—Psalm 46:10
I have always imagined that everyone is being addressed by the words, "Be still, and know that I am God." And if this is the case, it's a fine message. In the midst of my fevered days and fast-paced life, true meaning is found in quiet and prayer and acknowledging that God is the Creator and I am but a creature.
But Calvin reminds me of the actual context of this verse, which is warfare and strife—the kind of strife that only God has the power to end. And in that context, "Be still, and know that I am God," has a different emphasis—namely that God is speaking to those who prey upon the people of God.
In doing injury to the saints they do not consider that they are making war against God. Imagining that they have only to do with mortals, they presumptuously assail them, and therefore the prophet here represses their insolence; and that his address may have the more weight, he introduces God himself as speaking to them.
Yes, it's incumbent upon all of us to be still and acknowledge God in any situation—especially a threatening situation. But we are wrong if we put the greater responsibility upon the weaker party in a confrontation. Even if they refuse to follow the 46th Psalm's directions, it is the person in power that the psalmist is calling into a genuine relationship with the Eternal One. It is to them that God is saying, "Be still and know who I Am."
My prayer today will be a couple of stanzas from a well-known hymn:
My prayer today will be a couple of stanzas from a well-known hymn:
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
Breathe through the heat of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm. Amen.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
