“Be still, and know that I am God!”
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”
Psalm 46:10 NLT
Five years ago, in 2018 Mikaela and I were preparing for the mission field in planning to go and do ministry in Stavanger, Norway and naturally this meant to do so there would need to be a lot of work and time invested into support raising. One of the things that helped us greatly during our time of support raising was our Shipley Norway pamphlets as we have had several different versions of it over the last five years. The one thing that has not changed on the pamphlet is on the first page being the verse I shared above being Psalm 46:10.
In this blog I would like to talk more about the significance of this verse and how we came to choosing this verse to be a foundational part of our ministry. One day while working on the missions pamphlet for version 1.0, we wanted there to be a Bible verse on the pamphlet itself, but more importantly a verse that would serve as a unifying message for what we felt God had placed on our hearts in our mission to share the living Gospel in Norway and beyond.
So, I spent some time quietly in prayer seeking God to guide us to a verse in the Bible that would help us in this way. Then I heard these words spoken, “Be still, and know that I am God!” My reaction upon hearing this was that this is a nice verse, but it does not have a missional element to it. Then I felt a nudging by the Holy Spirit to look up the verse and read it. So, to Psalm 46 I went in reading verse 10 and to my surprise the verse was not just, “Be still, and know that I am God!” There were still two more sentences attached to this verse! I then read, “I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” Whoa! I thought to myself and quietly thanked God for guiding me in his Spirit to this verse.
That is the story of how Psalm 46:10 came to be the Bible verse that we used on our pamphlets and on our website as well. These words are not simply words that sound nice and have a nice missional ring to it, they have so much more meaning than just sounding good to the ear. My study Bible points to this significance quite well so I will quote it here below.
Psalm 46:10 is a, “message directly from the Lord (which) confirms the authenticity of the psalmist’s vision (see also 12:5-6; 32:8). Know that I am God: The Lord will do what he promises (Isa 45:3; 49:23; 60:16). God will be exalted (Psalm 47; Isaiah 6:1); he will judge the nations and rescue his people (see Psalm 57:11; 89:13; 108:5-6; 118:16).” – NLT Illustrated Study Bible
In the text, this message is directly from the Lord himself! There is so much that we can learn from this verse and prayerfully meditate over as followers of Christ. The book of Psalms contains many different themes over its 150 chapters and is outlined in 5 books. The themes of Psalms are as follows, Praise, Thanksgiving, Trust, Wisdom, Lament, Imprecations, Royal, God is King, Messianic and Zion. Psalm 46 is a psalm of Zion. The psalms of this theme celebrate Zion, the city of God that transcends geography. Psalm 46 particularly “celebrates God’s special presence in Jerusalem, inviting confidence in the Lord because the citizens of Zion enjoy his protection” (NLT Illustrated Study Bible). Specifically in verse 10 there is confidence and joy that we as Christians can find in this message directly from the Lord confirming the psalmist’s vision.
Let me transition into my own reflection of the text itself. I encounter this verse in several ways, but for the sake of this blog let me reflect on just two of those ways. The first way I encounter this text is that it invites me to draw closer to the Lord. Specifically looking at the first sentence of the verse.
“Be still, and know that I am God!”
This sentence invites me to do two things. The first is to “Be still,” As a pastor in love with the Word of God, I have learned over the years to pay attention to punctuation marks, they carry weight and significance as they point to the greater meaning of the text itself. The comma following, “Be still,” serves two roles. The first role the comma serves is that it represents a short pause and so we as the reader and listener of the text need to give a short pause upon reading the comma following “Be still.” The second role the comma serves is that it divides part of the sentence which in this case the comma divides the sentence into two parts. The first is, “Be still,” and the second is, “and know that I am God.” The sentence is inviting me as the reader and listener to first “Be still,” and secondly “and know that I am God!” To me this is important to act upon these two invitations before continuing to the second and third sentence of verse 10.
