becoming a man

Psalm 131, Proverbs 1

A brief psalm, but it's brevity is not an indicator of its depth:

 ¹ Lord, my heart is not proud;
      my eyes are not haughty.
   I don't concern myself with matters too great
      or too awesome for me to grasp.
 ² Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
      like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother's milk.
      Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

 ³ O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
      now and always.

At first reading, I was quite confused about the meaning of verse two.  After consulting some commentaries, I see two weanings:  from the world, and from the milk of spiritual infancy.  We must transition from temporal to eternal beings, and this only occurs by being united with the Eternal Spirit of God.  From The Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon:

It is not every child of God who arrives at this weanedness speedily. Some are sucklings when they ought to be fathers; others are hard to wean, and cry, and fight, and rage against their heavenly parent's discipline. When we think ourselves safely through the weaning, we sadly discover that the old appetites are rather wounded than slain, and we begin crying again for the breasts which we had given up.  It is easy to begin shouting before we are out of the wood, and no doubt hundreds have sung this Psalm long before they have understood it. Blessed are those afflictions which subdue our affections, which wean us from self-sufficiency, which educate us into Christian manliness, which teach us to love God not merely when he comforts us, but even when he tries us. ...

Weaning takes the child out of a temporary condition into a state in which he will continue for the rest of his life: to rise above the world is to enter upon a heavenly existence which can never end. When we cease to hanker for the world we begin hoping in the Lord. O Lord, as a parent weans a child, so do thou wean me, and then shall I fix all my hope on thee alone.

Heavenly Father, please wean me from this world - from the lust of my eyes and the boasting of what I have and do.  Lord, please change my heart so that all I desire is you!  Lord, may I be fed and satisfied by the meat of your Word, and may I enjoy the food of doing your will.  Please grow me into a spiritual man - into the very image of Christ.  I ask in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.