“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)
Sometimes, probably often, we need to be still to know God is God. It’s not that we don’t think he is otherwise, but we don’t think about him as much when we’re busy. It’s like how many of us think about gravity. We know it’s real even though we don’t think about it most of the time. Yet, we’re acutely aware of gravity when we trip and fall on our faces. In that painful yet still moment when we’re laying on the ground, we know that gravity is gravity.
When I choose stillness despite any other activity I think is necessary and with so much else pulling at my attention, I exalt God. When I deliberately stop even as the chaos continues around me (Psalm 46 describes this chaos well) and let stillness remind me that God is God, I exalt him. As an introvert, exaltation connects with a core part of my personality – the need for stillness – that many people don’t understand. The idea that something I’m drawn naturally to raises God up – exalts him – in my life brings me joy.
Take the word exalt deeper, and we find that it also means to stimulate the imagination and to intensify. Silence brings us into God’s presents and elevates him. It stimulates our thinking about him and intensifies his presence in our lives.
Stillness makes room to know God more. It creates space mentally and physically to receive him. Into that space, God is raised above whatever else is going on in our lives. He’s above whatever it is we put aside for stillness.
Stillness connects me with God. It’s a natural connection that deepens and intensifies how I see him. I too often neglect that stillness, especially when busyness consumes and distractions propagate. That neglect of something so natural always sends me down a careless road of self-neglect. Stillness brings me back, though, and leads me to knowing more deeply that God is God.
