Verse of the Day for March 15

This verse is printed on a great many calm images of lakes, which has quietly reversed its meaning. The psalm it comes from is not calm at all.

The earth is removed, the mountains are carried into the sea, the waters roar and are troubled, the heathen rage, the kingdoms are moved. Then God speaks.

Be still, and know that I am God. The Hebrew is closer to let go, or cease striving — the word used of dropping your hands, of relaxing a grip.

And it is not addressed to an anxious individual looking for serenity. Read in context it is spoken over raging nations, and the second half of the verse is about being exalted among the heathen.

So the stillness commanded here is not the absence of noise. It is the letting go of your own hands in the middle of noise that has not stopped.

You are not being told to find a quiet room. You are being told to stop gripping.

The psalm never promises the waters will settle. It promises there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God while they rage.

Loosen the grip first. The circumstances are not the prerequisite.