In Stillness Comes Knowing

 

“Be still and know that I am God! I will be exalted by every nation. I will be exalted throughout the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

Note in this verse the verbs: be still and know. One is a verb of being and the other verb leads to action. Let us consider them as we study this verse.

First, as you read Psalm 46, you recognize that the voice—the person from whom the words came—changed. David spoke (wrote) through the first nine verses and the last verse of this Psalm in praise and worship of God. He invited listeners and worshippers to join him with this psalm.

The next thing we should consider is what God said in verse ten. The first part of this verse tells us God gave two commands. These commands are “be still” and “know.” God commands our innermost being—heart, mind, spirit, and soul. If these parts of ourselves are in conflict, frustration, or turmoil figuring out how to end the difficulty or get through it, then we cannot be attuned totally to, be with, and love God with our whole being. Our being is distracted and unable to be with God. Remember, God said we are to love Him with our whole being—heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:30). If we are in turmoil for whatever reason, we cannot love God with our whole being; it is being occupied by other matters. God deserves and, in this verse, commands that our relationship—genuine relationship—with Him be with our whole being.

The next command God gives, an in the same breath, is “know.” This command God gave about knowing makes us ask three questions. What or whom are we to know? How are we to know how or by which ways to know God in heart, mind, or spirit? What did "know" signify initially?

Let's tackle questions in reverse order. This English verb, “know,” comes from the Hebrew word of yada’. Yada’ means to perceive, hear, listen to, and obey (act upon what you heard from the speaker). Anything we hear calls us to an action/reaction. We think about what we heard and either agree or disagree with it. This then leads us to talk about it as good or bad; that is an action. This may prompt bodily action by saying or doing something, such as doing what the person, in this case God, said to do. Yada’ involves intentional relationality.

God, in Deuteronomy 6, and Jesus, in Mark 12, tell us how we are to relate to God, to be in a relationship with Him. They tell us we are to love Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Matthew records Jesus’ teaching on this as loving God with our heart, soul, and mind. Luke records it as loving God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. This means we are to love God with our whole being. To be related to God requires all our selves. That requires willing ourselves to attune to God with our whole being. We are to know God in the same way we are to love God.

Carrying this thought further leads to answering the final and supreme question. Who or what are we “to know”? Psalm 46:10a, tells us the whom or what we are to know, God. In this verse, God says we are to “be still and know that I am God.” Knowing God, being in a relationship with Him, requires intentionality, determination, faithfulness, and love. This relationship requires knowing each other, which requires intentionally getting to know, then loving the other person. From this devotion, who we are changes; the relationship changes us. Here, God changes us as we become still and know He is God. Intentional relationship leads to love that leads to actions and reactions that change us. The relationship with God, the getting to know and knowing God, leads us to change within our selves and act based on the relationship and change in our being from that relationship.

Now, returning to the entire command in verse ten, we must acknowledge who gave the command. We recognize the “voice” of the command changed from the rest of this psalm. David did not speak these words. God spoke through David in his worship of God. Verse ten comes from almighty, sovereign I AM God, the One whom no other can reach or attain to be. The sovereign I Am, the God who was, is now, and will be after time, commands anyone who perceives, hears, and listens to His voice to obey Him. God has authority. We have 100% relationship with Him as worshippers alongside of David. God speaks to us. His commands cause us to choose to listen and obey Him. Or, if we walked away from Him, we hear God and disobey Him either with inaction or counteraction. No matter how we choose to act after hearing Him, it remains an action caused by hearing God. Hearing always causes action-obedience, inaction, or counteraction.

In verse ten, what did I Am, God, tell His people to do? God commanded them then and us. He commands our hearts, bodies, minds, spirits, and souls, by which we totally have a relationship with God and by which we worship Him, to “be still in heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul. God commands us to know Him with our full being. Work to know Him better so that your whole being is involved in a relationship with Him can perceive, hear, listen, and obey Him and be still—have complete and perfect peace.

What was God’s impetus for intervening in David’s worship of Him in verse ten? David was proclaiming about God, then God reminds him, when David faces assumed unmovable mountains, earthquakes, storms, enemies, and wars, that He is still God. God still stands there with Him amid those tumults. He reminded David to still his entire being, sink into God’s peace, and remember, perceive, hear, and listen to/for God’s voice and take heart. Obey God’s voice, then you will find and return to peace because you are rightly related to God.

