beside his mother and simply wait on God to address them.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

Scripture passages give us insight in God’s plan on issues of concern we noted in our introduction, insight we can use better to quiet our inner man as we wait on the Lord to answer our prayers for His help:

(1) On the massive abuse of Medicaid, the Trump administration being blamed for the Texas flood deaths and the legacy media’s relentless commitment to abusive journalism with an agenda, (a) we have often noted that we live in a Mini-Great Tribulation era implied to occur in Revelation 3:21 with 7:17 where leaders in major institutions full of intrigue will selfishly function even to the harm of their subordinates and constituents. These circumstances are being allowed of God to occur to get people to cease relying on human leaders for fulfillment and seek solutions in the Lord Himself through His Word as taught in Bible teaching churches. Accordingly, we should stay exposed to Scripture that God might use us to help needy “seekers” who come our way. (b) We should try to live independently of government agencies relative even our health in obedience to 1 Thessalonians 3:11-12. (c) We should rely on God’s Genesis 8:22 promise to keep the climate habitable for us as long as the earth exists regardless what authority in the world says to the contrary and (d) rely on Scripture for truth instead of the legacy media that along with the rest of the world is predicted to go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (cf. 2 Timothy 3:13-17).

(2) On the ways many believers afflict devout Christians by violating many Scripture passages, (a) we have the assurance in Matthew 16:18 that Christ is building His Church, so (b) we need to focus on our personal duty to rely by faith on the Holy Spirit to live a godly life (Galatians 5:16, 22-23) and (c) serve the Lord in the local church with our spiritual gift (1 Peter 4:10). (d) We also need to remain Bible-focused in our thinking and action and align with God’s will in being ready to give an account to Christ for our Christian lives after the Rapture (2 Timothy 4:1-2 with 2 Corinthians 5:10-11). To that end, we each do well to heed God’s call to Israel’s kings to read from Scripture all the days of our life (Deuteronomy 17:18-19a) for blessing and to be a blessing to our families, other believers, the local church and the world in ever widening circles of contact and influence (Deuteronomy 17:19b-20).

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we expose ourselves to Scripture and learn to quiet our inner man like a weaned child by his mother and simply wait on God to address what trials we cannot handle.