Psalm 131: Spirituality and Silence

I wonder when David wrote this Song of ascents?  David the shepherd-boy who tried dressing up in Saul's armour, but couldn't move in it and then took out Goliath with a stone from a  sling.  David shepherd-bard who became more popular than King Saul, and who was forced to live as a fugitive when Saul wanted him killed. David who became King, built a palace in Jerusalem, brought the Ark of God back to the city and got laughed at by his wife for dancing so wildly... David who fell into sexual temptation with Bathsheba. David who had the pain of seeing his own son Absalom stage a coup. David who wanted to build a temple but God said “You can't do it... you have too much blood on your hands.  But at some point David wrote this song of ascents, to use in climbing the hill to Jerusalem to worship god.  

And when he wrote it, this warrior and musician and ruler knew the value of silence. He knew that in climbing the hill to worship God we need to deal with self importance (verse 1: My heart is not proud, Lord,my eyes are not haughty),  self-reliance (“I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me” and self-seeking (“like a weaned child,” no longer fretting for the milk-supply!)   He has quietened his heart.  The word means  “pacified, silenced, made to wait” – just as you do with a child.

And in our approach to God, we need silence: we need to shut down the clamouring voices inside us that are grumbling, complaining, marshalling the arguments, whining, demanding... We need to find a silence that allows God to be the prime mover in our relationship with Himself.  We need to find a  silence that comes to God in simple, confident trust.  Silence isn't the only thing.  It's important that we do have things we say to god – our confession, our thanks, and to “present our requests” and to agree with one another...  But Bible believing Christianity has a  need to learn the art of silence. 

Why is quieting our hearts so important?
Silence allows ...
Treating God as God. Habakkuk 2. 19-20 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.  But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence  before him.  In contrast to the noise of the idol temple, a holy hush recognises the presence of the LORD. Eccles 5. 2 says “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”

Listening, giving God space to speak. Did you ever carry on a conversation with someone who never stopped talking? The keep ion and on; they never seem to stop for breath. They tell you what's happening. They tell you what’s troubling them; they tell you what's wrong with the world.  They say things that are quite simply wrong. But you can't help with their problems, you can’t correct their mistakes – because yo simply can't get a word in! A lot of our conversations with god are like that.  We need to give God space to speak.

Letting God transform us.  As we quiet our hearts, we know God's strength: he brings healing and transformation to our inner beings.  Isa 30. 15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. (= valour; victorious force)” ...   Isa 40. 31  “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength (= Vigour, productive energy)

Compassion towards others: Careful speech.  Job's friends were at their best when they kept silent vigil with him.  They were at their worst when they opened their mouths and “Occupied themselves with things too great for them.” We could all do with praying the simple prayer from  Ps 141. 3 “Lord, set a watch over my lips!”.  And there are other benefits: Proverbs 17. 27f says “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.   Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”

Trusting God.  Letting God come through.   We don't always need to tell God what to do in situations.  He sees and knows before we ask.  (Matthew 6. 8)  Sometimes it's enough just to present a situation to him.

How are we to go about this “Silence” business?
Are we stuck because we live in a place where there is always noise?  Do we need to achieve literal silence, the literal absence of sound? I believe it is good for us to attempt to find space for literal silence, time just to tune into the ambient sounds that are around us – the sea, the wind, the hum of traffic, birdsong; to find a place that is quiet enough that you can hear the beat of your own heart.  It's good, but it's still possible to experience biblical “Quiet” in a noisy place.. For David in Psalm 131, quieting the heart was a deliberate, conscious active engagement.  “I have quieted my heart”.  It means I have pacified my heart, I have quietened it down, caused it to rest.... and we do that through...

Scripture.  You can either read Scripture noisily: that is, you are reading it and thinking about it.  Your thoughts, your wrestling to understand its meaning become the noise.  But it is possible to engage with Scripture in a different way: to take it into your heart, to hold it there, and to let it speak to you. You're not interrogating it, asking it questions.  You are simply holding it within you and getting the flavour of it. It's like the difference between chewing on a peppermint, crunching it up – noisy and maybe painful – and sucking it – silent.   In fact, I recommend using a verse of Scripture – something you have read, something that speaks simply and plainly of god's love, grace, power or sufficiency, so that your silence remains focussed on God.  Don't  “empty your mind." Firstly, it's difficult to do.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and the more you try to “empty your mind” the more you'll find things crowding in – and if you do manage to stop the distractions and really empty your mind, the enemy will find use the space.  Using Scripture is a good way of laying claim to your mind for God.  And it may be that you need to “Tell yoursoul some truth from Scripture! 

Self-awareness. One of the things that may happen as you go through a process of quieting your heart, is that you become aware of things you didn't know you were anxious about, or angry about.  You need to forgive someone; you're embarrassed about something.  Simply give these situations to God, maybe scribble them down so you don't forget. It's part of the process.

Actions may help.  Sit in a comfortable and relaxed position.  Offer each part of you to God. Become aware of your breathing – surrender yourself to God as you breathe out, welcome the Holy Spirit as yo breathe in. It may help to use a simple gesture: palms up to welcome what God wants to give you, palms down to place things in God's hands.

Ask the Spirit to help you.  Paul says ( Romans 8. 26) the Spirit helps us when we don’t' know how to pray, and prays within us with groans too deep for words. Even if that prayer is an inarticulate groan, God hears. It can be part of the silence that sets us free to go beyond our natural understanding, giving God the space to speak rather than simply following our natural inclinations and telling God what we think he ought to do.  Sometimes people say to me “what’s the use of the gift of tongues?” That’s the use of it: when we are intimately and powerfully aware of the reality of who God is and we reach an end of our own words to express our awe and wonder, tongues can speak adoration from our hearts.  When we are struggling to pray for a situation, and we don't know what to ask; or maybe we want to ask for the same thing over and over, and kind of run out of ways to repeat the request, tongues enables us to present that request to God.  It's a way of quieting our hearts.

Touch, particularly in praying for someone else.  I mean decent touch, a hand laid on a shoulder. Maybe you don't know what to pray for, but your touch and your silence or groans or prayer in tongues is a way of simply bringing the person to Jesus. Our Fife Baptist Ministers had a meal last Friday at the Viewfield Centre. I was talking to one of the guys and moved a couple of chairs just a few inches – and experienced a sudden pain in my wrist.  Another of the guys, James, from Leslie, heard me shout out in pain, said “What happened?” and I told him. He simply held my wrist in his hand for about maybe ten or fifteen seconds – and God did something. My wrist was better!  No words.  Just a touch.

In conclusion
The practise of silence – quieting our souls … means that we “hope in God now and for ever” and like David call others to “Hope in God, now and for ever .” As we patiently allow him to be himself, speak to us, transform us and work through us, it's “now and forever.”  In the silence we encounter the Eternal One.  In the silence of that meeting we connect “now” with “Forever.”  In the Now of our lives and the lives of people we speak to, we experience the “forever” Kingdom of God.  That's how powerful and important it is that we make time and space for god to speak, through silence; through quieting our hearts.