Be still, and know
The psalm amid upheaval
In a psalm about a world in upheaval — mountains shaking, nations raging, the earth giving way — God speaks a command that cuts through the chaos: be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. In the middle of everything that could provoke frantic activity, the command is to stop, to be still, and to know who God is.
This is a hard discipline for leaders, who are wired to act, especially when things are shaking. The instinct in chaos is to do more, move faster, take control. God's command is the opposite: be still. The stillness is not passivity but a deliberate ceasing of frantic effort in order to know — to remember, to rest in — that God is God and you are not. The leader who cannot be still cannot truly know God; he is too busy trying to be God himself. Stillness is where the knowing happens, and the knowing is what steadies everything else.
“The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be still.”
— Moses, at the Red Sea — Exodus 14:14 (WEB)
In upheaval, the command is not more frantic activity but stillness — a deliberate ceasing in order to know that God is God and you are not.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”
The psalm calls the leader to be still amid chaos. A leader formed here stops striving long enough to know God. The inner work is stillness that resists the urge to control everything.
When things shake, be still before God rather than only doing more. Lead from the steadiness that knowing God provides. Let deliberate stillness, not frantic control, anchor you and your team.
Leaders respond to chaos by doing more and taking control, never being still. The blind spot is being too busy trying to be God to actually know him.
In the next upheaval you face, deliberately be still before God before acting, long enough to know that he is God.
The instinct in chaos is to do more, move faster, take control. God's command is the opposite: be still, and know that I am God. The leader who cannot be still is too busy trying to be God himself.
In the upheavals you face, can you be still enough to know that he is God?