Finally, at the end, God foretells and reminds His people of the certainty of life…God will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in the earth. God did not say He would probably be exalted or that He may be exalted. He said He, God, will be exalted. That is future tense. David proclaimed what God had done in verses one through nine. God spoke and commanded him and all His people in the present tense. Then, God proclaimed the certain eventuality in the future. Truly God is I AM, existing before time, in time, and after time ends.

Why does the third part of verse ten sound as if God said the same thing twice? God just said he would be exalted among the nations. Why did He say He would be exalted in the earth/world? First, Bible writers and other writers through the millennia repeat a line with a slight change to emphasize a point. In God’s first “exalt” sentence in this verse, He spoke of humanity. In this second one, He said the whole earth/world would exalt Him. That includes all people, mountains, oceans, rocks, plants, animals, and all creation exalting him. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 98 spoke of this in verses seven and eight. Isaiah 24:14-16, 35:1-2, 42:10-12, 44:23, 49:13, and 55:12, Luke 19:40, Romans 8:19-22, and Revelation 5:13 speak about nature exalting God. The third line of Psalm 46:10 emphasizes and expands on what God said in the second line of verse ten. All creation will shout for joy and exalt the Lord.

In one verse, God gave a command that reminded people who He is and that He is greater than anything they may face. He reminded them of the perfect peace He gives them. God reminded David and all others of His children after that time how to being in a close relationship with Him.

Be still in your heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul.

Know this in your entire being because you are rightly related to God and will obey His voice.

Then watch and participate with David, the nations, and the world in praising and worshipping Me (God).

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. (Psalm 46:11)

Identification

The people of Colossae lived in a mixed bag of cultures, philosophical thoughts, and religions. They lived in an area called Asia Minor, specifically the Lycus River valley, where a major crossroad traversed from east to west. The Babylonians, Romans, Jews, and Greeks influenced the lives of the people. To these people in the 1^st century AD, Paul wrote while imprisoned. About the Christians in Colossians, he heard good things and things about which he needed to teach and correct.

As Paul almost always did in his letters, he gives a foreshadowing of his teaching in the opening statements. He opens with by introducing himself (vs 1), giving a greeting (vs 2), then praying over the Colossian brethren (vs 3-8). That prayer of thanksgiving leads directly into the principal topic and teaching of this letter.

The Greeting

Identification with the Sender

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother…” (Colossians 1:1 [NASB])

Paul introduced himself to the believers in Colossae. Though he had spent extended time in Asia Minor on his 2^nd and 3^rd missionary journeys, he had never been to Colossae. It was during one of those journeys, probably the 3^rd journey, that Paul discipled Epaphras, the founder and pastor of the Colossian church. What is important about Paul’s introduction of himself to the Colossians are the credentials he gave? He told them first he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. An apostle of Christ is an ambassador of the Gospel commissioned by Jesus Christ to go preach. Paul was sent out by Christ. The authority for his apostleship came from Christ. Remember his Damascus road experience in Acts 9. Christ called and sent out Paul as an ambassador of the Gospel. As an apostle of Christ, Paul was identified with Christ.

The next part of verse one says he was an apostle of Christ by the will of God. Paul had not decided on his own to be an ambassador, an apostle. God willed it. He chose Saul even while he persecuted the people of the Way, the Jesus-followers. God had a purpose to use Saul, later known as Paul, to reach the Gentile world. When Saul met Jesus on the Damascus road, he became a completely changed man with a new agenda. His life turned around 180 degrees from persecuting Christians to proclaiming the Gospel, from taking the lives of believers to leading them to the Source of Life, and from enforcing every jot and tittle of the Law to reinforcing believers by teaching the Gospel as given to Him by God. Paul repented, he turned 180 degrees from facing away from Jesus to facing and following Him.

Paul never went alone to where Jesus led him to proclaim the “mystery of God.” Another believer traveled with him, whether that person was a believer before Paul met him or her or that believer became a Christian because of Paul’s proclamation. Paul dedicated his life to learning and mentoring other believers. On a journey in which men arrested him, Paul identified with the person who resided with him. On this journey, Timothy was with him. Paul called Timothy “our brother by God’s will.” The people of Asia Minor either knew Timothy or knew of him. Timothy’s family raised him in Lystra about 360 miles east of Colossae. His grandmother and mother, who were Jewish and later became Christians (2 Timothy 1:5), and his Greek father raised him with the knowledge of Jewish Scriptures. Paul took Timothy with him on his journeys and mentored him. Timothy was a companion, mentee, and co-worker of Paul.

