Practicing the Presence of God
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
(Psalm 46:10)
It is a rare thing to find in just one verse of scripture full directions for the whole religious life of man. There are, however, a few brief passages which catch up in a remarkable way both the beginning and the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage and serve as a staff for his soul every step of the way.
There is, for example, that lucid summary of Micah: “What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
And Jesus’ summary of all the law and the prophets: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself.”
So, also, our text this morning from the 46th Psalm is a brief, familiar summary of the whole religious life of man — one of those finely cut gems of scripture whose several facets reveal the whole glory of the religious life: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
First of all, let us note that here is a call to worship, an exhortation thrown at the soul of man to withdraw for a moment from the clamor and struggle of ordinary employment and in quiet composure think on God. “Be still, and know that I am God.”
As we begin our order of service each Sunday with a call to worship, so the whole of man’s religious life must begin with the soul’s response to some inner urge we feel or the call we hear from beyond our common days.
I was remembering with my family last week a brief autumn day several years ago in Virginia, when we drove up on the Skyline Drive to see the brilliant fall foliage. We remembered how sacred a moment it seemed when, high up on the mountaintop, we stopped the car, got out, and looked down on the broad stretch of valley and the little hills below. Why did God seem so near, and a hush come over the souls? We could see the movement of cars on the highway below, just as well, if not better. The freight train in the distance was racing along. All the world was very much there, so plain, but the sound of the noisy traffic was hushed, and though we could see the white puffs of steam from the train whistle, the shrill sharpness did not reach us. There was no sound, but the rush of the wind in our ears. Yes, it was the silence, the stillness of the experience, which gave us the chance to be still and know that God is.
Some folks can undoubtedly worship God and remember His nearness in the noise of commerce and in the sweaty struggle of trade, but most of us need to turn aside for a few moments, let go our tools, gather up our scattered thoughts and consciously make an effort to come into His presence. This is our need, we know, also we would not be gathered here in this place this hour. “Be still, and know that I am God,” is then first of all a call to worship for our souls.
But our text’s meaning for us does not stop here. There is also a demand for surrender in this text — “Be still, and know that I am God.” Dr. Moffatt translates these words: “Give in, admit that I am God, high over the nations, high over the world.”
Indeed, the context makes it clear that the primary meaning of these words in the total message of the 46th Psalm “is not just a passive meditation and quiet, mystical contemplation of God, but rather … a rousing demand of God on His enemies for unconditional surrender.” (H. A. Luccock) It is as if the Eternal were saying: “Hold up your hands! Throw down your weapons!”
You see, we are not just poor, lost sheep who have carelessly wandered away, we are rebels who have been taken with bloody weapons in our hands. It is not just our wandering thoughts that God must deal with, but our acts of self-love and malicious hate toward our brethren. We need not only to turn aside and worship. We need to be converted!
The Psalmist’s “Be still, and know that I am God,” is like Isaiah’s: “Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.” It is like Jeremiah’s: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in this strength, but let him that glorieth, glory in this that he knoweth and understandeth that I am the Lord.”
Whence come the tensions that literally tear men apart these days and rip into shreds family life and fragment every worthwhile institution of society? From man’s trust in himself, from his proud refusal to “cease from man” and be still and know that God rules in His universe.
In ancient times when the Christian missionaries went among the wild pagan tribes of Indo Europe, as this text was used as they chose the sites of their churches and as they began the walls, exorcising the demons: “Be still, and know that I am God, that I will be exalted among the heathen.” Here is a call to each of us to make unconditional surrender to Him who rules the world.
But there is more even yet for us here in this text: First of all, a call to worship: “Be still, and know that I am God, withdraw and in the quiet of your soul be conscious of spiritual reality; second, a demand for surrender — Be still and know that I am God, desist, drop your arms, let go and let God take over. But there is also here a third imperative — Be companionable with God. Launch out with Him as your new and proven ally. Enter into a daily, hourly, moment by moment dialogue with the Eternal. Start practicing the presence of God. Be still and know that God is the Lord of your life at every moment.”
