BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD
From Signs of the Times—May 15, 1867.
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10
In listening to the excellent discourse of brother William L.
Benedict, preached at the funeral of our lamented granddaughter, on the
sixteenth ultimo, from the words at the head of this article, the subject was
opened with more sublime beauty and awful grandeur than we had ever before
discovered in it, although we had on several occasions used the same words as a
text; and sometimes with considerable liberty. But when our esteemed brother was
enabled to apply its salutary instruction, admonition and consolation more
directly to the grief-stricken circle of mourners, in which we were included,
there seemed to be a power in the text as issuing from the mouth of God himself;
perfectly irresistible, and full of divine majesty.
It is not our intention to repeat the discourse, for we feel
incompetent to do so; but simply to record some of the leading presentations to
our mind, at the time, and subsequently. Truly, to know God is eternal life; as
our Savior has said, “And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” The admonition is
therefore clearly addressed to such only as have received the gift of God, which
is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The apostle John gives us an
infallible criterion, or test, by which every saint may discriminate between the
Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. “He that knoweth God, heareth us;” that
is, all who know God recognize the high authority of the apostles who are
divinely inspired by the Holy Ghost to rule in judgment, upon the twelve thrones
of the house of Israel. “He that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we
the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Whatever a man’s profession or his
works may be, we have no lawful right to recognize him as a child of God, or to
fellowship him as such, if he is not governed and controlled by the
authoritative mandates and decisions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. A
saving knowledge of the true God cannot be attained by any study or application
of the natural mind to the instruction of men. No man can teach his brother, his
neighbor or his child, saying, “Know the Lord,” for, “No man knoweth the Son,
but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal him, (Matt. 11:27).” When the apostle Peter, in
behalf of the disciples, declared his and their knowledge of the Father and the
Son, Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou Simon Barjona: for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven,” (Matt. 16:17). “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” (2 Cor. 4:6).” Christ is Himself the
brightness of His Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” (Heb.
1:3). “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature,”
(1 Cor. 1:15).
The words of this text imply that a knowledge of God will
check and silence our murmurings, and cause his children, like the Psalmist to
say, “I was dumb; I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it,” (Ps. 39:9). Or,
like Eli, “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good,” (1 Sam. 3:18).
All who by experience and revelation know him who is “The
true God and eternal life,” (1 John 5:20), know he is too wise to err, and too
holy and righteous to be unjust; and having this knowledge they can confide in
him, and passively accept whatever of good or evil his hand deals out to them,
(Job 2:10). Let us consider the awful import of the words “I am God.” A Spirit,
infinite and eternal, Self Existent, Independent, the Creator and upholder of
all things. Author and professor of all conceivable and inconceivable
perfections. High on his imperial throne; the “High and lofty One that inhabits
eternity, whose name is Holy.” Who has created all things for himself, and for
whose pleasure alone all things are, and were, created. Who doeth his pleasure
in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth. The scepter of
whose authority he sways over all beings, all worlds, and all events, with
irresistible power, and unerring wisdom and righteousness. Whose absolute
providence and decrees embrace the very hairs of our heads, unalterably fixes
the number of them, and makes it perfectly impossible that one of them can fall
from our heads without an order from his throne.
“Life, death and hell, and worlds unknown,
Hang on his firm decree.”
Nothing exists independently of him, and all things that do
exist in heaven, earth or hell, he has caused to exist for his pleasure, and all
by his power shall subserve the great purpose for which he has brought them into
being. His hand garnished the skies, and laid the foundation of the universe.
The sun, moon and stars are the works of his fingers. The earth and seas are
his, and he made them.
“God is a King of power unknown,
Firm are the orders of his throne;
If he resolves, who dare oppose,
Or ask him why, or what he does?
He wounds the heart, and he makes whole;
He calms the tempest of the soul;
When he shuts up in long despair,
Who can remove the heavy bar?
He frowns, and darkness veils the moon,
The fainting sun grows dim at noon;
The pillars of heaven’s starry roof,
Tremble and start at his reproof.
He gave the vaulted heaven its form,
The
crooked serpent and the worm;
He
breaks the billows with his breath,
And smites the son of pride to death.
These are a portion of his ways,
But who shall dare describe his face?
Who
can endure his light? or stand
To hear the thunders of his hand?”
“By
his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked
serpent. Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of
him? But the thunder of his power who can understand,”
(Job 26:13,14).
To know then that God is all this, and infinitely more; that
inspired prophets and holy apostles have only been permitted to tell us parts of
his ways, while the thunder of his power is yet unexplained to mortals, is
calculated to seal up our lips in silence, and fill our hearts with the most
profound reverence in his awful presence,
“Earth from afar has heard his fame,
And worms have learnt to lisp his name;
But, O! the glories of his mind,
Leave all our soaring thoughts behind.”
To know that the Lord is God is to know, not only in a
general, but also in a particular sense, that he is the supreme Ruler of the
Universe, that in all minute things, as well as in things of greater magnitude,
he executes his sovereign will and pleasure, leaving nothing to chance, or
uncertainty. The sparrow cleaves the air in the precise track marked by the
counsel of God with no less certainty than the blazing sun fills his fixed orbit
in the heavens. Poor blind mortals gaze, wonder and are confounded in the
contemplation; but God declares the end from the beginning, saying, My counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
But we propose to contemplate this profound subject in the
connection in which the inspired psalmist has presented it in the psalm in which
the text occurs.