I first need to be still. What does it mean to be still? What does it look like to be still? How do I bring myself to a place of stillness in my life so that I am prepared to encounter God in the next part of the sentence? When I mediate and pray over this passage, I first know I need to pull myself away from any possible distractions, secondly quiet my mind of its many thoughts and thirdly, find a place where I am able to do this effectively. This may look different person to person, but I believe it is safe to say that generally speaking, this would be a good frame of reference. For myself, essentially these three things mean to not sit at my desk by my computer at home or in my work space at IMI Church, because my mind will quickly wander to different emails I need to respond to or some administration work that I need to do. It also means to not have my phone close to me where I may become distracted by checking it or hopping onto social media. As I referenced above for the third point, finding a place where I can effectively be still. Often, I am quite fond of doing this outside such as going for a walk by the fjord near our home in finding a quiet place to sit in the sun (when available), on our balcony looking over the fjord or going for walk/hike in the mountains. I find that it is easier to quiet myself outdoors in nature versus indoors.
When I am still, I find that I am able to encounter God more deeply because I have set aside the work task, noise or distractions that easily consume my attention in day-to-day life. Upon what I believe is successfully being still, then I move onto the second part of the sentence which is “and know that I am God!” Again, this is an invitation for me to seek and encounter God more deeply in reminding myself of his promises, faithfulness, love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, power, strength, and wisdom. In this way I am knowing God because I am spending time with him whether that is in prayer, worship, the Scriptures, meditation and more. To know God means I need to invest time and effort in my relationship with him in getting to know him in all of his glorious wonders and works. Thus, I can encounter and know the character of my Creator more intimately than I have before.
I will be honored in every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.
The second way I encounter this text is the joy it gives me as I read the second and third sentence of verse 10. These two sentences in particular give me such joy, hope and encouragement as I go forward in the Lord’s calling and mission to share the living Gospel in Norway and beyond. After being still and know that the Lord is God, I believe him when he says, “I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” As the study notes of my Bible stated, “The Lord will do what he promises” (NLT Illustrated Study Bible). I trust and know that the nations of the earth are in God’s hands. I have confidence and I believe him when he speaks these words to the psalmist confirming the authenticity of the psalmist’s vision.
To know that God will be honored by every nation and throughout the world brings me joy as I look forward to the culmination of this in the Lord’s time. In living out the calling God has given me; I have such a greater love for the nations than I have ever had before. A passion and desire that all people of all nations in the world would come to know God and his love for the world.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 NLT
This word “honored” carries significance and looking at the Merriam-Webster dictionary this is how the word is defined as a verb “a : to regard or treat (someone) with admiration and respect : to regard or treat with honor b : to give special recognition to : to confer honor on” (Merriam Webster-Dictionary). For God to be honored by every nation and throughout the world is no small achievement, it is significant and speaks of the wonders and glory of his name.
I hope that as you read this you consider also setting time aside to prayerfully reflect and meditate on this passage. Whether it be Psalm 46:10 or many other wonderful passages throughout the Bible, God is always extending the invitation for us to draw closer and deeper to him in relationship.
I will close this blog with sharing Psalm 47 below which connects very nicely to Psalm 46. Blessings
1 Come, everyone! Clap your hands!
Shout to God with joyful praise!
2 For the Lord Most High is awesome.
He is the great King of all the earth.
3 He subdues the nations before us,
putting our enemies beneath our feet.
4 He chose the Promised Land as our inheritance,
the proud possession of Jacob’s descendants, whom he loves.
Interlude
5 God has ascended with a mighty shout.
The Lord has ascended with trumpets blaring.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the King over all the earth.
Praise him with a psalm.
8 God reigns above the nations,
sitting on his holy throne.
9 The rulers of the world have gathered together
with the people of the God of Abraham.
For all the kings of the earth belong to God.
He is highly honored everywhere.
Psalm 47:1-9 NLT