Be Still; The Ever Powerful Presence of God

See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and His arm rules for Him. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him.

Isaiah 40:10

The earth is abuzz with spring, birdsong has been calling forth the morning since before dawn. There are whitecaps on the lake across the road, small waves awakened by the wind. Chainsaws are humming in the distance, clearing what winter has left behind. Children are playing, shouting, pups are claiming their boundary lines. The world is loud on this typically quiet goes nowhere street.

I sit as the morning sun hits my face, bombarded with the noise, trying to discern what is what, wondering if the earth ever longs for quiet. I read the news this morning, something I tend to shy away from. It is too much, that kind of noise. The rumblings of angry people taking sides, pouring emotional fuel on an already spent fire, people dying, a virus lurking, people denying. Bad news interrupted by stories of beautiful people who influence others with their broken fairytale lives, somehow appearing to be simultaneously vulnerable and flawless. A powerful, numbing distraction from the morning headlines. My mind gets lost somewhere between mercy and justice, not knowing where one ends and the other begins.

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations (Psalm 46:10).

“Be still, and know”, a popular verse for sharing encouragement. We pull it out like a single lego piece, a standalone reminder to rest in the arms of an omnipotent God. But start at the beginning of Psalm 46 and read through to the end. Add the context the Psalter pens along with verse 10.

Be still when the earth gives way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, when the mountains quake from their surging (vs. 2-3).

Be still when nations are in uproar and kingdoms fall (vs. 6).

Be still when His works are displayed as desolations brought on the earth (vs. 8).

The magnitude of His power is on display as a destructive force until verses 9-10, “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, He burns the shields with fire.” And then “Be still, and know that I am God”. Justice and mercy collide in a God who is all just and all merciful, exalted among the nations in all of the earth (vs. 10).

I feel like Job, daring to ask too many questions, listening fearfully to the survey list of who God is. “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm” (Job 38:1). Out of the storm, He answers. Entitled we stand, waiting for answers to our diminutive questions about the justice and mercy of God, all the while sharing our judgements of others with others. Psalm 46 feels like “brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me” (Job 38:3). We toy with Him, the God of the universe, sovereign and powerful. We play our games, give our political speeches, divide the lines, flame the fires of rhetoric, assign Him a side. Grasshoppers, failing to acknowledge our fate is a reduction to nothing. “No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff” (Isaiah 40:24).

Be still, and know that I am God begins to ring more like a command than words of encouragement.

There is a time foretold in Revelation 8 where heaven is stilled to silence (vs. 1). The living creatures stop declaring the holiness of God, His throne stops rumbling, the twenty four elders cease their worship. Heaven is still.

Be still.

After this abbreviated interval of silence comes a magnificent display of God’s power. His power loaded for specific destruction after patiently waiting for evil to run a muck over all the earth (Revelation 8). Patiently waiting such that none of His chosen would perish, but that all would come to salvation through Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9). Mercy and justice collide.

And know that I am God.

This does not seem so hopeful, does it? Not so worthy of instagram encouragement. Before I am accused of doomsday fear mongering, finish Psalm 46, or go back to the beginning in verse 1.

• God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (vs. 1).
• The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress (vs. 11).

Through all of the noise, natural disasters, fearful rhetoric and undesired change, God remains constant, unhindered and sovereign. Never once does He leave the throne and relinquish control of the cosmic story that is unraveling. The book of Revelation does not end with destruction. It ends where the book of Genesis begins. The people of God living amongst God. Grasshoppers partaking in heavenly things. Grasshoppers granted mercy by the One who sits on the mercy seat.

Amidst the daily cacophony, tune your ears to heavenly music. Heavenly music that sounds like a melody of mercy harmonized with justice, set to the tempo of the One who moves to lead us home.

Be still, and know.

“To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Isaiah 40:25