Be Still, and Know
A single line from an old song for a nation under pressure asks the tired to stop, and to let God be God.
Psalm 46 was written for a people who could hear the walls shaking. It speaks of mountains falling into the sea and kingdoms giving way. Then, near its end, the noise stops. The verse reads: "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).
The first word is the hardest. To be still is not to give up. It is to stop trying to hold the world together with your own two hands for a moment, and to admit that the holding was never your job.
The second command is quieter still: know. Not feel, not fix, not explain. Simply know who God is when everything else is uncertain.
This verse belongs to no single tradition. It is prayed in cathedrals and kitchens, in liturgy and in silence. Wherever you read it today, let it do one thing. Let it slow you down long enough to remember that you are not the one who keeps the earth turning.
More in scripture
New Every Morning
A line from Lamentations holds steady when the days blur together.
New Every Morning
Lamentations offers mercy that resets with the dawn.
Peace That Guards the Tired Mind
Paul’s words to the Philippians offer a practice for anxious days, not a demand to feel calm.
