Be Still and Know that I am God – The Meaning of Be Still Will Surprise You
The words – Be Still – can mean not moving, and being quiet. From a biblical perspective, I was shocked and actually had to laugh when I found out the literal meaning.
The sermon at church one morning focused on the passage from Mark, Chapter 5. Jesus had been overwhelmed when so many people wanted to make contact with him. That’s right, Jesus was overwhelmed. He made the decision to take a boat across the water to escape the crowd. A huge storm rolled in. The disciples were freaked out and scared to death. They looked for Jesus to help them and found him fast asleep from exhaustion. They were terrified because of the storm and woke Jesus up. According to Mark’s account, Jesus was not happy. He was quite mad. So much so that he yelled, “Peace, Be Still!” The storm and the huge waves stopped immediately. The literal translation of, Be Still is – Shut Up!
The bible verse, Psalm 46:10 – Be still and know that I am God – is also translated to mean – Shut up and know that I am God. Another pastor I met told me about that translation and used the analogy of the proverbial, family road trip. You know the one, with the kids in the back seat saying, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” The answer, of course, is be still or shut up!
How often do we ask God for everything, but we don’t stop to listen or to be still? The act of being still and getting quiet becomes more of a challenge in our hectic world.
For whatever reason, meditation has not been a mainstay of traditional Christian, religious organizations. Prayer and Bible reading are encouraged as well as the occasional mention of contemplative prayer, but not so much meditation. Jesus, John the Baptist and others went off to meditate and to take themselves away from the hectic world.
Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Meditation helps to renew the mind.
When talking about meditation, you will almost always hear it combined with an action verb – practicing meditation, meditation exercise. That’s because it is like exercise and that it takes practice! We have upwards of 50,000 thoughts per day. Many thoughts are recurring ones that cause additional stress. You know the ones, “I’m stupid, I can’t do it, I’ll never succeed, it’s too hard, it will never happen, I’m not good enough, I’m too old, too young.” In addition to those thoughts, we are exposed to as many as 5,000 advertising messages a day. Because of this, our mind is cluttered. Being still takes practice and persistence. We have to literally tell our mind to, “Shut up.”
Many people are intimidated by silence. Silence can cause you to address issues that you might be running from. It’s easy to fill each day with busyness and then block out concerns through hours of mind-numbing television viewing, Internet surfing or reading magazines. None of these activities are bad. However, if they are used to fill a void that is not being filled, over time, the toll will manifest itself in the form of lost relationships, lost opportunities and lost dreams never being fulfilled.
Meditation has changed my life. I know that’s a pretty bold statement, but it’s true. You can listen to the story and specifically what changed. If you have never practiced meditation, I’ve created a very simple guided meditation CD taken from Psalms 46:10 – “Be Still and Know that I am God.” I encourage you to practice being still and learning to listen to God and the Spirit within you.
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About Jackie Trottmann
Jackie is a writer, author and awareness advocate. Her passion is inspiring others to listen to the still small voice inside of them in order to focus, follow and fulfill their dreams professionally, physically and spiritually. Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Google+
Thank you for sharing your interpretation. I think it’s important that we let Scripture move us and inspire us. I love your interpretation of surrender. As a writer, I am fascinated with words and their meaning. This definition of be still I had never heard before. As what so often happens, it kept popping up after I heard it. It resonated with me and I wanted to share it. I am grateful that we don’t have to fight our own battles and, as you say, that God is in charge. Peace and blessings,
Jackie
Be still for my interpretation is to surrender because God is in charge. Dont fight our own battle as God doesnt need our help.
Dear Rose,
Here is the rest of the comment that you wrote and wanted to post it.
Peace,
Jackie
Dear Rose,
Thank you for the comment. The translation of be still was taken from the Greek… which will be a never ending debate I guess for Bible translation being a conundrum. The Hebrew word that you mentioned is beautiful. I had not heard of that before, so thank you for sharing. By no means am I a Bible scholar, however, I am one that seeks to continuously learn and experience God’s wisdom, peace and presence in my life.
I read about you and many of your articles on your blog before responding. My father was also in WWII but was an American. The War had a long-term affect on him and I too suffered for decades as a result of his behavior and violent outbursts. While my story is different from yours, much of the pain is similar. War is a terrible thing. “Raphah” – Letting go – is my on-going mantra or meditation. Writing for me has certainly been a wonderfully healing process. My heart goes out to you and I hope that your writing and art will bring you healing, wholeness and peace – the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Sorry, mispelled and skipped the ‘h’ at the end.
it should be ‘raphah’
to sink, relax, sink down, let drop, be disheartened
(Qal)
to sink down
to sink, drop
to sink, relax, abate
to relax, withdraw
(Niphal) idle (participle)
(Piel) to let drop
(Hiphil)
to let drop, abandon, relax, refrain, forsake
to let go
to refrain, let alone
to be quiet
(Hithpael) to show oneself slack
It is especially surprising as ‘rapha’, the word used in Psalm 46, means ‘let go’ or ‘be weak’, ‘drop your hands’.
I would really like to know where these pastors got the idea of ‘shut up’ from.
Hi Keena,
Glad you had a laugh. I had to laugh myself. When my pastor said that, I had to share it. Don’t forget to listen too. :)
Peace,
Jackie
I laughed when I read that, “Peace, Be Still!” literally translates to be Shut Up! This helped me very much; I’ve been hearing this often from God…I guess I need to shut up LOL!
Thank you!