“…He leadeth me beside still waters.” Psalm 23:2
Dear Ones:
In the context of restoring the soul, David writes that one means the Lord uses to accomplish this purpose, is to lead us into His blessed calm, or quietness. When we speak of “quietness,” we are not speaking of passivity. Waiting quietly upon the Lord is a pursuit with a promise, “Seek and ye shall find.” But how does God work in the quietness to restore the soul? What does He do in order for faith to again lay hold on Him?
In Psalm 46, the psalmist is speaking of everything being unstable, moving, shifting. These are circumstances that are overwhelming, enemies that are enraged against God, His anointed, and His children. He speaks of wars, troubled waters, and the shaking of mountains. After revealing what God IS, and what He can be to the believer according to the truth of His promises, the call to the believer is to, “…Be still (or cease striving), and know that I am God.” (v.10) There is a promise that accompanies that resolute, but quiet, waiting on God. The Lord declares, “I WILL be exalted among the heathen (or unbelieving nations), I will be exalted in the earth.” Why does He say this, and what are the truths upon which the believer can take his stand, in the quietness of Christ’s presence, that will restore his soul, encourage and strengthen him again?
It is a common occurrence in the Bible for God to begin dealing with the believer, even the unbeliever, by revealing first WHO He truly is. We see this in His meeting Moses in the wilderness at the moment of his calling. The Lord reveals to him that His name is, “I AM THAT I AM.” (Exodus 3:14) What was the need of Moses and the people of Israel at that point, that would encourage and strengthen them in their faith? It was the eternal, never diminishing, power and authority of God. This eternal God was with, and for them.
When Jesus began his ministry, especially as recorded in the Gospel of John, we discover that again and again He would reveal an aspect of his eternal character by declaring, “I AM…” He would say, “I am the light…the life…the resurrection…the truth.” These aspects of His character were amplified by the fact that He was declaring that He was eternally, and moment by moment, the God of the truth according to His words. These were encouraging, strengthening words…restoring words.
In Psalm 46, the author begins by declaring who God is, and who He is to Israel: “God is a refuge, and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (v.1) What is God, by the Psalmist’s words, doing here? He is revealing His eternal power and authority as it applies to the believer. He declares that He is a “very present help,” always available and able to meet every need, that we should walk by faith, and thus, glorify Him. With the following picture of the tumult of circumstances, and the opposition, even warfare, with the enemy, He reveals what His power and authority can do, and what He, as the Almighty, yet very present God, can accomplish in the life of the believer. It is then, at that point, that the command comes ringing very clearly: “Be still and know that I AM God.” (v.10) If we are quiet in our hearts, having laid all burdens at Jesus’ feet, and trusted Him to cleanse us from all sin, believing Him by His Spirit to speak to our hearts, then He will begin to reveal Himself by His word. It is in quietly waiting upon God, that He begins to impress us with the truth of who He is, convincing us of what He desires to be to us, in answer to faith. For example, Paul discovered that the great I AM of Moses’ day, that “…spiritual Rock that followed them (Israel in the wilderness),” was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). He is today for the believer all that He has revealed Himself to be in time past.
Dear Father, Open our eyes to see Thee as Thou art, strengthened to trust Thee with a quiet, resolved faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad