Be still, and know that I am God

Be still, and know that I am

Be still, and know

Be still

Be

Every morning, our Mile High Ministries staff gathers for prayer, reflection, and sharing. We always include five minutes of contemplative silence. Our gateway to silence is this prayer taken from Psalm 46:10, shared call-and-response style aloud, over Zoom. Sometimes we reverse the order:

Be

Be still

Be still, and know

Be still, and know that I am

Be still, and know that I am God

In the Hebrew Bible, this text carries the tonality of a command, evoking something like this: “Desist! Continue to learn (experientially) that I am God!”

The psalm comes from the Sons of Korah, some of Israel’s best songwriters and was sung during times of great uncertainty, such as catastrophic natural disaster or the coming of war.

The soil for this Psalm is recognizable to us internally today – anxiety, worry, and the irresistible call to “do something” in response. Like those ancient listeners, we may need a firm command to desist and be silent! Our culture resists simply being. How could we ever solve anything while being still?

The command to “be still” is to stop believing, fundamentally, that life is something to be solved. It is the summons to stop! Stop planning, thinking, holding on to the myth that we are in control, and move into the “knowing” that we have garnered over the many years of experiencing God as faithful. This experiential knowing is a deep reading of the text called life. It becomes a slow-growing trust born from the scars of passing years – a trust that sings the heart-songs of hope, tears, joy, loss, disappointments, and all that life presents.

Yield, surrender, let go, give up already! Know what we know from the past. Know we can trust in tomorrow. God IS with us, always.

Desist! Know! Be!

—Scott Jenkins, MHM Staff Chaplain

More reflections about the Welcoming Prayer can be found in our book Beyond Our Efforts: A Celebration of Denver Peacemaking, p. 59.