“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).
Have you ever waited, patiently at first, for someone one to come to the end of what they were saying, so that you may also say something , only to find that as you listened, you forgot what you were going to say? Perhaps that was just as well. In years long gone by now, I had a daughter and a granddaughter or two who rather dominated a conversation. Apparently, we all do that with our heavenly Father as well. These words can be meaningful to most of us, and certainly anything that God has to say is more important than all that we could contribute. Our Heavenly Father also said: “He what hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Someone once pointed out, “Yes, He gave us two ears, but only one mouth.”
We surround ourselves with distractions. Jesus often went to isolated places such as a mountain top, or the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem so that he could pray. Late at night it was a deserted garden. Living in a city, it is difficult to get away from distractions. In addition to the noise of a factory, with the clang of the machinery, we add a public address system, and carry a cell phone on our belt so that we can be reached at every moment of the working day. Eventually, we merge with the noisy traffic on our way home. Some of the cars will have their CD’s playing a ear-drum bursting volume, and their windows wide open. When we arrive there, the television or the radio is also belching forth trivia. Even when we finally fall asleep, the street noises, the, the police, ambulance, or fire engine sirens fill the night air. There is no silence. We often note a gentleman who also walks as we do, but the difference is that he wears a walkman.
I recall a time when I was praying about a matter that I considered to be very urgent, and God replied with these very words, “Be still and know that I am God.” The Bible is absolutely right, sometimes God speaks in a “still soft voice!” I would never have heard it, had I not stopped pleading. He was probably, like myself with my children, waiting to get a word in edgewise! He answered that prayer there and then, and fulfilled it about a year later.
But notice, there is another line, “I will be exalted among the nations.” These are the nations spoken of in the great commission, “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Sometimes it is in those nations of the world that the people are suffering the most for their faith. Because of this, they appreciate it the most, and their reward will be the greatest!
There is still one more line. “I will be exalted in the earth.” “Every knee shall bow and every tongues confess.”
