Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8, 11-12
Stop.
That’s how I always reply to the spam texts I receive from both U.S. presidential campaigns (that’s right, both).
Personally, I don’t want to text with either political party’s campaign robot, but it feels like that’s not an option. “Reply Stop2End,” the spam text says. And so I reply as instructed, and the messages stop coming — until the next robot sends a text.
Sometimes stopping is just what we want, and need. Psalm 62 begs us to consider that the most available, best response to our problems is stopping to rest in God. Specifically, in silence.
Much has been written about the value of being quiet. Mark Twain wrote, “Better to remain silent than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt,” about showing wisdom via silence. The book of Ecclesiastes says unequivocally “There is a time to keep silent” (3:7). Our monastic ancestors in faith understood silence as a crucial spiritual tool. For the Israelites, God’s chosen people, silence was a posture of learning. Silence signaled to God, on behalf of God’s people: “We are here to receive your directions.”
Finding silence in the modern Western world is portrayed as comically hard — for good reason. The point of silence is hearing what God thinks, as opposed to hearing yourself think (“I need to pack lunch, then get my shoes on. Where are my keys?”). Yet, we live in a culture that encourages the confession and curation of even our most minute opinions as we create profiles online with posts about our successes, failures, opinions, recommendations and more. We spend our days bombarded by the noisiest versions of, well, us.
Silence-keeping may fear near-impossible today, but Psalm 62 reminds us that it goes beyond our surroundings. The soul, or nephesh in Hebrew, encompasses mind, body and soul. So with all due credence to our cacophonous world, the excuse of distraction only takes us so far. As much as silence is the external, bodily work of open ears and still tongues, it is also the inner, spiritual work of our hearts, the psalm tells us. We can keep on mentally reviewing our grocery lists while practicing yoga. Or, according to Psalm 62, we can choose the spiritual maturity required to be a blank slate before God. Because what’s at stake is refuge and protection from enemies, which only God (“God alone”) can provide.
Recently, the music director at the church I serve pointed out to me the noise of our sanctuary’s air conditioner. He plays our organ, a beautiful, unique instrument that is a centerpiece of our music ministry. As he explained to me how the noise was affecting hearers’ perception of the organ, I was stymied. I told him, “It doesn’t sound that noisy to me.” Plus, after a period of many repairs, our air conditioner was working (which ought not be taken for granted in any church building!). I didn’t quite see what the issue was.
Our music director responded, “But Samantha, you didn’t hear how quiet it was before!”
The music director, like the psalmist, knows the gift of being quiet, the invitation. Perhaps Psalm 62 is an invitation to review how we approach God in prayer. Oftentimes, it feels as if we come with a posture of learning, but we have forgotten what it looks like to “pour out [our hearts] before God” (Ps. 62:8). We have forgotten the practice of letting go to be a blank slate before our creator.
What does motionless waiting for the Spirit look like? What is the spiritual equivalent of sending the ‘Stop’ reply to our inner (and outer) monologue?
We do not need to idolize quiet, or silence. Like everything else, keeping silence can become a competition or a method of gaining status. Lest we forget that we are all lighter than a breath when the balances go up (v. 9-10), perhaps we can strive for baby steps over perfection. If God is a refuge, protector and fortress, God is not going anywhere, and we don’t need to compete with each other for salvation or rank. Neither do we need to berate ourselves every time we succumb to social media and the myriad other quotidian distractions that are baked into living in 2024.
We can learn to approach God as our fortress, though. We can stop listening to ourselves think, for five or even two minutes at a time, to slow ourselves down enough to hear what God might have in store for us. By stopping and practicing silence, we may remind ourselves how peaceful and quiet our life in Jesus can be.
Questions for discussion
- What are the benefits and challenges of keeping silence, especially when it requires us to tune out our thoughts, and tune into God’s?
- How can we tell when our stillness becomes an idol, just like productivity or noisiness?
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