Devotional from Pastor Dave June 28, 2023

This past Sunday I enjoyed the opportunity to lead the Leap of Faith Sunday school class in an exploration of one of my favorite psalms. Some of you may have distinct memories or associations of particular passages of scripture with certain events or places or people. Psalm 46 is one of those passages for me.

I remember the Sunday after 9/11. I was the newly appointed associate pastor at Keith Memorial UMC in Athens. My senior pastor at the time, the Rev. Dr. Stella Roberts (who will be coming here to Signal Crest to preach on July 16) selected Psalm 46 as the scripture for that very first Sunday following that terrible tragedy in our nation. Its words were so appropriate.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear… (v. 1-2)

For those of us asking where was God in the midst of this awful situation, the psalm had an answer:

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;

God will help it when the morning dawns. (v. 5)

This confident psalm resolutely expresses faith and trust in God’s saving presence and

protective care in the midst of whatever trials and troubles may come. It was the inspiration for the reformer Martin Luther’s majestic hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

There’s a verse that I have found to bring that sense of God’s presence home to me in times of my own anxiety and uncertainty. It’s a verse where the psalmist seems to be quoting the very words of God. I would imagine it’s a very familiar verse to many of you:

“Be still, and know that I am God!

I am exalted among the nations,

I am exalted in the earth.” (v. 10)

I can’t remember where I read or learned this, but someone suggested a way that we can pray this verse, particularly the first line. It’s only eight words – “Be still, and know that I am God – and each of the eight words are simple, only one syllable each. They sound kind of like our heartbeats – buh-dum, buh-dum, buh-dum, buh-dum. Or our breaths – breathe in, breathe out.

The prayer practice is to start praying the whole line, and then every thirty seconds, remove a word, one at a time, starting from the end of the line, and pray the new line.

It goes like this. First, pray through the full line – “Be still, and know that I am God” – and try to let that sink in.

Then after thirty seconds, pray: “Be still, and know that I am.”

Then, thirty seconds later: “Be still, and know that.”

“Be still, and know.”

“Be still, and.”

“Be still.”

“Be.”

After we shared this simple exercise in the class on Sunday, everyone felt much more calm, more relaxed, more at peace, more in the presence of God. Even those who came into the class in the middle of the exercise immediately caught on to what we were doing and were drawn into it. I’ve also found it’s something that children often enjoy experiencing.

It only takes four minutes to pray this prayer. I wonder: Do you have, or could you find, an extra four minutes in your day to center your heart and mind and spirit with a prayer like this? I believe you will be blessed if you do.