NET: “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God!”

NIV: ‘Be still and know that I am God’.

The text misunderstood

In popular piety and Christian song, this injunction is often (mis)understood to be a call to quiet meditation.

The following well-known worship song (whose author and composer are unknown) is based on Psa 46:10, and is described here as a ‘meditative, chant-style hymn’:

Be still and know that I am God,
Be still and know that I am God,
Be still and know that I am God.

I am the Lord that healeth thee,
I am the Lord that healeth thee,
I am the Lord that healeth thee.

In thee O Lord, do I put my trust,
In thee O Lord, do I put my trust,
In thee O Lord, do I put my trust.

The following is rather typical:

‘How often do we ask God for everything, but we don’t stop to listen or to be still? The act of being still and getting quiet becomes more of a challenge in our hectic world. The world asks us to be busy. God asks us to be still so that we can receive love, peace and guidance.’

It is also a ‘go-to’ text for contemplative prayer.

Richard Rohr recommends offering the following, either individually or in a group, taking a couple of breaths between each line:

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

But this is not exegesis, but exploitation, of the text.

What, then, does it mean?

The text

‘is not in the first place comfort for the harassed but a rebuke to a restless and turbulent world: “Quiet!” – in fact, “Leave off!”‘ (Kidner, who adds that it resembles the command to the raging sea).  Cf. Hab 2:20; Zec 2:13.

A very strong hint about the meaning of this text is given in the remaining part of the verse:

“I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!”

Broyles:

‘In this explosive context, “be still” is not an invitation to tranquil meditation but a command to allow God to be God, to do his work of abolishing the weapons of war.’

Wilson:

‘God’s demand—“Cease! Desist!” (or perhaps the military counterpart, “Attention!”)—calls all combatants to stop their fighting and pay attention.’

Calvin:

‘The Psalmist exhorts the world to subdue and restrain their turbulent affections, and to yield to the God of Israel the glory which he deserves.’

Tull (Feasting on the Word, Vol 4):

‘The words are familiar; the setting, however, demands attention. “Be still, and know that I am God” can hardly be heard today without instantaneous association with robed choral voices concluding Sunday worship with a final plea for reverent contemplation…In their psalmic setting, however, the divine voice roars at warring nations: “Stop!”’

This knowledge of God is, first of all,

‘a factual knowledge about him, his past acts, and his promises’ (EBC).

But this must lead to an experiential knowledge.

Mitch Chase:

‘Psalm 46:10 gives us the words of God to the enemies of God: “Be still, and know that I am God.” The nations should call upon the Lord for mercy, and he will receive them. They should cease their raging and their rebellion. They should rejoice in his provision of salvation for them, for Christ has redeemed a people for himself from every tribe and tongue and nation.’

Interestingly, older writers, despite their lack of exegetical sophistication, tended to capture the meaning of the text well.  William Gurnall, for example, writes:

‘Faith gives the soul a view of the Great God. It teacheth the soul to set his almightiness against sin’s magnitude, and his infinitude against sin’s multitude; and so quenches the temptation. The reason why the presumptuous sinner fears so little, and the despairing soul so much, is for want of knowing God as great; therefore, to cure them both, the serious consideration of God, under this notion, is propounded: Be still, and know that I am God; as if he had said, Know, O ye wicked, that I am God, who can avenge myself when I please upon you, and cease to provoke me by your sins to your own confusion; and again, know, ye trembling souls, that I am God; and therefore able to pardon the greatest sins, and cease to dishonour me by your unbelieving thoughts of me.’ (Gurnall)

Matthew Henry applies this first to the wicked, and then to the godly:

‘Let his enemies be still, and threaten no more, but know it, to their terror, that he is God, one infinitely above them, and that will certainly be too hard for them; let them rage no more, for it is all in vain…Let his own people be still; let them be calm and sedate, and tremble no more, but know, to their comfort, that the Lord is God, he is God alone, and will be exalted above the heathen; let him alone to maintain his honour, to fulfil his own counsels and to support his own interest in the world.’

So does this verse remind us ‘of the necessity to take time to focus on the Lord’, and of realising that having ‘a “quiet time” is an essential part of each day—a time to read the Bible, pray, and consider the goodness and greatness of God’?  Not really, even though such devotional habits are admirable, with support from other parts of Scripture.

Nor does this expression give much support for the use of periods of silence in worship, even though it is often appealed to for that purpose.  Although such times of quiet reflection may well have a place in the public gatherings of the people of God (cf. Josh 1:8; Psa 119:15; Lk 5:16), they probably have less scriptural support than their advocates imagine.  We should take special care that such advocacy is not allowed to minimise the place and importance of word-based ministry in such gatherings.