Be Still and know I am God Psalm 46:10
Cease from your striving. Be still. Calm your anxious mind. Let your own hand fall away. Stop fighting and know that I am God.
Over the years, I have had people quote part of Psalm 46:10 over me, and it has rarely soothed my busy mind. Yes, I knew I was busy and had a lot going on, but it just didn’t register with me that maybe I was doing a little too much. Working hard is great; I think God celebrates hard work, tenacity, and pursuing excellence. The problem comes when we work so hard that we don’t leave room for Him to move. Many of us lead busy lives. We work, raise our kids, serve in church, serve in our communities, coach sports, and at the same time, we try to find time for social activities, vacations, creativity, chasing dreams, and me time! In the middle of the beautiful chaos of our lives, God continues to try to get our attention. He sends people to remind us He’s there, and He wants to be included. He knows we live in an atmosphere saturated with information, and we struggle with the distractions of life. He has plans for our lives that don’t include scrolling on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or getting caught up on the latest “binge worthy” Netflix series.
God wants us to know He has more for us. Our daily work, responsibilities, and the things we distract ourselves with to pass the time fight for our attention so we feel like we are being pulled in 100 different directions at the same time. So, He sends people to give us a message that seems absolutely impossible. Here is the most common version I’ve heard:
Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10 NIV)
Understanding God Wants to Help Us Learn From Him
As many of us do, I received the scripture to encourage me, but it left my purview quickly. I just didn’t have a grid for how I could possibly do it. It sounded great, but it felt unattainable.
Now, I’m in a time in my life where I’m slowing down a bit. I have more time to rest, and I have a little free time. If I’m not careful, my days get filled quickly with superficial things that make me wonder how the day got away from me again. I still measure the quality of my day by my productivity. What tasks did I check off the list? The Lord is leading me away from that mindset, but old habits are hard to break. Most days, I think I’m not productive unless I can show something tangible, like a clean kitchen, a painted bedroom, or a published blog. The Lord is helping me to realize praying with my intercessor group, studying, daydreaming, journaling, catching up with a friend, going for a workout, talking about Jesus with someone at a coffee shop, and even just sitting and thinking are also productivity. I read a book recently called “Slow Productivity,” and it has really helped shape my perspective around what I consider being productive.
The other day, one of my good friends shared that scripture with me again, but she shared a slightly different variation. She shared it this way: Cease from your striving and know that I am God. When she shared that version, curiosity piqued inside of me, and I went to BLB to investigate.
The Hebrew word used for “Be still” or “Cease your striving” is the word, rāpā. It has a variety of facets, including sinking down, relaxing, withdrawing, abandon, to be quiet, to show oneself slack, to leave it alone, be still, and to cast down or to let your hand fall from work. The Hebrew word for “and know” is the word “yāda” which is the same word used when Adam “knew” his wife, Eve, and they conceived. Yada is to know someone experientially. Not just to know facts about them. Think of it as knowing of someone’s existence, such as an actor or a president, vs knowing someone’s personhood, essence, and personality.
As I sat with these two words for a little while, I started to get a hint of what God says in this verse. To me, it felt like He was saying, “take your hand off, relax, and experience what it’s like for me to be God to you. You don’t have to do this on your own. I’m here.” God wants us to experience our lives with Him as the head, and not ourselves. However, we get so caught up in doing everything for ourselves and everyone around us, we can’t receive. Sometimes, we need to take a step back, take our hand off, relax and take a deep breath, even if it seems counterproductive.
Meditate to Get Deeper Understanding of God's Ways
I encourage you to take some time to sit with Psalm 46 for a little while. Read it out loud a few times. Ponder the meanings of the words in between readings. Look up anything that you get curious about. Say it out loud in your own words. Turn it into a prayer over yourself. Let the words and the meaning sink down from your head and into your heart. This is what biblical meditation is about. It’s about sitting with a scripture and interacting with it in different ways until you understand it in a deeper way, in a deeper part of yourself. Imagine what it would be like in the spirit to sit still, stop striving, let your hand fall from your work, and experience God being God. You may even want to think about Who God is, what His attributes are, and allow Him to show you what applying those attributes could look like in your life. He may surprise you if you let Him.
I love this psalm. In the beginning of it, the writer calls God “our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.”(Psalm 46:1 CSB) As we speak it out a few times and ponder the meaning, we may start to believe that in our time of trouble, God is a helper who is always found. God is found by those who look for Him and search Him out. Our job is to look to Him, and His promise is that He will ALWAYS be found. As we move through the psalm, the writer talks about how we won’t be afraid, even though everything around us feels like it’s going nuts. In verse 4 and 5, the river has streams that delight the city of God, which is His holy dwelling place. Now, we are on the other side of the cross, so we live in the promise of God that He will make a dwelling place among us (see Ephesians 2:19-22, James 4:5-6, Ezekiel 37:27). When we look at verse 6 and 7, there’s more chaos on the earth, which we know because we live here, too.
When we come to the last part, verses 8-11, the psalmist says “Come, see the works of the Lord,” (CSB) and it goes on to talk about His might and power. Humans make war to try to create peace, but God brings an end to warring on the earth. He is greater than any weapon. At this point in the psalm, is verse 10. In the middle of kingdoms toppling, nations raging, and the earth being shaken, God shows Himself powerful! So powerful He can stop all the wars on earth and break down every weapon. In essence, this is Jen’s paraphrase of what God is saying: “I am much more powerful than you, trust in Me. Cease from your striving and experience Me being God. I am here, so you don’t have to work so hard anymore. Come and hide in Me, take refuge in Me, I am the Helper who can be found when you need help.”
I hope this helps you with understanding God has so much for you that you don't even realize yet. If you need a little more guidance on how to hear God, pick up a copy of Belief Rehab: You Are Enough. If the concept of Slow Productivity intrigues you, pick up a copy on Amazon! Happy meditating, my friends. I hope God shows you some amazing things as you meditate on His word.
Comments