CLASS OF 2024 LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.COM MAY / JUNE 2024 Page 71 eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” In the Bible, Dr. Scott said the word “heart” is found 857 times. Sometimes the word refers to the heart as the muscle in our chest pumping blood or the figurative heart of the sea. Most of the time the word heart is used in scripture, though, Dr. Scott said it refers to the center of the inner person. In Psalm 131, David is not trying to occupy himself with things that are too great. Dr. Scott said a weaned child does not go to his mother for nourishment but goes to his mother to be close to her. The waiting and hope are for a future that will be glorious. Charles Spurgeon once said Psalm 131 is one of the shortest to read but the longest to learn. Spurgeon called it a “pearl.” The Eugene Peterson says Psalm 131 is “I’m not here to rule the roost, I’m not here to be king of the mountain, I’m not in the grandiose plans.” On the big occasion, Dr. Scott said many might wonder why he would use this little Psalm seeming to call people to something less. Summing it up in one sentence, Dr. Scott said in humility and in hope, crawl up into the lap of God. Speaking specifically to the class of 2024, Dr. Scott said in humility and in hope, will you just crawl up into the lap of God? The students have sometimes burned the midnight oil and have been probing the deep things of God. Dr. Scott said that is no small thing and the students are to be honored. While acknowledging the graduates have worked hard, Dr. Scott then said, “you don’t know what you don’t know, and you probably don’t know what your professors would have liked you to know.” Dr. Scott was sure “you don’t know what you will need to know out there in the future.” What he said the graduates should do is crawl up into the lap of God like a weaned child. When he came to Lincoln Christian Seminary in 1976, Dr. Scott had been in a five year degree program with extra language and theology classes, but soon felt he was dumber than a box of rocks. He realized there were many things he just did not know. As a young preacher in Rochester, Illinois, Dr. Scott said people were coming to him for premarital counseling, though he had never taken a counseling class. He decided to enroll in a premarital counseling course so he could learn how to help married couples. In the church, Dr. Scott had a deacon who drove him crazy. Dr. Bruce Parmenter told him to become a friend to the deacon because it sounded like the man had no friends. Years later, the man would drive a distance to hear Dr. Scott preach. One of Dr. Scott’s former students later enrolled in a master’s and then doctoral program in Israel’s Be’er Sheva University. The week before he was to defend his dissertation, the student emailed Dr. Scott asking for any advice Dr. Scott could give him. His advice to the student was, “every week, do something for somebody that doesn’t
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