Be Still and Wait
Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, and the justice of your cause, like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:3-7)
Trust the Lord, settle safely in his pasture, delight yourself in him, commit your way to him… And then of all things: Be still and wait!
Could this be the most difficult invitation on the list to accept? Being still and waiting are not exactly my favorite activities. (Or is that, lack of activity?) Oswald Chambers helps: “To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we’re told.” OK, I can do that…for at least a minute or two.
Be still before the Lord:
Of the other five times we’re told in the Bible to “be still” before the Lord, my two favorites are these:
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:14)
“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)
If I’m sharing favorites on the topic it’s gotta be (Psalm 131:2):
“I have stilled and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
Notice that in each case, we have a choice, a responsibility to “be still…” and to “still ourselves.”
Don’t strive, cease unnecessary activity. If we’re willing to admit it, a lot of our activities are unnecessary, if not, unhealthy.
Andrew Murray says waiting patiently for him “lets God be God.” “Come, and however feeble you feel, just wait in His presence. As a feeble, sickly invalid is brought out into the sunshine to let its warmth go through him, come with all that is dark and cold in you into the sunshine of God’s holy, omnipotent love, and sit and wait there.”
So, does being still simply mean inactivity or total stasis? He adds, “And wait patiently for him.”
And wait patiently for him:
I only have two problems with what David prescribes for peacefulness: the part about waiting and the other part about patience. Otherwise, I’m cool with it.
Nevertheless, the key to patient waiting is ensconced in the two words “for him.” At least we know what/who we’re waiting for. That makes quite a bit of difference. Right?
You’ve seen a dog in a car in the grocery store parking lot, waiting for its master to return. It may be lying on the seat motionless or running back and forth slobbering all over the interior. You know that the animal didn’t drive himself there and park. He’s got a master. And the master will return. He didn’t drive there only to leave his pet to wait interminably. The important thing is his waiting will end at some point. How long can it take to buy a few groceries and a 50 lb. bag of dog food?
Our energy is probably not best spent on running back and forth slobbering. He’s coming. Not sure when or how or what he’ll do when he comes, but he’s always on his way back to us. So, be still and wait patiently for him.
[Next, while we’re patiently waiting, he invites us to wait “fretlessly.”
In the meantime, how good are you at being still? How about patiently waiting? Don’t give up, it’s a skill you can learn if you choose to.