Why was it important for Paul to tell the Colossian believers about himself and Timothy? Paul wanted these believers to understand that he identified with Christ. Christ appointed him as His ambassador. Paul wanted the Colossian believers to realize who Timothy was, too. Timothy identified with Christ, as one saved by Him and called to service for Him. 

Identification with the Recipients

“To the saints and faithful brethren who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (Colossians 1:2 [NASB])

Paul wanted the believers in Colossae to realize he and Timothy identified with them, as well as with Christ. How do we know Paul wanted the believers in Colossae to identify with him and Timothy?  He wrote to the “saints and faithful brethren in Christ.” Paul made known to whom he was writing. He wrote to the saints. Saints are people set apart by God, those whom He made holy by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus’ death. Paul and Timothy were saints, too, as he explained in verse one. Paul added the Colossian Christians were faithful brethren in Christ. “Faithful” comes from the Greek word pistos meaning one who is persuaded and who has the fullness of faith about Jesus. Paul wrote to the ones who received faith from God and believed it to the full, without doubt. He called them brethren, too. A person of the brethren is a person who is a member of the same religious community of others who believe similarly, in this case people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. With these titles for the believers at Colossae, Paul said they identified with Christ as saints set apart by God’s redeeming grace. The Colossian believers identified as faithful because the faith they received they had in full and lived based on it. They identified as brethren who were actively part of the community of Christ in Colossae. The Colossian Christians, Paul, and Timothy identified with each other as followers of Christ. Saints identify upwards with God, and brethren identify horizontally with other Christians.

Paul added a blessing to his salutation. He said, “Grace to you and peace from God.” This blessing from Paul meant “May God’s undeserved favor be on you.” This quietness and rest of heart, soul, mind, and body is the peace that comes knowing, fully trusting, God will take care of you. This trust requires full faith as saints. It requires being identified with Christ through His life, death, and resurrection.

The Colossae church comprised Jews and Gentiles. Paul was a Jew from Tarsus in Asia Minor called by Christ to preach to the Gentiles and Jews. Timothy was a man raised as a Jew by his family and was a Greek because of his father. Yet, more than these, Paul and Timothy were Christians. They identified with Christ and with the Colossian Christians. The Colossian believers could identify with Paul and Timothy as saints and faithful brethren in Christ and as Jews and Greeks of Asia Minor.  Their identification was heavenly and earthly. Paul and Timothy’s identification with Christ and the people of Colossae gave them the right and privilege to preach, teach, and correct the heresies flowing around the Colossian believers. The Colossian believers would trust what Paul taught them as from God and out of love for God and them.

Thoughts to Consider

Paul gave the Colossian Christians his credentials. He showed them how he was like them in several ways, as a saint and part of the brethren. Paul included Timothy as part of his greeting to tell of his credentials, that he, too, is a Christian called by God and from Asia Minor. His blessing of this church in Colossae reminded them of who God is and for them. It served as a springboard for Paul’s purpose in writing this letter.

• Does God still call people to teach and correct the beliefs of others, especially Christians who have become lost in the whirlpool of cultures, philosophical thoughts, and faiths?
• Would people consider your credentials as highly as Paul’s, as saint and brother, because of your faith, and your actions and words that came from your faith?
• Are you like the Colossian Christians who heard the Gospel, but allowed other cultures, philosophies, and faiths to enter your reasoning and potentially water-down your faith?
• How do you think the Colossian believers will react to what Paul will teach them in this letter?
• How would you react since you have read this letter from Paul?
• Why do you think Paul put a heavy emphasis on brethren, faithful, saints, apostle, and brother?

Paul knew why God had him write to a people to whom he never physically preached or taught. His relationship with God prepared him to be His instrument even from prison to teach, correct, and proclaim the Gospel of Christ. With Colossians 1:3-8, we will learn of the Christian triad of faith, love, and hope. Were the Colossian Christians in danger of losing one side of this triad because of other cultures, philosophies, and faith systems? Paul prepared them for his correction of their confusion. What must we do so as not to be confused and or water-down the faith that we originally received and believed?

For next week, re-read Colossian 1:1-8. Be prepared to answer these questions again after re-reading those verses.

“May you give thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” (Colossians 1:9, 12 [NASB])

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