The counsel is, “Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10.
The advice isn’t to “imagine” God. The advice isn’t to take confidence in what we assume God is. The Bible is asking its reader to know God from first employing stillness. The Bible is actually asking its student to develop an understanding of and on God by simply living and proving their experience, idea, and prior knowledge of God.
This is, to me, revolutionary. It is revolutionary because, who would imagine the Bible advocating for a knowledge of God without “God”? The Bible is asking its student to take what they think they know about “God” and prove it. How are they supposed to get proof of God? The Bible counsels to be still, to be silent, to hold peace, to “wait.”
Now, all of this may sound like the Bible is calling for a dormant or an inactive experience. It may even sound like the Bible is asking its reader to blindly employ whatever “faith” they imagine themselves to have, and to “let go and let God.” To the Bible’s mind, to be “still” and to “wait” actually means to “rest.” When “resting,” one isn’t passing through a lethargic experience. “Rest,” to the Bible’s mind, is a concept understood from how it says:
“Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little…To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear,” Isaiah 28:10-12
When “still,” one is at “rest.” To the Bible’s mind, “resting” equates to high mental activity. “Rest,” to the Bible’s mind, is the exercising of the mental faculties to experience spiritual or philosophical rejuvenation. “Rest” brings “refreshing” because of the enlightenment experienced when mentally examining and applying the scriptures.
The advice to “be still” is counsel encouraging the Bible’s student to actually exercise mental energy for rejuvenating their spiritual understanding. When doing so, one may then “know God” by exercising the understanding acquired. This manner of devotional learning is for ensuring that our belief practically understands the reason behind its existence.
It sounds so simple to say and to read, “Be still, and know that I am God,” but the reality of this counsel goes deeper than what is written. The Bible is asking the person to re-imagine their conversation by spending time not only with the Bible’s words, but with their conversation exercising those words.
Every word and illustration within the Bible is instruction directing the person to set their devotional conversation in order. The mind inspiring the Bible isn’t content that its reader takes comfort in a public or private deity. The Bible’s mind is concerned about the state of the conversation’s thoughts and feelings, and to help the conversation understand reality, the Bible directs it to exercise its higher faculties.
We can observe the Bible as a set of stories pointing to a moral human obligation. We can observe the Bible as a book counseling on practical religious ethics. Or we can see the Bible for what it is. We can see the Bible as a book correcting the human and religious moral and ethical character by instructing its reader to investigate the structure of their belief or assumption.
The Bible is a book about firstly correcting the devotional conversation’s conscience. Beneath all of the illustrations, allegories, and parables, the Bible’s main concern is informing its reader that their conversation is unhealthy.
We believe our spiritual belief and its idea is sound. We believe our conversation is sober. To the Bible’s mind, no conversation is healthy. This is why it says, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not,” Ecclesiastes 7:20.
The mind inspiring the Bible is a disposition determined to elevate the devotional conversation’s thoughts and feelings. A key element to this elevation is “stillness” or “rest,” without which the conversation remains without a sure understanding not only of the Bible, but also of its own experience.