Be Still.
Read Time: 7 Mins
“Be still and know that I am God…”
Psalm 46:10
Be still and know. Slow down and remember. Pause and contemplate. That’s the advice the descendants of Korah give to us in the 46th Psalm, and I believe their advice holds a practice that can revolutionize your life if you let it.
They start by painting a picture of mountains tumbling and oceans storming. They describe earthquakes tearing down everything they once stood on and oceans overwhelming them from every side. However, they have the audacity to say that they refuse to fear because God is their refuge and strength.
They argue that regardless of what fails and falters in their life, they don’t have to worry. They celebrate the fact that, regardless of the storms and strife they find themselves in, they can count on a God who will always be a very present help in times of trouble.
That’s a sense of steadfastness I want to know. I am well acquainted with the feeling of being overwhelmed. Many of you are, too. You’ve felt crippling anxiety. You’ve felt buried under worry and fear. You’ve been in situations where there seemed like no good answer. The very people you’ve relied on flaked, and the things you found a sense of safety in have failed. You know what it feels like to be in a storm, and you’d love to have the testimony of the descendants of Korah and be able to say, “Let it all fall down, I still won’t be afraid.”
The good news is that they give us the secret to their sense of security. They have identified God as a refuge and strength, and you can too. How, you might ask? By being still and knowing.
Be still.
The word here in Hebrew is “Raphah”. It holds a variety of meanings, but it is often used to describe an idea of ceasing, relaxing, and letting go. Being still means to stop doing it on your own.
What may be more interesting to note is the fact that four out of the first five mentions of the word in the bible are translated as “lazy.” “To Be Still” is translated as “To Be Lazy.” It can sound counterintuitive and almost sacrilegious to argue that God is calling us to be lazy; however, this may actually give us a window into our freedom.
God is literally telling you to stop fighting. Stop working. Stop doing it on your own. Slow down and cease. As Gale Jones-Murphy would say, sit down somewhere and be quiet. He is telling you to get out of the driver's seat and let Him take over.
Modern hustle culture is essentially secular legalism. They argue the same thing. They argue that your grind is enough. They argue that we should work to earn a reward and not that we should work as a response to our reward. It’s crazy that the concept of Sabbath was given as a command before sin, because God wanted us to know what life with Him is supposed to be. Sabbath was given to Adam and Eve as a gift before work, not a reward for work. Sabbath was given as a picture of life with God. It pushes the idea that you can live in a world where someone greater than you provides for you. Life with God means the pressure of providing isn't on your shoulders. I just read of a relatively young person taking a nap after working 7 days a week and not waking up. We were not designed to be human doings; we are designed to be human beings. I’m not saying that you should never be productive. But I am saying that rest is a prerequisite to productivity. So many of us are digging our own graves by trying to work our way out of stress, strife, and strain when God is saying to surrender. He’s not asking you to have it all under control. He’s asking you to get out of the way and give Him room to have His way.
The word is also translated to “fail” or “be weak.” This all sounds negative until you realize that God's strength is made perfect when we can admit weakness. I love that verse because if God’s strength is made perfect in one state, is Paul saying that it's less than perfect in another? Paul says that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness because when we act strong, He has no space to give His true power. We have to be courageous enough to take off the mask of perceived strength that we hide under and admit that we are helpless. It's only then that God can show up in His full power. God's strength is at its strongest when we’re at our weakest. God is trying to tell us that finding weakness is the way to strength. Admitting you need help is the way to win. Be still.
One of the hardest things for high-achieving people to recognize is that rest is productive. The hard part about this is that we may get to a point where we ask for help, but we still think it's our responsibility to hold the world up. Sometimes God tells you to be still, and you must have the faith to believe that He will win without you. To be still or Raphah, we are pausing, stopping, dropping our weapons, and letting Him do the fighting for us. We are admitting that our best isn’t good enough and that success can only be found through surrender. We are putting away the facade and admitting our dependence.
The Hebrew word “Yatsab” in Exodus 14:13, which is typically translated as “stand still” or “stand firm,” is different from the “Raphah” we find in Psalm 46:10, but I like the message it gives. The Israelites were stuck between a sea and an army, and as you can imagine, their fear led to complaint. “But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm (Exodus 14:13-14 NLT).”
