February 27th, 2026
Friday, February 27
“The Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
~ Psalm 46:10
“The Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
~ Psalm 46:10
____________________________________
We don’t understand rest very well in our culture. Rest is not sleep. And it’s not laziness. It’s a sad reflection on our commitments when our only two categories for living are “busy” or “lazy.” It reveals much. Mostly, I’m afraid it reveals that we really don’t know what rest means. We might think we do in theory, but in actual practice, we don’t.
Psalm 46:10 is a classic passage many Christians have heard. It’s often the case, however, that most Christians have not read the rest of Psalm 46. The entire context of Psalm 46 has to do with the “uproar” and noise of chaos in the world. Even though the world falls apart, God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1-3). The nations build their kingdoms and claims to power and wage war. They will fall. Every nation is temporary (Ps. 46:4-7). In the midst of it all, the Lord says, “Be still! Stop all of it!” What should come to mind is less some nice peaceful park where it's quiet and an individual sits in peace reading the Bible. What should come to mind is Jesus on the boat commanding the waters of chaos: "Be still!"
Rest in this case is stopping the noise, busyness, and chaos of the world. And we have A LOT of human noise. I’m not just talking about the constant stream of noise and sound we seem to have pumping into our ear canals nearly 24-hours a day (though that is certainly a component of the problem!). Individuals are busy making noise, trying to impress the world around them, trying to assert their way or make their voice heard; companies are always trying to get more attention, advertise bigger and better; nations roar about their greatness and power. As Dr. Seuss writes in The Grinch: “All the noise, noise, noise, noise!!”
There’s something important in Scripture about stopping all of the noise. Truly knowing the Lord is God means stopping our human chatter, our striving, and kingdom building. All of this human noise of busyness can reinforce the idea that the fulfillment and success of our lives depends on us. It gets to the point that we only hear ourselves and the noise we’re making. Pretty soon we think we’re all there is.
The stopping of rest forces us to indoctrinate a different story into our bones. When we stop and rest, we make space for the truth that it is not us, but someone else who holds our lives. Stopping and resting keeps the idolatry of self at bay. Stopping and resting brings peace. Not just personal peace, but peace from all of the human noise. According to Psalm 46:10, stopping, being still, resting – this is the only way of truly knowing that God is God.
For many of us, we’re afraid of taking this seriously. Or we think we can’t. Consider the alternative, however. NOT stopping and resting might actually be a significant way we prevent our lives from truly knowing what it means for God to be God.
The Lord desires relationship with his people. But God speaks silently. God is not loud like our advertisements and the theatrical displays of our celebrity world. Matthew’s gospel says of Jesus that “he did not raise his voice in the streets” (Matthew 12:19). If we’re not quiet, we might miss him. We’ll only hear ourselves. God wants us to hear him, so that we might find life. To do that, we need to stop and be quiet.
We don’t understand rest very well in our culture. Rest is not sleep. And it’s not laziness. It’s a sad reflection on our commitments when our only two categories for living are “busy” or “lazy.” It reveals much. Mostly, I’m afraid it reveals that we really don’t know what rest means. We might think we do in theory, but in actual practice, we don’t.
Psalm 46:10 is a classic passage many Christians have heard. It’s often the case, however, that most Christians have not read the rest of Psalm 46. The entire context of Psalm 46 has to do with the “uproar” and noise of chaos in the world. Even though the world falls apart, God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1-3). The nations build their kingdoms and claims to power and wage war. They will fall. Every nation is temporary (Ps. 46:4-7). In the midst of it all, the Lord says, “Be still! Stop all of it!” What should come to mind is less some nice peaceful park where it's quiet and an individual sits in peace reading the Bible. What should come to mind is Jesus on the boat commanding the waters of chaos: "Be still!"
Rest in this case is stopping the noise, busyness, and chaos of the world. And we have A LOT of human noise. I’m not just talking about the constant stream of noise and sound we seem to have pumping into our ear canals nearly 24-hours a day (though that is certainly a component of the problem!). Individuals are busy making noise, trying to impress the world around them, trying to assert their way or make their voice heard; companies are always trying to get more attention, advertise bigger and better; nations roar about their greatness and power. As Dr. Seuss writes in The Grinch: “All the noise, noise, noise, noise!!”
There’s something important in Scripture about stopping all of the noise. Truly knowing the Lord is God means stopping our human chatter, our striving, and kingdom building. All of this human noise of busyness can reinforce the idea that the fulfillment and success of our lives depends on us. It gets to the point that we only hear ourselves and the noise we’re making. Pretty soon we think we’re all there is.
The stopping of rest forces us to indoctrinate a different story into our bones. When we stop and rest, we make space for the truth that it is not us, but someone else who holds our lives. Stopping and resting keeps the idolatry of self at bay. Stopping and resting brings peace. Not just personal peace, but peace from all of the human noise. According to Psalm 46:10, stopping, being still, resting – this is the only way of truly knowing that God is God.
For many of us, we’re afraid of taking this seriously. Or we think we can’t. Consider the alternative, however. NOT stopping and resting might actually be a significant way we prevent our lives from truly knowing what it means for God to be God.
The Lord desires relationship with his people. But God speaks silently. God is not loud like our advertisements and the theatrical displays of our celebrity world. Matthew’s gospel says of Jesus that “he did not raise his voice in the streets” (Matthew 12:19). If we’re not quiet, we might miss him. We’ll only hear ourselves. God wants us to hear him, so that we might find life. To do that, we need to stop and be quiet.
For reflection:
Prayer:
God of mercy, we are noisy people. We get so used to our own noise that we can’t hear you. Sometimes we think your voice is in our noise. We repent of this, Lord. Help us to silence our noise so that we might hear you more. Amen.
- Read Psalm 46. Read Matthew 12:15-21 and 1 Kings 19:7-13. Where do you notice a lot of noise in our world? Maybe in your own daily life? What would it be like to quiet the noise?
- In what ways might you know the Lord is God better without all of the extra noise in your life?
- For those with kids: when you are in a place that’s really loud with a lot of people, is it hard to hear your parents? What if they had something important for you and you couldn’t hear them? That would be really sad! What are the extra distractions and noises in our world that make it hard to hear the good things God has to say to us?
Prayer:
God of mercy, we are noisy people. We get so used to our own noise that we can’t hear you. Sometimes we think your voice is in our noise. We repent of this, Lord. Help us to silence our noise so that we might hear you more. Amen.
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