Cease striving and know that I am God (Psalm 46)

When we read a psalm that is so full of assurance regarding God, we may inevitably wonder about situations when He seemed distant and absent. Should we not be a little more sceptical of blanket statements that affirm protection and help always? Would it not enable us to cope with life better if we did not expect it all to go smoothly? In fact, overconfidence can lead to complacency, which is precisely what happened to Israel when they believed that God’s Temple in Jerusalem was their guarantee of protection no matter what they did. Jeremiah accused the people of trusting in a self-serving lie that they could sin as much as they liked and God would still defend them (Jer 7:4, 8-11). On the other hand, if we qualify every word of Scripture, do we diminish its power to encourage us and draw us back to God? How then are we to read Psalm 46?

Most importantly, the affirmation of God’s strength and help (an ever-present, readily available help is the sense of the Hebrew) is not given in the absence of difficulty but in the middle of distress (Ps 46:1). In fact, the psalmist envisages a scenario not of individual disaster but one on a global scale. Waters in the ancient Near East carried the association of chaos and so the imagery overall of foaming, roaring waters and quaking mountains and landslides (Ps 46:2-3) speaks of the world in turmoil, turned upside down and inside out.[1] This contrasts with God creating the world separating waters above and below, and ordering the seas to retreat and reveal dry land (Gen 1:6-7, 9). In other words, the psalm says that even if chaos engulfs the whole world, we trust in the Lord.

From a reflection on creation, the psalm moves to the human plane where this time it is not the sea but the nations that ‘roar’ (the same Hebrew word in Ps 46:3, 6) threatening to undo order and peace. Yet, there is a contrast between the city of God with the Lord in its midst, which will not ‘collapse’, while human kingdoms will (again the Hebrew word is the same in Ps 46:5-6). What is the secret of such confidence? The third stanza exhorts all to see God’s works both in the natural world and among warring nations (Ps 46:8-9). He is sovereign and one day (at the end of time) all will have to acknowledge that (Ps 46:10). If we struggle to entrust God with our difficulties, the key is in v.10. While many of us know this line as ‘Be still and know that I am God’, the Hebrew verb hirpah means not stillness but to ‘let go’, ‘relax’, ‘cease/stop’. It envisages fighters locked in combat straining or striving to win or overcome.

Today the media brings us distressing images of extreme weather, natural disasters, wars, crime, and unbearable suffering, hence we are more aware and perhaps worried about the world around us. Within these larger concerns nestle our own fears and personal pain. Yet, despite experiencing upheavals globally or individually, the psalm reminds us that we are not alone in this universe but have a God who is sovereign over the natural and the human world even if it does not always look like it. The outcome of not being shaken is not because God miraculously protects us from disaster or distress but because He is with us in the midst of all that we endure. Moreover, He is not a faceless force, but a person, the God in relationship with His people who are called here ‘Jacob’ (Ps 46:7, 11). He was the ancestor of Israel, a cheat and a schemer, who nevertheless sought God and was transformed in the end. Our God is indeed a God of sinners who seek Him. We are exhorted then to stop striving for control, to let go of concentrating all our energy on fighting off disaster or getting our way and to know deep in our heart and mind, even in the midst of pain and disappointment that God is sovereign and He is with us as a stronghold and refuge.

[1] In the Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish, the divine forces of Tiamat (a female goddess associated with the primeval waters and chaos) are subdued by the younger gods led by Marduk. Tiamat’s body is cut into two, one part used for the firmament of the sky, the other for the earth. Thus, creation is a result of chaos being conquered. Israel envisaged creation differently, but they lived in the cultural world of their time and the association of waters/sea with chaos and the loss of order is carried over into their thinking. Note, for instance, that the separation of waters in creation is undone in God’s judgment, the flood (Gen 7:11, 19). Further, watery imagery in the psalms is often associated with distress (e.g. Ps 18:16; 32:6; 42:7; 69:1-2). This way of using cultural ideas is no different from someone today talking about ‘the survival of the fittest’ without ever having read Darwin’s On the Origin of Species or agreeing with his theory of evolution. Conversely, secularists may use biblical language (e.g. ‘the writing is on the wall’ – Dan 5:5-6; or ‘rise and shine’ – Isa 60:1, etc.) without having read the Bible or believing in God.

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