"Be still and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10).
Today I come to the last part of my journey on this phrase. Like a crescendo in music it starts softly and builds into this loud climax designed to...make one still.
I will make an astute observation: I am not God. He is God. The problem is not writing this simple observation, but in living it out.
I often imagine what it would be like to live as if there were no God (like many in this world do). From a purely societal standpoint I don't think my life would be much different. I don't steal or commit other crimes not because I believe that their is a God but rather the thought of prison deters me from such behavior. I do good things because it makes me feel good inside, because it makes my world a better place for me. So any notion of an altruistic motive is quickly removed. I know my own heart to well. There has to be something more than an ethical impetus - something greater than this. There has to be something that stops life and yells, "You are not God! He is God!" The ethical implications will follow but its knowledge of the person that one should be after.
I have heard many people quote Psalm 14:1 at this point, "The fool says in his heart 'there is no god..." Unfortunately this is not how the original Hebrew was interpreted nor does it line up with history. The actual reference says, "The fool says in his heart, "God does not care." (JPS translation). You may be thinking this is a lot different in meaning, but its not. You just have to have the right meaning for the first translation.
Atheism is a modern phenomenon born out of the Enlightenment Period when men became really, really smart and decided there wasn't any such thing as a god or rather that man is god. Prior to that, the pendulum swung the other way - polytheism, or the belief in many gods. This is the context of Psalm 14. So a fool is not one who does not believe in the existence of God; he is one who lives his life as though God does not care - as if He does not exist. This is more aligned with a Deist position - there is a God who created all things - he wound it up like a clock and let it go...determining its own path without His involvement.
Be still and know that I am God - a God who does care. It's why God says, "Be still." Don't be agitated. Don't be in a panic. Don't feel rushed. Don't believe the lie that all is out of control or stuck. Be still and know. Know that God does care. Know that He is in control. Know that your sin or past failures will not prevent Him from carrying out His plan for your life in His mission. Know that God is great, that God is good. Know that He loves unconditionally and has your best interest in mind. Be still and know this God. This God is the one who will be exalted above every nation - exalted above all the earth.
"Be still and know that I am God" "I am in control." "I am sovereign over all things."
"Be still...
and know...
Me."
Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God."
I have spent the greater part of my life seeking to "know." It has been and still is what internally motivates me. But as my Eastern Orthodox friends rightly tell me, "Knowing God as a subject is different than knowing him as a person." I believe you have to have both but the first is actually much easier than the last.
The first time that we come in contact with this "knowledge" issue is in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:16-17. "And the LORD God commanded the man [Adam], 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'"
Many of you have heard me teach deeply on this passage before but to remind you of its truth...God did not prohibit Adam [and Eve] from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because He is a withholding type of God. As good parents we know that certain information or certain exposure to more mature things will actually damage the child. They are not ready for such things. As good parents we are not withholding because we love to torment and selfishly keep things away from our children; we do it because we love them. We want them to grow up whole.
I recently was reminded of this truth while watching a "Children of the Holocaust" program from a Jewish perspective. Children, little children, whose greatest concern should be "Who do I play with today?" or which picture to post on the frig....little children forced to watch the shooting of their mother, father, and older siblings. Little children who used to have three home-made loving meals now fighting and stealing from other children - rotten leftovers found in a garbage can or stale bread in the concentration camps. As adults we see how such tragedy, how such knowledge, especially of evil, has changed them, broken them almost beyond repair.
We see this with brutality but we also see this with explicit sexual exposure, with drugs and alcohol, abject poverty, cyber bullying, and a host of other "knowledge" issues. In my experience, in my opinion, they deaden you to the true knowledge creation was to offer you. Instead of reflecting the Creator and His divine mission of blessing, it was perverted and used for selfish ends.
We often view the Fall from a sin perspective [and rightly so] but seldom do we see this as as a fall from what we were to potentially have with God. The loss is linked to Paradise but it was so much more. We lost what we could become. We lost what God was planning to give.
God does not desire to withhold things from us that give us pleasure or fill our social needs. However, He knows the best time to release them into our lives. He brings us to a certain level of maturity and then discloses them to us.
It was this premature knowledge that put a distance between man and God. Adam had the knowledge but he lacked the maturity to handle the information. In becoming "like God" [Gen. 3:22] his own way, he distanced himself from God and the true intent of the knowledge.
In Genesis 4:1 we have another "know." In the old King James translation it tells us that Adam "knew" Eve. What does that mean? It means that when they were both picking weeds out in their garden, Adam would look up and say to one of the animals, "Oh...there's Eve. I'd recognize her anywhere. She was the one who got us kicked out of the Garden." Well...she was the only woman on the planet at that time and they were still together as a couple so naturally he would say this.
Actually, "to know" in that context was to be sexually intimate. Even though sin had entered into their relationship, they sought to love each other, to hold on to the divine covenant. God did not abandon them as well. He sought the restorative love that Adam and Eve were pursuing.
I start here because I believe it is at the heart of Psalm 46. I am called to "Be still and know." At this point I don't want to rush ahead and fill in the rest of the text. I want to savor the word for awhile and figure it out before I move on to the end.
My ability to "be still" is predicated on a certain "knowledge." So I will get my Systematic Theology books out (of which I have quite a few) and I will write out what I "know." This is not a bad exercize but it will leave me deficient and devoid of my quest. I have no doubt that there are atheists and agnostics who "know" the Bible and its underlying themes and principle better than me. They spend their life trying to shred it of all truth and importance. But they will never be successful. They are only arguing one aspect of "know."