“God is our refuge and strength.”
Can any refuge be so secure, so safe, so perfectly reliable? God who is
everywhere present, must surely be a very present help in all our troubles.
Pursued by sin, by Satan, by doubts and fears, we find no efficient refuge short
of God. He is our Rock, and his wings are spread for our defense, and however
weak and trembling in ourselves, God is our Strength. He is the Strength of our
life, the Strength of Israel, and we are assured that “the Strength of Israel
will not lie.” He will not betray our confidence in him, for, “they that trust
in him shall be as
This whole psalm is replete with striking illustration of the
power, wisdom and providence of God; giving testimony of what he is, and what he
does in ordering and executing his government over all beings and all events.
First his recognition of the exposure of his people to the violence of their
adversaries, and the perfect security he has provided for them in himself as
their refuge, and their strength. The faith and confidence he inspires them
with, in him, to shield them from fear or dismay when his judgments walk the
earth, remove the mountains, disturb the seas, and dissolve the world. Then the
opening to his people the fountain of joy and salvation, whose ever flowing
supplies make glad the city of God, the holy place of his tabernacles. The
assurance that God is never absent from
Relying on God to do all this for her, she has no occasion to
bestir herself, to bend a bow, or raise a spear in self defense; but, knowing
that the battle is the Lord’s, leave the whole result with him, and simply be
still, be calm, be confident; for the race is not to the swift, nor the battle
to the strong, therefore he that believeth shall not make haste.
We had designed in this article to say something in regard to
the manner in which the text was applied to our own mind in relation to the
melancholy death of our lamented granddaughter, at whose funeral it was used as
a text. In addition to the appropriate application made by our beloved brother,
a train of thoughts came forcible to our mind. In the knowledge that the Lord is
God, and that we are to be still; to hush every murmuring thought, and leave all
with him; we were led to contemplate his inscrutable providence in dealing with
the children of men. Who hath made us to differ? Why are some more subject to
diseases, physically and mentally, than others? It was not because those
Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were sinner above all
the Galileans, that these things were suffered; or those eighteen on whom the
tower of Siloam fell and slew them, were sinners above all men that dwelt in
Jerusalem, that they were slain; nor was it either he that was born blind, or
his parents that were sinners above others, that he was born blind, nor yet was
it because the children of Rebecca had done any good or evil, that it was said
of them, “the elder shall serve the younger;” as it is written, “Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated.” David speaks of the wicked who oppress and
persecute God’s children, as, God’s hand and his sword. Whatever may be their
malignant design; they can only go so far as wielded by the power and wisdom of
God. They are used by him, as we use our hand, or sword, to execute our purpose.
So are all the diseases, whether of body or mind, to which men are subject as
God’s servants. They are employed by him to do his bidding. “Is there evil in
the city, and the Lord hath not done it?” “Shall we receive good from the hand
of the Lord, and not evil?” The evils employed by him to chastise his children,
or to scourge his enemies, embrace wars, pestilence and famines, together with
all the evils that are brought upon us. Our troubles come not up unbidden out of
the earth, nor do our afflictions come on us by chance. Some by physical disease
are bowed down with pain and infirmity all their days, from the cradle to the
tomb. Why is it? What is it? We call it a dispensation of divine providence, and
however dark and mysterious to us, we dare not protest; for we know it is by the
inscrutable judgment of God; therefore we feel admonished to “Be still and know
that he is God.” When others are diseased mentally, their reason dethroned, and
in their irrational moments they do deeds of violence to themselves or to
others, is it less providential? By no means. Insanity, or alienation of reason
is as truly a malady, to which our nature is subject, and which comes as
directly from the hand of God, as comes the cholera, the typhoid, or any other
fever, or disease, and the consequences resulting are as fully appointed as all
other causes and results are. We cannot perceive that any of the human family
ever came to their death by any other than the means appointed. A sparrow cannot
fall, nor a hair from our head, without our Heavenly Father. God careth for
sparrows as he cares for worlds. Our hairs are all numbered, as are the days of
our pilgrimage on earth, so that we cannot pass our bounds. Nor can we by any
possible care or foresight of ours add to our stature one cubit, make a hair
black or white, or lengthen or diminish from the number of days which God has
allotted us upon his footstool. When men die suddenly, human theology says they
go unprepared to the bar of God; but divine revelation teaches us that “As many
as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Jesus says “All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out.” No accident, casualty or fortuitous event, can interrupt the execution of
the counsel of God; and he who falls in death by a thunderbolt, if an heir of
salvation, will as certainly reign in glory with Christ, as though he were
translated like Enoch or Elijah; and if not a subject of God’s saving grace,
would be no nearer to heaven, or likely to be saved if a thousand years were
added to his days.
“Plagues and death around us fly,
‘Til He bids, we cannot die;
Not
a single shaft can hit,
‘Til
the God of grace sees fit.”
God is immutable in his counsel, of one mind, and none can
turn him; and it therefore becomes us to “Be still and know that he is God.”