Do you trust God to let Him fight for you? Let Him make a way. Let Him open the door. Let Him show up for you. This word here is less about the lack of action and more about the confidence in which we stand. It’s about taking your stand and not wavering. God is saying that we can stand confidently and wait to see Him show up. We can stand courageously and watch the Lord fight for us.
God is saying that He will fight for you, and rest in that. You can cease, stop, and selah because He will fight for you. He is the refuge and strength, not you. He is the very present help in time of trouble; the pressure doesn’t fall on you. You can pass the ball of worry and let Him take over the game. I’m using a lot more Hebrew than I planned on, but the word for “glory” is actually related to the word for “weight.” Giving God glory is giving Him the weight. It’s letting Him carry it. Let go and let God.
Knowing that God will fight for you gives you a chance to unclench your jaw and take a breath. It’s a call to relax. All through this Psalm and many others, you’ll see the statement, “saleh.” That is the biblical version of a rest mark in musical notation. It literally told the choir directors, musicians, and singers that there was a time to pause, relax, and take a break from the music. It's time to take a breath. It's time to cease. It's time to stop and feel. It’s literally a time to stop the noise and pause. This is what’s made available to us when we are still enough to remember that God is God and we are not. As it says in Hebrews, there remains a rest that you can enter today. There’s a break. There’s a pause. And it comes when you are still enough to remember who He is and what that means for you.
Maybe you are still struggling with this. You have heard that His strength is made perfect in your weakness, but how can you truly believe that for yourself? In order for us to believe that we can trust God to fight for us, we have to know Him. This is where the next part of our text comes in.
And Know
The writers tell us not to just pause, cease, and be still; they tell us to know. They encourage us to understand, find assurance in, and be aware of the fact that God is God and we are not.
The word “Yada” used here means to know, understand, perceive, and experience. It doesn’t just point to factual knowledge, it argues for an intimate understanding. It's actually the word used to describe sexual intimacy in the Bible. It’s not just to know about someone, it’s to have been with them. It’s to know something for sure, not because you’ve heard about it, but because you’ve felt it.
We aren’t just told to be still, we are told to experience and therefore be sure of God's identity for ourselves. This is important because the thing is that we will never be still if we can't trust, and we can't trust if we don't try. God will forever be a fairy tale with endless conceptual potential until we give Him the space to prove to us how strong He can be. The only way we are going to do that is if we try Him. We have to give Him a shot. That's why it’s important to be still and get out of the way first. The only way to experience something new is to open yourself up to something new. We have to let go to give Him space to be God. To know God at a deeper level starts with having enough faith to get out of the way. Then He can show up for us and prove that He is what He’s talking about.
I’ve heard so many stories of future NBA stars coming to a camp or clinic in a place where they weren’t already known. They would quietly sit on the bench or on the sidelines as teams struggled, only until someone who knew them went to the coach or the other players and vouched for them. A trusted person went to the players on the court and told them to trust the new kid. A coach went to another coach and told them a little bit about the new kid they had on their bench.
I want to be that trusted person to tell you what I’ve seen so that you can see it for yourself. I want to tell you what I’ve experienced so that you can experience it too. Give God a shot. Pass Him the ball. It’ll transform the game of life. This other person's experience with them was enough to get others to put more trust in them and experience more of what they could do. I want to tell you to let God check into your life. I promise you He will win the game for you. Pass the ball and let Him score.
It’s after we experience God for ourselves that we can truly believe He is a refuge and strength. We can only know that He is a very present help in times of trouble when He showed up right on time in our time of deepest need. It’s often by being still that we get to know Him. It’s when we stop fighting. It takes the faith to slow down and give Him a chance. God will speak in the stillness. He will offer comfort when you stop fighting long enough to hear Him. Turn off the noise. Turn off the distractions. And give Him a chance to speak.
When you try Him for yourself, you’ll too be able to say, “God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable], A very present and well-proved help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas, Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah (Psalms 46:1-3 AMP).”
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