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)

A Tale of Three Kings

In 1 Samuel, we meet God preparing a boy to become a man of God and a God-anointed king. The years of travel and training for David lasted a long time, about twenty-five years. When David began his reign of the Israelites, he was almost middle-aged. What made God choose someone of lowly birth to lead His people? What is it that David possessed that made him fit to be king? How did David’s reign presage the coming of Christ?  

From the beginning of David’s life, he realized he would be in the shadow of his brothers. His brothers probably teased and taunted him every day. David had seven older brothers. His father, Jesse, was the grandson of Boaz, who married Ruth and made her acceptable in the community of the Israelites (Ruth 4). Ruth believed in the one true God enough to follow Naomi, her mother-in-law, from Moab back to Israel because of the drought in Moab.

Jesse was a leader of his time, according to the Midrash, an ancient commentary on the Jewish Torah. The people considered him more blessed than others because he had eight sons. Why, then, did they treat David like an outcast? The Bible gives no specifics why, but Jewish writers say that his mother, Nitzevet, conceived David through trickery with Jesse. David’s seven brothers thought she had been unfaithful. They wanted to kill her and the unborn child. Yet Jesse told them not to harm her and the baby. This provides a possible explanation why David's brothers and father belittled David and gave him the lowliest job of being a shepherd. There are, therefore, two reasons for the brothers to think so little of David – he was the youngest and possibly conceived through trickery. As the eighth son, though David was the lowest of the brothers, he was in the best position to learn. He was humble. David, being meek, sought after God in the quiet times when he was with the sheep. He had time and quiet to learn the voice of God. David penned the words, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). He was open to hearing the voice of God; he was a young boy after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).

God told Samuel to anoint another king for the nation of Israel. Saul disobeyed God when He told him to kill every Amalekite and their animals. Saul kept king Agag and the best of the animals alive against God’s command (1 Samuel 15). He did not repent for disobeying God then and just sporadically during the next twenty-five years in which God trained David to be the king of the Israelites. God was sorry He listened to the Israelites when they wanted to choose a tall man who was a natural leader to be their king (1 Samuel 9:2, 10:23-24). The problem was this natural leader would not subjugate his will for God’s will. God cut Saul’s line from the generation of future kings because of his disobedience.

Because God removed Saul’s family from being kings of Israel, He sent Samuel to Jesse’s family. Samuel, one by one, went by each of the first seven of Jesse’s sons. God did not tell him to anoint any of them. Samuel inquired if there was another son since he understood God said he would anoint one of Jesse’s sons. With trepidation, Jesse mentioned the youngest son, David. Samuel sent for Jesse’s last son, the one whom God desired to be king of His people. He anointed David as the future king of Israel. (Notice God did not tell him his reign would begin many years later and not then.)

Why, of these large strapping young men of Jesse, did God want David to lead Israel? Maybe the question should be - what could God do with young David that would make him fit to be king of His people, Israel? Think about birth rank in families. Often fathers train the first sons to be strong men who lead families and people. Since Jesse was a leader in the community, his community would expect the son’s of Jesse to be future leaders. Jesse and the rabbi trained them in tradition, history, wisdom from their patriarchs, and in the knowledge of the Lord. They were a family to whom Israel would turn to find their future leaders. Yet, there always is a last son when a first son exists. The role of the last son often turns out to be the baby, the momma’s boy, or the scapegoat. He is the one who is least considered to be a leader and who, by his place in the family, is least expected to make decisions. Family members look upon the last son as needing specific directions about what to do. Did David live up to that role? It appears his seven older brothers and Jesse wanted to put him in that role. They wanted to get him out of the home to avoid him dishonoring the family name. (When David took bread to his brothers as they trembled at Goliath’s feet, they ridiculed him for thinking he was good enough to leave the sheep fields and face battle.) 

We find out who young David was in our reading of 1 Samuel. David was an obedient boy. He learned obedience at his mother’s knee and through the teaching harshness of his father and brothers. Doing right was easier than wrong. By doing right, David could stay out of the limelight. This obedience put him in the right place for hearing from God. David grew accustomed to subjugating his wants to those of his parents and elder brothers. As a son in an Israelite family, he would have learned the ways God spoke to and took care of His people. In the fields watching the sheep was a good place to learn to be still and quiet. It was a perfect place to hear the voice of God. For David, it became the perfect place to speak to God, too. The fields, too, became his battleground as he fought lion, bear, and wolf in defense of his sheep. Does God use people whose ears are attuned to Him? Does God use people who will fight for the sheep? As others have noted, God does not necessarily choose the equipped, but He equips those He chooses. 

God chose David. David’s was more than just in the sheep fields and with his family. He would have royal training, too. David became the psalmist for tormented king Saul. It was the words and music God put into David’s heart that soothed Saul. Later David’s presence enraged Saul. His presence always reminded Saul God removed His blessing from him and placed it on David. David’s close friendship with Jonathan, Saul’s son, made Saul jealous. Eventually Saul became jealous for the position of king Jonathan and his descendants could have had as his heirs. Saul became so tormented he even tried to kill his own son with a spear at a public banquet (1 Samuel 20:33). From that point in time through another twenty to twenty-three years, Saul spent most of his waking hours plotting to capture and kill David. He wanted to remove God’s hand from David and place it back on himself. Saul became so obsessed with this that he compromised the security of the Promised Land. 

