Be STill and Know

Psalm 46:10 KJV

10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10 GOD’S WORD Translation

10 Let go ⌞of your concerns⌟! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth.

Topic “be still and know”

According to the free dictionary they define Still as ;Remaining in a place or at rest; motionless; stationary: free from noise, subdued or low in sound, hushed. Free from turbulence or commotion.

The word Still is a translation of the Hebrew word rapa, meaning “to slacken, let down, or cease.” In some instances, the word carries the idea of “to drop, be weak, or faint.” Be still. This is a call for those involved in the war to stop fighting, to be still.

It connotes two people fighting until someone separates them and makes them drop their weapons. It is only after the fighting has stopped that the warriors can acknowledge their trust in God. Christians often interpret the command to “be still” as “to be quiet in God’s presence.” While quietness is certainly helpful, the phrase means to stop frantic activity, to let down, and to be still. For God’s people being “still” would involve looking to the Lord for their help for God’s enemies, being “still” would mean ceasing to fight a battle they cannot win

Exodus 14:13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

We are in a culture that conditions us to be comfortable with noise and crowds and uneasy with silence.  We have an addiction to noise. Silence is rare in our society as our lives are always filled with background noise, without which we tend to fear nothing is happening. What does it say about our souls if we have to have noise to feel as if something is happening around us?

The reason we seek silence is the same reason Jesus did – to be able to listen and hear what God is saying to us. Nothing like silence strips us and allows us to see reality through God’s eyes. Silence is possible without solitude but very few of us can be silent in the presence of others, which speaks to the necessity of pairing silence with solitude. “Without silence there is no solitude” Richard Foster

So my question this morning is how then do we do that? How do we actually succeed at being still?

Experiencing God in Stillness

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” (Psalm 37:7). Scripture implies that stillness involves waiting and that blessings follow those who wait on God. As we don’t initiate action in our own strength and timing, we experience the blessings of God’s good and perfect and pleasing will and timing.

Life is full of movement. Movement is not a bad thing. If we are moving, we are living. We are making progress. Movement, though, is also exhausting—physically and mentally.

In some ways, all this movement can be paralyzing. We feel stuck or caught because though we're moving all over the place there is no direction or meaning behind it. We know we're moving, but we wonder if we're really getting anywhere.

God says, "Be still."

“Peace! Be still! And the wind ceased.” (Mark 4:39). Catch this Jesus connects stillness with peace. When we experience extended periods of stillness with God, our mind slow down, our inner turmoil is quietened, and a deep peace that passes understanding permeates our body, mind and soul.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth.” (Psalm 46:10).

The Psalmist declares that we come to know God and His ways in stillness and that He is glorified and worship is experienced through God-focused stillness.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” (Psalm 23: 2-3)

Scripture associates stillness with rest and healing. Some of us are sick because we have been trying to do everything for everybody and we never get to be still. Even in your sleep your move and jumping because your so caught up in the do and not in the rest! When we are sick the doctor usually prescribes that we be still through bed rest. When we suffer broken bones they are placed in a cast or sling to immobilize the bones. Why? Because stillness promotes healing. When we are still before God we experience life-giving healing and wholeness that only He can provide.

“Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes.” (1 Samuel 12:16).

In stillness we slow down enough to notice where God is obviously at work in our lives, the lives of others, and in the world.

It was while Samuel was lying still in the Temple (1 Samuel 3:3-4) that God spoke to him. Likewise it is in the midst of stillness that we hear God’s voice speaking to us and respond to His call upon our lives.

Think of silence, and stillness as complimentary as well as catalytic. They are frequently found together because silence, solitude, and stillness go hand in hand, each making the other complete.

Catch this Church The context for “be still” is to know God

silently position ourselves in order to know God?

Stillness looks different at different moments and in different situations, But God is trying to get you to BE STILL.

How do I know? By being Still…

He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’” Psalm 46:10a (NIV)

Here’s the truth: The word still — as in “don’t move” — is not in many of our vocabulary or posture. Stand still? Sit still? Lie still? Nope. I shift from foot to foot or wriggle in my chair or flip back and forth in bed every two minutes, searching for a more comfortable position. So when God says, “Be still,” I know He’s trying to grab our attention. The words may sound soothing, but in Scripture they’re a gentle but firm reproof. Be Still

It’s clear that in our own daily battles we’re to lay down our weapons and trust God for the victory, believing it will come in His perfect timing and according to His flawless plan.

Psalm 46:9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire.

“God is our Refuge and Strength.” The life that is “hid in God” is surely as safe as God can make it. The eternal spirit of man needs the “Eternal God as a Refuge” (Deut. 33:27). To hide in God, is to hide in His Love, and in His Mercy, and in His Power. This means not only perfect safety, but also perfect self-abandonment to God, to His will and work.

James Smith and Robert Lee, Handfuls on Purpose for Christian Workers and Bible Students, Series I–XIII, five-volume edition., vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1971), 15. We nod in agreement even as we hang on to those concerns with both hands. If we don’t fret over our children’s future, who will? If we don’t worry about our parents’ health, who will? If we don’t agonize over life’s disappointments, big and small, who will? He will. That’s what God wants us to understand. Only when we stop moving and stop striving can we recognize the truth about God: He is in control.

In the meantime, He tells us to rest in Him and “let go of your concerns!” (GW) When our verse continues, “know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10a), He’s reminding us who He is and what He can do. The creator of all things — including all humanity — knows how to calm our hearts, ease our minds and guide our lives in the right direction. In the meantime, our calling is simple. Be still. Believe. Be ready.

Let me give you some context of the text before you feel this is a pre text

Psalm 46. We’re basically just going to look at a few features of this psalm to help us understand the context.