The Apostle Paul wrote one of the most heartfelt sentences that I have found in the Scriptures. One might call it my life verse - although I have surely failed to keep its truth in my own heart. After suffering great physical affliction and imprisonment he still penned these words, "That I may know him [Jesus] and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead" (Philip. 3:10-11).
Paul was a brilliant man. A Ph.D in theology, of the right religious family, studied under the right influential teachers....he knew. But he did not know until he had a personal experience with the risen Lord himself. It was finding out the truth of who this person, Jesus, truly was, matching O.T. examinations with what now stood in front of him. It's one thing to know that God is love; it is another thing to know the God of love. This is what Paul was after.
What do I know? I know that in my quest for something deeper:
1. God is not purposely withholding with evil intent.
2. God is waiting or working in me to develop a certain level of maturity.
3. God will release whatever I need and what I desire when He is ready and...when He knows that I am ready.
4. God desires me to keep studying but for the sake of building others up and leading them to a deeper relationship with His Son.
5. I need to remember that eternal life is not based on a written exam but on a friendship with the Almighty God.
Can you hear the quiet, parental voice?
"Be still.....
"and know..."
Psalm 46:10a says, "Be still and know that I am God."
A reflection in three parts: Part 1
Ever since I came back from my last teaching opportunity with Grace Seminary I have been struggling with being still. It has been the reason, or at least I would like it to be the reason for why I have not posted since then.
March came in like a lion - not the weather but ministry. An all church Seder Supper, Resurrection Sunday, a new English service...I have been busy. But I have been wrestless in my spirit for some reason. Probably worse than I have ever been in my spiritual life.
I am so grateful that I don't have a schedule that produces ulcers and stress induced heart attacks. Unfortunately that was called "my thirties." I now have time to do all those things that I have dreamed about doing, e.g. reading, writing, praying, planning, etc... All good things. All good things that I am presently doing. But in the midst of these things I find a spirit that yearns for something more. I know that this answer will not be found solely in the external things of life. That would be easy.
I know that the vast majority of this is within. It is as John of Damascus wrote, "the dark night of the soul." Unfortunately this is not exactly true for I have way too much light at present to be found in such a disparaging place.
I have found solace in the words of this particular verse - "Be still." In the strict context I know that it has to do with the cessation of war and God's supremacy among the nations, but it is a war that I am dealing with and so I find it appropriate.
What does it mean to "be still"? If I told my kids this when they were younger it would mean, "Stop squirming; stop moving around." I get the distinct impression that God is saying the same thing to this kid. In the midst of squirming we become distracted and often miss the important things around us. In the midst of squirming we also irritate those around us. You should pray for my wife.
Perhaps looking at some other Scriptures would help clarify this command.
Exodus 14:14, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."
It tells me that there is a war going on - a war that brings conflict, pain, injury, sorrow, grief, uncertainty.
It also tells me that I'm not alone and more than that - I don't need to take up arms for the LORD is fighting on my behalf.
There is a sense of relief in knowing that there is a sure victory over my enemy.
It is also a criticism. I will lose if...when...I believe it is my fight. It is a passive victory which is perhaps the hardest for prideful men like myself to acquire.
The battle is the LORD's because He will get the glory not me. The battle is the LORD's because there will only be one hero in this divine narrative. Be still.
Finding the discarded Law of Moses, Ezra the priest began to read and the people began to grieve understanding how far they had moved away from the things of the Lord.
Nehemiah 8:11, "The Levites calmed all the people saying, 'Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve."
This verse tells me to be calm. In the midst of revelation, where the divine plan of God is revealed, there is no need for agitation. There is no need of second guessing or "what-ifs."
I think this leads into part two of this verse, "and know..." so I'll not chase that dragon until I need to slay it. Just a heads up...I think we live in the middle of knowing and not knowing, obeying and seeking, trusting and hoping. Perhaps this is the squirmy part after all.
Psalm 37:7a, "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him..."
"Being still"is connected to "waiting patiently for something...for him."
Perhaps this is the greatest lesson about "being still." I am waiting for something. And I will continue to wait for something until I figure out that it isn't a something after all but a someone. When that someone shows up the something will be cared for and probably beyond my expectations.
For this old farm kid who is accustomed to hard work and a clear goal it is one of the most difficult things that I have had to do. I need to know what is next. Idleness is the death of me just as busyness without direction will kill me.
I am so blessed. I am blessed with a great wife and family. I am blessed with good health. I am blessed with a fairly intelligent mind. I love what I do for a living and am so privilege to do it with people who appreciate it.
An outsider would surely tell me to "Shut up" and "be thankful." If they only knew that I have shut up and I am thankful. But that doesn't fix the spiritual agitation that calls for something deeper, something sweeter, that will, in the end, make all those above blessings even richer.
So for now I will seek and pray that I might understand what it means to let the LORD do the fighting, to be calm, to wait patiently for...Him, and to resist the temptation to wait for it. I will "be....." I won't lie...its just not there yet.
"There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God,
A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God,
Hold me, I wait before Thee, near to the heart of God.
There is a place of full release, near to the heart of God.
A place where all is joy and sweet, near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God.
Hold me, I wait before Thee, near to the heart of God."
"Be still and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10). 
