Series: Songs of Worship—Getting Real With God
Sermon: Be Still
Speaker and Writer: Elia King

Refresh: Open with prayer. Ask God for understanding through the Holy Spirit.

Read: Psalm 46:1–11 (NIV). As you read the New International Version, note 1–3 insights or questions.

Reflect: One of my favorite life memories is of watching meteor showers with my mom in our front yard in Michigan when I was a kid. To be honest, it isn’t always the meteor shower that I remember so much as the time before the show began.

We would usually lay blankets out on the grass after dark and just sit and wait. I remember laughing and talking about school. We would discuss what was going on in our family and with the neighbors. But then conversation would usually trail off as we waited for the first stars to begin falling.

And then we would sit. Just waiting. In silence.

It reminds me that when God asks us, as happens in this Psalm, to “be still,” it does not mean for us to just stop haphazardly. Sometimes to “be still” is to wait in hopeful expectation. It means anticipating the glimmer of the first star. Or, as is the case in this song, it means we anticipate some insight into the character of God, presumably some assurance that God is at work beyond—and even in the midst of—our present circumstances.

Of course this stands in stark contrast to all of the chaos and business going on in the context of the Psalm—and often our own lives. Being swept into busyness is often easier than we would like, especially when everything and everyone around us seem to demand more time and more attention. How can we learn to be still?

Through it all, God’s invitation remains: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Recalibrate: If you could make time to relive any memory in your life, what would it be?

Respond: Pray for time to “take a breath” today.

Research: Listen to the song, “Be Still and Know That He is God,” by Stephen Curtis Chapman. Why do you think God asks us to be still in order to make that connection?