Stop Fighting
I have read Psalm 46:10 many times. I have heard it quoted and seen it printed on a myriad of items. I even have a sign in my kitchen that says “Be still and know that I am God.” As I was thinking about May and the many changes that always seem to accompany this time of year I was thinking about this passage and my desire to find a moment to be still in the midst of a busy few weeks.
I happened to open my Bible app to read this verse. My app was set to the CSB translation and I read “Stop fighting, and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” At first, I did a double-take because I thought I had picked the wrong chapter. Once I realized I was in the right place, I began to wonder why it said “stop fighting”, and decided I better read the whole chapter to figure out what I was missing.
The opening in the CSB, before verse 1, says - “For the choir director. A song of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth.” Different translations word this a bit differently - some add that it is a song, while others say “For the director of music.” I was curious though about Korah. I couldn’t readily remember who that was or why his descendants might be writing various Psalms - because they wrote 11 of them.
I went back to Exodus 6 to read about the lineage of Korah. His grandfather was actually Kohath, who had several sons, two of them being Amram, which is Moses’s father, and Izhar, which is Korah’s father. So it turns out Moses and Korah were cousins and descendants of Levi.
This is interesting to me because in Numbers 16 Korah shows up with 250 other leaders from the community to question Moses and his leadership. They essentially question God’s authority regarding Moses being in charge. Moses tells them all to come back the next day with their fire and incense and that God will choose who is holy among them.
In Numbers 16:8 Moses says to Korah - “Hear now, you sons of Levi, is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; and that He has brought you near, Korah, and all your brothers, sons of Levi, with you? And are you seeking for the priesthood also?”
There is a lot to unpack here, but I want to focus on the fact that Korah was not content with the position God had given him and his family and so he stirred up trouble among the tribes and brought a resistance before Moses.
The next day Korah returned with the 250 and their fire and incense. You can read Numbers 16 for all of the details, but the most shocking part is that the earth opened up and swallowed these men alive.
This brings us back to Psalm 46, which was written by descendants of Korah. It seems that not all of Korah’s lineage was consumed by the earth that day in Numbers. And in fact, we can see in 1 Chronicles 9 how his descendants continued to play a significant role in caring for the tabernacle.
I have to assume that people didn’t readily forget about the earth opening up and consuming 250 people from their community. That doesn’t seem like a story that just fades away. This leads me to also assume that the descendants of Korah would have taken special care to pass along these details so as to avoid this happening again.
In the beginning verses of Psalm 46, we have a reminder that God is our refuge and is abundantly available to help us. Then it says we will not fear - even when the earth changes. They refer to all kinds of things, like mountains falling into the sea, etc, but I have to wonder if some part of them remembered the story of the earth opening up and consuming those that came before them. It seems that they understood the majesty and power of God, and also knew that they could trust him fully despite their circumstances.
As the chapter goes on they continue to recount the greatness of God and his ability to control all things. And then we find ourselves in verse 10.
NASB - cease striving
CSB - stop fighting
KJV - be still
NIV - be still
CJB - desist
The Hebrew seems to translate this phrase as "release" or "let go". So often when I’ve recited “Be still and know that I am God;” I’ve stopped there, but there is more to the verse. It goes on to say, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
I think this idea of being still goes deeper than just pausing to be still. I think we are reminded in this verse, and throughout this chapter, that God is vastly superior to anything that might come our way. Earthquakes, floods, natural disasters, war, famine, anxiety, loss of a loved one, whatever it might be, God is bigger, stronger, superior AND he is at work on our behalf. He will be exalted among the earth - in every corner and every crevice.
We can cease striving, stop fighting, desist, be still - live fully in freedom, knowing that God is God and that he can part the seas, open the earth, conquer death, and redeem every last thing.
We are invited to partner with God in the work that he is doing and to trust him fully. We can be still - fully rest in him because he is God and we are not.
And that my friends, is very good news.
~ Melissa