The first thing that should jump out at us is this is a war psalm. It’s describing an earthly conflict. Some biblical scholars believe this psalm actually addressed the story we heard in our Old Testament readings today, 2 Kings 19. When the Assyrian king Sennacherib had destroyed all these other nations, and was now threatening to also invade Jerusalem, and destroy it.

Here’s why a lot of scholars believe this is the situation this psalm was written about. Look at v5 of Psalm 46. It says:

God is in that city. That’s the city of God, Jerusalem. It will never crumble. And then it says, God will help it when morning dawns.

If you remember the story we heard today, from 2 Kings 19, God spoke to King Hezekiah of Jerusalem through the prophet Isaiah. And he told him that King Sennacherib of Assyria would never take Jerusalem. God said: I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.

And that night, the Angel of the Lord went into Assyrian camp and massacred 185,000 of them in their sleep. Just wiped out the invading army. And when the morning dawned, 2 Kings 19.35 says there were dead bodies everywhere.

Here’s the point: what you see in 2 Kings 19 is God acting as the Divine Warrior to protect his people and his city. That’s a huge theme throughout the Bible. God is the warrior in spiritual warfare, and if you have a biblical worldview, you understand that even earthly battles have a strong spiritual dimension to them.

So Psalm 46 is a war psalm, and it’s probably reflecting the events of 2 Kings 19. But specifically, Psalm 46 portrays God as the Divine Warrior, protecting his people and his creation.

So the point of Psalm 46 isn’t to tell you to slow down and rest in God. It’s to celebrate God’s victory over evil as the Divine Warrior.

Now that you understand what this psalm is doing, you should be able to see that clearly.

Look at how it begins. V1 says: God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of great trouble.

The psalm begins by picturing God as a stronghold when the battles rage and a strong warrior who is always there to fight for his people.

And then you have this refrain, this chorus, that shows up twice in the Psalm, once in v7, and again in v11. It says:

The Lord of heavenly forces is with us!

The God of Jacob is our place of safety.

If you’re reading from the NIV, there’s something they do that I don’t understand, and you’re going to miss something important. There’s this Hebrew phrase to describe God, the Lord of hosts. The NIV always translates this as Lord Almighty, which doesn’t really get the idea across. It doesn’t just mean God is strong and powerful. It means he’s a warrior who commands a divine army.

So the CEB, gets it right when it says, the Lord of heavenly forces is with us. I also like how The Message puts it: the God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.

You’re supposed to imagine God as the commander of this army of powerful heavenly beings. And God and his armies are surrounding God’s people to protect them when they’re under attack.

Now, here’s what the NIV does that I like. It specifically says that God is our fortress. So again—the main point of this psalm is that God is a warrior who fights to protect his people and his creation from the forces of evil and injustice. He is our warrior, our fortress, our refuge, our safe place.

Now, here’s the part you’ve all been waiting for. How does be still and know that I am God, fit into all this? You can’t know until you’ve established a context.

So here it is in context. We’re going to start in v8. It says:

Come, see the Lord’s deeds,

what devastation he has imposed on the earth.

Come, and see is an invitation to the other nations, those who are not Israel, who are not yet God’s people, to come and consider what God has done, and be in awe.

The nations are called to consider the devastation God the Divine Warrior has imposed on earth. Now, that sounds scary, but here’s the devastation it’s talking about. It’s talking about the Egyptian army that God swallowed up in the Red Sea, when they pursued the Israelites to make them slaves again.

It’s talking about all the dead warlords of Canaan, whom God had defeated. And it’s talking about those 185,000 of Sennacherib’s dreadful army God struck down in their sleep.

So these devastations are good news to all the people of the earth. Because it’s saying, Come look at this! God strikes down the tyrants and the oppressors and the abusers and the evildoers.

And that’s exactly what we see when we move into verse 9. Here’s what God does. God brings wars to an end in every corner of the world, breaking the bow and shattering the spear, burning chariots with fire.

God the Divine Warrior makes peace in the world by defeating the evildoers—destroying their weapons and making them useless. So here’s what you’re supposed to see in your head when you get to Psalm 46.10. You’re supposed to imagine Sennacherib running his mouth, threatening God’s people and God’s city. Bragging about all the kingdoms he’s destroyed, all the devastation he’s imposed on the earth.

And then you’re supposed to see God coming with his army of heavenly forces. And as God’s heavenly host surround the people and the city, you need to imagine God getting right up in Sennacherib’s face and telling him: “That’s enough! Now know that I am God! I am exalted among all nations; I am exalted throughout the world!”

Be still is not a gentle invitation from God to slow down and rest.

It’s a warning. It’s a threat. It’s God saying to evildoers and abusers and oppressors, You better knock it off, or I’m going to knock you down, and you won’t get up again. Drop your weapons, before I break them—and you along with them!

Be still here means stop your violence. Stop your wickedness. Stop your injustice. Stop oppressing the needy and abusing the innocent. You’re really fighting against God, and you’re going to lose everything.

And know that I am God means: We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. You can either tap out and kneel before me and freely confess that I’m in charge here and you’re not; or I can make you kneel before me.

These words are not addressed to believers. They are God’s word of warning to every Pharaoh, every Canaanite warlord, every Sennacherib,

But in Christ we see that these words aren’t just aimed at enemies of flesh and blood. They also announce God’s victory over every dark and evil and oppressive spiritual force in our universe. Like Satan and sin and death.

Because God has already defeated them through the death and resurrection of Christ. And when you are in Christ, you share in his victory.

Be Still and Know Be Still Stop moving Stop fighting Cease from these activity you have to stop drop and role God is in-control. Who am I talking to this Sunday morning?