I rushed off to the church building to unlock it for someone. It was scheduled but in my busyness I simply forgot. In my haste, I also forgot something else--the keys. I then had to rush home, grab the keys, and rush back to unlock the door, all because in my hurried life I had not slowed down enough to properly follow the contours of my day.
Why do we rush? Why are we so hurried? We hurry as a symptom of sin, a testing of our trust in God that he is sovereign over our lives. We rush because our concerns, the cares of the world, our world, rush in on us and we fail to tame them under the sovereignty of God. We think we must get things done, but God calls us to center around him in stillness.
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
We hear, or sing, these words as a meditation to quiet down and remember God. It is God who is in control, who is sovereign, not us. But what kind of God is this who calls us to stillness before him? As the psalm details for us, this is a God who is sovereign over creation (stanza 1), who is sovereign over his chosen people for their benefit (stanza 2), and who is sovereign over the affairs of the world in judgment (stanza 3).
It is this God who calls us to stillness, and in our stillness before him, when we recognize his sovereignty over all things, including ourselves and our hurried lives, we find God to be our refuge, strength, and fortress.
O God, our sovereign strength,
You have exalted yourself in all the earth;
May we be still in trust before you.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.