Learning from Quiet
Silence can be intimidating.
It can feel empty. Purposeless. Wandering. Full of haphazard thoughts. Or even feel like punishment.
What comes to mind for you when you think of silence?
Well, during our previous staff meeting, I shared a bit about Silence as a Biblical Way to connect with God in prayer.
Have you consider that silence with God might be a way to engage in prayer?
As a western church, we often limit prayer to being a list of supplications (sharing our desires with God) or a list of intercessions (sharing the burden of others with God)…but Biblical prayer, while including those, beckons us wider and deeper—and one way to explore prayer is through silence.
Our staff dug into Psalm 62, which in the NASB reads:
1 My soul waits in silence for God only;
From Him is my salvation.
2 He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.
3 How long will you assail a man,
That you may murder him, all of you,
Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?
4 They have counseled only to thrust him down from his high position;
They delight in falsehood;
They bless with their mouth,
But inwardly they curse. Selah.
5 My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
8 Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah.
9 Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie;
In the balances they go up;
They are together lighter than breath.
10 Do not trust in oppression
And do not vainly hope in robbery;
If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
11 Once God has spoken;
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God;
12 And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord,
For You recompense a man according to his work.
We noted a few important aspects of this Psalm, then we practiced “being quiet” for a few moments together. I would encourage you to take a minute or so a engage this way with the Lord at the end of this blog.
First, we noticed that the Psalmist repeats the phrase, “My soul waits in silence for God only.” So, King David, who wrote this Psalm begins with the place of quiet before God, resting His thoughts, his heart, his burdens in the truth of God. And that rest looked like being quiet.
This isn’t just about shutting his mouth, but about allowing his whole being to slow down and remember who God is, and in that remembrance, to rest into those truths.
“But the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before Him.”
Habakkuk 2:20 (NASB)
Second, we noted that David shared His heart with God in prayer—this is the supplication part, but it also has a strong flavor of lament.
As we’ve learned at HSCC, lament was a form of worship where we share our honest griefs with God in prayer, putting language to our pain, and anticipating God’s work in righting that lamented area.
Thirdly, we noted that King David wrote the word “Selah” into the stanzas, indicating that the music and the listener/reader ought to rest/pause for a moment, letting their mind marinade in what was just spoken. As an author/musician, King David is slowing us down, creating natural moments of silence where our heart-content can rise to the surface. This implicitly creates moments where we learn from His experience with God and can share authentically with God about our own “stuff” that is coming up in that pause.
This silence actually is a place of self-awareness before God, where we can harvest the truth of our hearts and give that as a “living sacrifice” to Him.
Jesus urges us to worship “in spirit and in truth” and it’s in this sort of posture where the “truth comes out” and we can deal with it in the spiritual context where it is most powerfully understood, held, and restored by the Spirit of God.
King David actually supplicates/laments twice in this Psalm, first in verses 5-8, and second in verses 9-10. If you read through the Psalm, you’ll notice that the first lamenting-session is a bit more angry in tone, a real, honest, venting moment with God.
But then then second lamenting-session has a tone that shifts, noting the benefit of pouring our hearts out before God, and shifting perspective and posture so that the pain is placed in a god-honoring contents where it can be healed and wisely handled.
After his time with the Lord, King David responds in humble dependence before the power of God that He now knows through personal experience in silence and prayer:
God said to me once and for all,
“All the strength and power you need flows from me!”
And again I heard it clearly said,
“All the love you need is found in me!”
And it’s true that you repay people for what they do.
Psalm 62:11-12 (TPT)
Take a moment now to turn to the Lord with your heart.
Be quiet before Him.
What is it that is coming up for you as you wait?
Share this honestly with Him.
Now use this Psalm as a Biblical Template for your continuing prayer time with God.