Meditations for Difficult Days - No. 9 - Be Still
Pastor’s Blog - By Pastor Roy Summers
Psalm 46:1-9 - "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire."
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The hardest thing in the world?
In seasons of distress, we find it almost impossible to be calm and peaceful. Our hearts are too easily agitated and even overwhelmed.
It's much the same in times of uncertainity, when we find ourselves in limbo-land with the 'sword of Damocles' hanging over our heads. Nothing bad has (yet) happened to us, but we fear the possibility. There is something about not-knowing-the-future that brings out the worst anxieties in we frail-as-dust creatures.
Not knowing the future is difficult because, unlike the beasts that run on instinct, we are powered by hope. You and I cannot function with just the bare necessities of life today, we also need to know that tomorrow will be OK too. The shadow of tomorrow - real or imagined, for good or ill - falls upon us today.
Yesterday I skim-read this week's "The Economist" - an influential weekly news magazine. And guess what? Almost every article was coloured by Covid-19 talk. The statistics. The lockdowns. The markets. An especially The Future Predictions.
Even the political cartoon was about Covid-19: Trump and Xi are playing a tennis match called "The Blame Game" with Xi shouting across the net "You dropped the Ball!" (the ball is a virus shaped tennis ball).
No-one, it seems, can be still today.
A Command: Be Still
But in our travels through Psalm 46 we now come across a command: Be Still! All of a sudden God is speaking. Elsewhere in the Psalm, the psalmist has been speaking, but now, the Spirit of God interjects, "Psalmist I want you to write this down, give your readers this message from me: "Be Still!"!"
God is not suggesting, he is commanding!
Be Still!
The Health Secretary gave the nation some instructions the other day and ended by saying that they were not guidelines they were rules.
God is not saying, "Be still if you please", he is saying "Be still fullstop."
The word "still" can mean relax, become limp (loosen your muscles) and sometimes it is even used to describe laziness - you get the jist of the word: cease your strivings and rest. Let your heart be at rest. Let your mind be at rest. Let your body be at rest.
We might have said, "Chill!"
Is this a word for some reader today? You are apprehensive, fidgety, jittery, or as we used to describe our little ones on occasion, "up on the ceiling."
Over Covid-19, or something else in your life?
God commands us to calm down and be still. Relax. The word can even mean "sink" which evokes the image of us lowering ourselves into a soft mattress of downy feathers and giving in to rest. There's an art to relaxing.
An Active Chilling
But the psalmist is not urging us to become Buddhists and empty our minds in this new stillness. He says "Be still and know that I am God." That word "know" can also mean "investigate", and it implies an active mind as well as a peaceful heart.
The psalmist says, if I might paraphrase, "Quiet yourself down and fill your mind - actively - with the knowledge, the assurance, the conviction, that God is God."
The reason we are so anxious is that we are failing to remember that God is God. The Almighty God - remember all the truths he has taught us so far about Himself? - this God is our God. He's our refuge and strength, he's our LORD, our loving and compassionate Father in heaven, he's the God who controls all things, including desolations on the earth.
God is in supreme control - that's why we can be - we must be - still.
Say it to one another "God is God so be still!" say it to your kids, "God is God so be still!" say it to your home group "God is God so be still!" say it to your family "God is God so be still!"
Everywhere you go today, every moment of every day, let these words ring through your mind and leap about in your heart, "Be still and know that I am God!"
The Exalted One
Who posesses the most power in this present world? I mean who could, with a word or deed, perform the most powerful acts? Nations and their leaders, of course, we think. Trump is technically the most powerful man in the world with Xi and Putin probably not far behind.
But verse 10 - God's direct interjection into the Psalm - says something different. "Tell them" continues the voice from heaven:
“I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
God rises above all leaders, all nations, all pandemics, all floods, all forest fires, all wars, all nations. He alone is the exalted, high up one.
Coronaviurs is not God, God is God.
And God Almighty has appointed his worthy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to sit at his right hand, and rule the cosmos for the good, of his people and the glory of his Father.
A SONG FOR THE DAY
There are times when a simple song is just as good as a complicated one. Our simple song for today reminds us that God is exalted.
That's it.
He Is Exalted, The King Is Exalted On High
I Will Praise You
He Is Exalted, Forever Exalted
And I Will Praise His Name
He Is The Lord
Forever His Truth Shall Reign
Heaven And Earth
Rejoice In His Holy Name
He Is Exalted, The King Is Exalted On High
He Is The Lord
Forever His Truth Shall Reign
Heaven And Earth
Rejoice In His Holy Name
Twila Paris © 1985 Mountain Spring Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) | Straightway Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)
You can find it here:
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our loving Father in heaven,
We confess that in days of uncertainty our hearts are too often flustered and uptight. We fail to cast our burdens on you, we fail to remember that you care for us.
Help us to respond to your command from heaven, and help us to Be Still! in the sure and certain knowledge that you alone are exalted above all nations and indeed above the whole earth.
Help us to remember that your Son, who has lived our frail human life as a real man, sits at your right hand, and has been entrusted with your divine power to protect his blood-bought people.
Help us today to be still and know that you are God.
We ask this in Jesus' Name,
Amen
Pastor's Blog
This post is taken from our Pastor Roy Summers’ blog, where he discusses and comments on a wide range of current subjects and issues both in the world and in the church.