During David’s time of running from Saul, he hid and grew. David grew in leadership, military acuity, diplomacy, judgment, and faith in Yahweh. With each attempt on his life by Saul, he grew to be the man God would have be the king of His people. Saul grew more self-absorbed as shown by his actions. As David grew in the knowledge of the Lord, Saul decreased in power and control. This does not mean each of David’s teaching moments were brilliant shining examples of growth for later generations to follow. David was human, too. He slid into the depths because of making human choices instead of following God’s choices, such as asking Achish, the king of the Philistines, to give him protection from Saul (1 Samuel 26-27). Yet David learned he must ask and listen to God’s decisions about each step upon the way (1 Samuel 30). 

What was the difference between Saul and David? They both started their reigns listening to God. Still they both disobeyed or followed their own desires. Yet David learned and repented while Saul never repented for allowing king Agag to remain alive or for most of his other sins. As a human, David possessed none of the “things” that made him more of a king God wanted on his throne. He was not the tallest of Israelites as the Israelites wanted when they chose Saul. David was not the one who commanded the following of many people when God chose him. He was, though, a young man from God’s chosen people who listened to God’s voice. David’s job as shepherd and musician for the king was not so exalted that he thought himself bigger than Yahweh God. His financial security was not so large he felt he could depend upon himself. David’s birth did not commend to him supernatural power and authority, as would his descendent, Jesus. He did not dress better than anyone dresses, smell better than anyone smells, or command vast numbers of people. David was the last son of a son of Israel who received no promise of an inheritance. He stank like the animals he tended. David’s family mocked and forgot him. David possessed nothing except his belief in God Almighty.

Why was David’s reign so important then? Why do we look to it as the foretelling of the future reign of Christ? To answer these questions, let us look at it backwards in time. Jesus was the son of the human woman, Mary, and the heavenly Father, Yahweh. For humanity, Jesus needed to be seen as a human, one of them, having gone through things each person normally goes through and faced what they would face. Yet humanity needed a Messiah who would come in power and might, like a warrior king, to defeat the forces of Satan and reign in power and majesty. For God the Father, the sin of humanity separates each person from Him because His holiness cannot be in the presence of sin. Humanity needed an adequate means to remove the stain of sin so they could have a renewed and clean/pure relationship with God. Jesus is the answer to both these needs -  the needs of the Father and the needs of humanity. Jesus was the little boy born into a poor carpenter’s home. He lived life as an Israelite boy growing up under the tutelage of his father, Joseph, and the rabbis at the synagogue. Jesus, too, was the perfect sacrifice the Father required to purify humanity of their sins. He lived His life without sin, even in the face of blatant temptation by Satan during his forty days in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11).

David, in comparison to Jesus – boy and man, was a young boy, the lowest of his brothers. His family cast him out (as a shepherd), almost to the point of not acknowledging him as family. David learned to recognize God's voice as a youth. Jesus knew the Father’s voice as a youth, too. At age twelve, Jesus stayed in the temple and taught the other temple-goers. He came to earth to lead the people to know and follow the Father. God chose David to lead His people to perceive, understand, and follow Him, Yahweh, I AM. Both David and Jesus began their work for the Father at a tender age. The people despised them. David and Jesus chose not to do his own will but that of the Father. 

How did David’s reign presage Jesus’ reign? Old Testament prophets foretold Jesus would come and be a king from the line of David. Jesus came to be the sacrifice for His people. (David sacrificed his will most of his life to God’s.) How is Jesus’ reign more important? David was the king of the chosen people. Jesus came to be the King of God’s children, Israelite and Gentile. David’s sacrifice of himself and his will to God was for the people of that time. Jesus’ sacrifice of His life was for the people of all time. David's sacrifice could not erase sin. Jesus' sacrifice erases the penalty and guilt of sin for those who repent and believe in Him.

Knowing this, the reign of David as “a man after God’s own heart” and the reign of Christ as God’s Salvation, both of which required sacrifice, it might be scary to consider allowing yourself to subjugate yourself to the Father (1 Samuel 13:14). Consider this: if you do not allow God to lead you on a daily, personal basis to live the best life, you are choosing the opposite that of allowing Satan to win by demanding your own way. Your way is not the best way because your view of life is limited, but God’s is endless. He knows best how to go through the path of your life. If you refuse to live God’s way, you are choosing to live Satan’s way. There are just two ways. God loves you and wants the best for you. Satan, as the master of chaos, does not know love and seeks his own best. He sees life as a game. The game, to him, is to keep the Father from getting as many people as He can from entering heaven’s gates. Satan cannot go to heaven and he does not want you to go to heaven either. He is jealous. He is tricky. He is confusing.

Which path would you rather choose –

wait and earn God’s voice and listen to and follow Him as the young boy David did

or

stand on your own two feet, be the master of your own life, and be wrong and unable to make it right because of your human limitations, like Saul?

Forever after, God and His followers recognized David as a “man after God’s own heart.”

You can choose. 

Do you want to be a person after God’s own heart?