Brother Lawrence wrote that after he had begun thinking of God always at every possible conscious moment, as present with him, he found himself trying to do each chore of his common business (which for him was working in the kitchen) without any view of pleasing men, but as far as possible for the pure love of God.
For us, “Be still, and know that I am God,” means most assuredly: “Be attentive to God at all times. In the noise of industry, in the midst of the social whirl, in the quiet of religious exercises, in the exuberance of sports, remember Him.”
And of course, we are exhorted to know Him as He is. We must strive to rectify and purify our thoughts of God so that we may conceptualize Him accurately, not as an oblong blur, not as an indulgent Santa Claus, not as a wrathful policeman eager to catch us exceeding the limits, but as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the one hand as the supreme source of moral perfection and the Judge of all righteousness and unrighteousness, but also our Heavenly Father, eager for our companionship and never so preoccupied with His multitudinous chores of fixing stars and refueling suns, and pulling His chains of gravity to hold the planets in orbit, but as One who has plenty of time to give close attention to our personal concerns and leisurely enjoy our company.
Jesus said: “The hairs of your head are numbered and no sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge of it.” Roark Bradford, in The Green Pastures, vividly portrays this truth about the Eternal by representing the Lord saying to Gabriel: “While I’m gone, Gabe, remember to fix that star and don’t forget that sparrow that just fell.”
Brother Lawrence found that this practice of the presence of God filled his life with an exquisite rapture of joy. Others of his saints have been impressed with the new and unbelievable resources of power which flow into their lives from such conscious company with the Eternal.
Years ago, construction on a famous bridge across the Hudson River was abruptly stopped when workmen discovered the hulk of a sunken ship at the very spot on the river bottom where the plans called for the erecting of one of the two great stone and steel supports upon which the bridge would rest. All efforts were focused on removing this obstruction. But derricks and lifts and cranes could not budge the water-soaked wreck sunk deep in the river’s silt. They exhausted their knowledge and skill. It seemed a hopeless obstruction.
But one engineer would not admit defeat. After every lifting device known to man had been tried, this engineer ordered two empty barges brought to the spot and chained to the old wreck at low tide. Then they stopped, just waited, for the tide to come in. And when from the depths of the ocean the steady, silent stream of the mighty tide came sweeping in, it lifted the old hulk, removed the obstruction, and the bridge building went on.
There are powerful, unseen, always available spiritual forces in God’s great universe, competent to lift and remove from our burdened individual lives and from our demonic common life the sin and evil that frustrate us. But the lifting power is harnessed only by binding our little lives to His through practicing the presence of God. Be still, and know that I am God.
Finally, our text issues the call to resignation: “Be still, and know that I am God.” The time comes when we all need to hear and to respond to that call of resignation. This is the text that brave young Richard Cameron used when he preached his last sermon. At Bouthwell Bridge, he had openly denounced the monarchy and the established church. Soon he and his companions were hounded out of their place of hiding high in the Scottish Highlands by the king’s men. Gathering his friends about him he used this text and its context as descriptive of his own and their experience. It was as if he had said: “We have done all we can for the freedom of men’s consciences and the glory of God in our land. We have been obedient to what we know and believe about the mind and will of God. We are a small minority overwhelmed by a powerful majority. We may go down before that crushing power. Let us, therefore, be still, and know that God rules and His truth will ultimately prevail though we suffer temporary defeat and death; and in that confidence find peace and courage.”
“Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently thy cross of grief or woe.
Leave to thy God to order or provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”
• Scripture Reference: Psalms 46:0-0 • Secondary Scripture References: n/a • Subject : God’s Presence; 698 • Special Topic: n/a • Series: n/a • Occasion: n/a • First Preached: 4/12/1959 • Last Preached: 11/11/1986 • Rating: 3 • Book/Author References: The Green Pastures, Roark Bradford; The Green Pastures, H. A. Luccock