Silent before the King Who Speaks
Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him (Hab. 2:20). Take a moment to contemplate this admonition. God is in his Temple. He sits upon his throne. His eyes survey heaven and earth and everyone and everything in it. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from his will. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He has appointed the day and hour of your birth and the moment and manner of your death. He had ordained everything that happens in between and works it all according to the purpose of his will for the good of those who love him and who have been called by him to everlasting life and glory.
God is in his Temple. Hush! Keep silence! Everyone and everything, be still. What is to be silenced? Our sin and struggle against his will. Our bitterness, resentment, and complaining. Our fears, anxieties, and the desperation that so often drives our prayers. Our vain and foolish attempts to control the world or, at least, our little place within it. Our busyness, self-importance, and the tyranny of the urgent. Be silent. Hold your peace. Stand still, and witness the salvation of God. Gaze upon his work, meditate upon his word, marvel at his wonder.
The world moves so fast and is so noisy. A thousand voices and crises compete for our attention all the time. There is no place, no time, no space where we are quiet. Our world and mind is filled with noise: news, podcasts, music, conversations, videos, deadlines, crying babies, rambunctious toddlers, whining and needy people, a cacophony that demands our attention and competes constantly for our hearts and minds.
The discipline of silence has long been part of the Christian tradition, though you hear little about it among Protestants, unless it is the mystical, squishy, barely orthodox ones who seem to want to baptize Eastern mysticism. But true silence, christian silence, is not silent at all. It is when the believer shuts his mouth in order to hear God speak, to contemplate God’s greatness, glory, and goodness. It is when we stop speaking, compel our hearts to be still, that we might give our full attention to God’s revelation in creation, in history, and in the words of Scripture and the promises of the gospel. Practicing silence is not making a vow not to talk for a day. It is choosing to listen to God and keep our own mouths shut. It is not listening to one’s heart. Please don’t do that, the human heart is deceitful and prone to lead us astray. It is not simply being quiet in order to hear the voice of God in the stillness of your heart. Stop acting like a pagan. That isn’t how God speaks to his people. God has spoken, and Scripture and creation still speak every day, if only we will shut up and listen.
You have far too many things to do today. There is no time for worship, prayer, and meditation on Scripture. God is speaking, but we cannot stop to listen right now, or so we think. We cannot afford not to. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in the heavens. I will be exalted in the earth. Yahweh of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.