"Like A Weaned Child"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Long ago, the legend holds, Daedalus and his son Icarus were imprisoned by the wicked king Minos in a high tower atop a cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea. Daedalus determined that their only means of escape would be to build wings and soar off like birds. Being an engineer and a clever man, Daedalus constructed a set of wings covered with bird feathers held on with wax. He made a set for himself, and one for his feckless son Icarus. Before they set out on their escape, Daedalus warned his son not too fly too low to the sea, lest his wings become waterlogged, nor too high in the sky, lest the sun warm the wax and cause the wings to melt. They launched into the bright Grecian sun, and were free!

However, hapless young Icarus soon became overwhelmed with the power of flight and wheeled too high into the heavens. So close to the sun he went that his father's warning proved true. His wings melted and came apart, and the poor boy fell and drowned in the sea. He did not heed sound counsel, but lifted up his eyes and his heart to things beyond his powers, and was destroyed for want of wisdom. So goes the efforts of the people of this world in attaining knowledge and understanding of things not given to them.

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” With these words David introduces the matter of how the faithful ought to trust in the Lord.

The hearts of the faithful are not lifted up, nor their eyes raised too high. That is, your hearts do not seek the things which are beyond you. Your eyes do not search the heavens for secrets and mysteries. The universe is filled with things created for your wonderment and enjoyment. The cosmos is covered in things and ideas and discoveries yet to be made which are within the realm of human imagination and discourse. But there are some things which are beyond all human understanding.

Do not lift up your eyes beyond the stars. Do not try to peer into the mysteries of heaven. When asked what God was doing before He created the world, St. Augustine reportedly answered: “He was making hell for people who ask such questions!” His point is well-taken. When you ask questions of things which are not given to man to know, you run into grave danger of hell, because you are doubting the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord God. He is God, and you are not. He knows and governs all things in heaven and on earth; you do not. Luther spoke of this human tendency as the temptation to be a spiritual peeping tom, trying to catch God with his pants down. And the nude God is not a sight for human eyes, as you heard from Isaiah. For the nude God, not clothed in Christ and in revealed in the Scriptures, is a source of nothing but wrath and condemnation for unholy sinners.

This is why David says, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” David, and his son Solomon after him, learned not to look into heaven, but to content themselves with the revealed will of God. The heavens declare the glory of God. The Law and the Prophets proclaim the will of God for His people in no uncertain terms. The Scriptures are so rich and so deep that if a man had ten lifetimes, he could not mine their depths. Content yourselves with what God has made known to you, and do not lift up your heart or raise your eyes to heights where they do not belong.

However, the opposite error is also to be avoided. David here provides no excuse for you to be ignorant and foolish. You ought not lift up your heart and insert yourself into heaven, but neither should you shut yourself in a corner and think that “to know nothing but Christ crucified” means to know nothing at all. The Lord is not a god of ignorance or laziness. As the maxim from the Fathers goes, I believe in order that I may understand. You have faith in God, not in order that you might shut off your brain and muddle through life blindly, but in order that you may know the bounds of your intellect and understand the things which God has revealed.

David did not lift his heart into heaven nor raise his eyes to see the face of God, but contented himself with the knowledge given to him. He calmed his soul with the knowledge that God is God, and God is good. This is enough. What God says, is true. What God says, He does. What God says, is enough for you.

Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord's will for you. Trust in the Word of the Lord revealed to you. “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8) Do not look for answers to questions the Scriptures do not answer. Do not poke your nose into things which do not belong to you. Do not question the will of God revealed to you.

Trust in the Lord at all times. Trust in the Lord like an infant upon his mother's breast. “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” David is calmed and quieted in the Lord. Not by lifting himself up into heaven. Not by knowledge of divine secrets. Not by the answers to all of life's questions. He is calmed by the knowledge that God is good, and that God will save His people from all evil, according to His good pleasure. This you know, because this has been revealed to you by the Lord of Hosts. Take comfort in this.

You may repose at the breast of your Mother like a weaned child, because you know that your Mother feeds you with the best food, with all that you need to support your body and life. Your holy Mother Church feeds you from her ever-flowing breasts – the twin Testaments of Holy Scripture. From her flows the pure spiritual milk that enlivens and sustains you. You may calm yourself like a weanling at the breast, because you know that the pure milk of the Word always refreshes the souls of the faithful. And through that Word, you know the will of God for you.

“O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” Hope in the Lord, because the object of your hope clear. Hope in the Lord of heaven and earth. Hope in the Lord revealed in Sacred Scripture. Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Hope in the Holy One of Israel crucified for the sins of the people. Hope in the Son of God risen from the dead, living and reigning on the throne of heaven from everlasting to everlasting. Hope in the Lord of Life who has all the answers to your questions, and more.

Calm your soul and quiet your conscience not by the answers to all the questions your mind dreams up, but with the forgiveness of sins that Christ our Lord is present to give to you every day of your life. Calm your soul and quiet your conscience with the peace that comes from reconciliation with God and with your brethren. Repose in peace upon your holy Mother's breast, knowing that what the Lord sends to you is pure nourishment that will never fail you. What is in the cup the Lord gives you to drink can never harm you.

Do not lift up your heart nor raise your eyes too high, but lift up your heart in faith to the One who will take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, beating with the lifeblood of Christ. Lift up your eyes to the hills, whence cometh your help. Occupy yourself with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will never be put to shame. This is marvelous in our sight!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.