Be still, and know that I am God I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
The psalm has been describing roaring waters, shaking mountains and raging nations. Then God Himself speaks, and His command is not to fight but to stop, because He, not His people, will be exalted in all the earth.
The command carries weight because of who speaks it. One writer traces the titles this psalm uses for Him:
Who speaks like this? The Lord of Hosts is the answer. His title suggests power; and the God of Jacob reminds everyone that He can act in grace toward someone who does not deserve it. He has only to speak, and His enemies fall into confusion. He speaks, and His people are encouraged. This psalm shows God under different characters. He is God. He is the Lord. He is Most High. As God He is the strong One. As the Lord He is the self-existing One. As Most High He will be acknowledged when the whole earth comes under His rule.
The verse states the point of everything the psalm has described.
Now God speaks. "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" (v. 10). Here we have the object and result of all the discipline through which Israel and the world have passed. People know God by the works He has done, and no one can dispute His rule over all. Then these words will come true: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).
Commentators tie the psalm to a future crisis for Israel and its outcome:
Psalm 46 describes the hour of Israel's trouble — the waters roaring, the mountains shaking, the nations raging, and the kingdoms in turmoil. Still they can say: "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."… Here the God of Jacob — a name tied to the nation — is with "us", that is, Israel. He brings the wars and turmoil of the nations to an end by devastating judgments, and He establishes peace on the earth.
Stillness sounds easy. It is not.
Only faith can enter into these truths. Our human nature can lean on human strength; but it can neither trust in God, nor "be still" and wait for God to act.
Our restlessness in trouble shows something about us:
How healthy the call — "Be still, and know that I am God." We are very prone to agitate and busy ourselves in times of trouble; but it achieves nothing. It only betrays our lack of faith and entangles and distracts us still more.
One writer finds the same test in the way the Lord dealt with Martha and Mary, when their brother Lazarus fell sick and Jesus stayed away two days before coming to them:
The Lord was indeed "a present help," though His help did not come at once. He waited until death closed all hope in human effort, and there was nothing left for the two sisters but to "be still" and learn that God is God… Martha said, "I know that he will rise again… on the last day." The Lord replied, "I am the resurrection."… Her faith believed the great things the Lord will do in a day to come, but her faith was not strong enough to "be still" and believe in the Lord as the great "I am" — the present help in trouble.
The second half of the verse explains the first. Since God has said He will be exalted, our restless effort often has a rival aim buried in it:
But where there is no duty to perform, our place is to "be still," and patiently wait for God to act in His own time and way, for His own glory and exaltation… How often the restless activity of our human nature springs from the desire to exalt self. Man is always active in seeking his own glory and exaltation. The believer is called to "be still" so that God may be exalted.
Stillness does not mean doing nothing at all. It means not taking on a job that was never given to us.
In view of all this the way of the saint is very simple. It is to stop making fruitless efforts to do what will only be done when the Lord Jesus appears in His glory. Our business is not to put the world right, but to be witnesses to our absent Lord. When He comes He will soon put the world right; and meanwhile the word to us is, "Be still, and know that I am God."
- Speaker — The command comes from the Lord of Hosts: God the strong One, the self-existing One, the Most High. The whole earth will one day acknowledge His rule.
- Stillness — Human nature can lean on human help. It can never trust God or wait quietly for Him. Only faith can.
- Struggle — Rushing about in trouble achieves nothing. It only exposes weak faith and tangles us further.
- Self — Restless activity often hides a wish to exalt self. God calls us to be still so that He may be exalted instead.
- Scope — God's aim reaches past our situation to the whole earth. Our task is not to fix the world but to witness to the Lord who will.
Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our high fortress. Selah.
This verse repeats verse 7 word for word, but now it comes after God Himself has spoken. Why say it twice? And why name God twice over — once as the Lord of armies, once as the God of Jacob, a schemer rather than a hero of faith?
The psalm says one thing three times over. That repetition is the key to reading it.
The Psalm opens by saying that "God is our refuge." In the middle of the Psalm it says again, "The God of Jacob is our refuge." It closes by repeating a third time that God "is our refuge." So this is the great truth the Psalm presses on us. When people of the world look for a refuge from danger and difficulty, they rely completely on natural and human plans. Believers do not despise the means God provides, but in God they have a resource that never fails.
The ESV says "fortress" here. Older translations say "refuge," and that is the word these writers use.
The word "hosts" in this title covers more than one kind of army.
The same word translated "hosts" — as in Jehovah Tzebaoth, the Lord of hosts, in Psalm 46:7 and 11 — is also used of the hosts of the heavens in Psalm 33:6... It is used of armies, of angels, and of created things such as sun, moon and stars.
The two halves of the verse are not saying the same thing twice. One speaks of unlimited power; the other of God stooping to an individual.
Countless hosts of angels acknowledge that He is supreme and serve His will, kept going by His power. Yet — what indescribable grace! — He is also "the God of Jacob." He bends down to the individual, even to the most wayward and unreliable, to the fearful and the needy, to you and me. His strength is set against every enemy that would hurt His people. His grace supports them in trial and drives their fears away. He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He said that to Jacob, and the words are quoted and applied to us (Hebrews 13:5-6).
The psalm could have named a greater man.
But why does the psalmist twice say "God of Jacob"? In Psalm 47:9 we read "God of Abraham." There is surely instruction in the difference. Abraham was the outstanding man of faith and obedience. He left himself and his affairs in God's hands in a way that still wins our admiration today, though he was not perfect. Jacob was just as truly a saint of God as Abraham was. But he was a poor, wayward schemer, and God had to take him through much painful discipline before his heart could find its all in Himself... Do we hesitate to put ourselves beside Abraham, because we see our own history reflected in Jacob instead? Well, so be it. He is the God of Jacob, and He will never give up even the weakest and most unbelieving of His people, though He may discipline them severely for their good and their blessing in the end.
One writer hears an echo of a scene from Israel's history.
The first clause reminds us of Elisha's words to his terrified servant in the city of Dothan, when the Syrian army surrounded it to take him prisoner: "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see." So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16-17). This guardian care of God is as true for us today as for the prophet then: He is always with and about His own, that the enemy may do them no harm.
The verse is an answer. One writer names the voices in it.
God Himself speaks in verse 10. He calls on everyone to know, from the works He has done, that He is God. He declares that He will be exalted everywhere among the nations of the earth. In verse 11 the remnant [the faithful part of Israel] lift up their voices again in their chorus of praise.
Verse 10 and verse 11 belong together. The command comes first, the discovery follows.
When we are given grace to "be still," we find in our own experience that God "is with us" and is "our refuge." ... The Lord is "with us" in this world of conflict so that we may be with Him in the coming glory. That is the desire of His heart, in His own words: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am" (John 17:24).
- Refuge, three times. The psalm says it, repeats it, and ends with it. The world shelters in human plans. Believers have God Himself.
- Refuge in power. "Hosts" covers armies, angels, sun, moon and stars; the One who is with us commands them all.
- Refuge in grace. The psalm names Him the God of Jacob — the wayward schemer, not the model of faith. So the weakest believer can claim Him too.
- Refuge unseen. Elisha's servant saw nothing until God opened his eyes. The chariots of fire were there before he could see them.
- Refuge received by stillness. Be still first. Then you learn by experience that He is with you — and being with Him in glory is where it ends.