“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.” (Ps 83:1 AV)
There is silence, and there is silence.
The writer here is comparing the perception of God’s inactivity to His
silence. It is not reality. It is a perception. Psalm eighty-three is a psalm of reflection. The writer, Asaph, is reflecting Israel’s earliest
days as they cleansed the land of Canaan.
The early enemies are in view here.
The writer is listing them as he also described the details of their influence. These enemies of God caused the people of God
much trouble. It took many generations
to clean them out. To cleanse out these
nations, it took the entire book of judges plus Saul and David’s reign before
there was lasting peace for the children of God. Looking from the perspective of the writer,
for the enemies of God to harass God’s children for 470 years. For ten generations, Israel was invaded or
pillaged by those around them. Many came
because they compromised and God ceased His protection. This is why there is a misperception of God’s
silence. Other times, it was merely that
God was requiring the people of God to fight a bit. Rather than supernaturally intervening that
Israel would not mature, God held back.
But He was not silent.
All silence is not equal. Years
ago, we lived in an apartment along a major road. The traffic was literally non-stop. It slowed down overnight. However, ten seconds would not go by without
something coming past our windows.
During the busy times, bumper-to-bumper was not uncommon. We could always tell when there was a fresh
snowfall outside. Even though the amount
of traffic never reduced, the silence was deafening. Then there was the silence we enjoyed in our
country home. No traffic there. However, there were crickets, birds, frogs,
and other critters that made the presence known. Barking dogs were also common. Compared to city living, this silence we very
appreciated. It was quiet, for
sure. Compared to city living, one might
say it was silent. Then there is the
silence that is so quiet, one can hear your own heartbeat and breathing. My wife can be a bit vocal when we fall
asleep for the night. She has a hard
time sleeping. Pain management is the
concern. There is nothing I can do for
her which really bothers me. But I need to
get my sleep as well. So, I will use earplugs
now and again. Listing to my own breathing
and heartbeat will induce me to deep sleep.
That is silence. The reason we do
not like perfect silence is perfect silence implies no activity. There was a research facility that created a
room that literally soaked up sound. No
matter the sound, inside or out, the material used soaked up all vibration so the
sound could not reach the ears of someone sitting inside. There is a standing dare. The creator of this room dares you to sit in
this room for one hour. No one has made
it that far.
When the writer is asking the LORD to cease His silence, he is implying God is not working. But nothing could be further from the truth. For God to cease working, He would have to die. And since God is eternal, that will never happen. Because God lives, He acts. Because He lives, He is not still. Much of what God does do goes unnoticed. Unless what God does is overly dramatic, we usually miss His hand. We often chalk the hand of God to natural forces or laws. We assume all that we see occurs because it was put in force by natural events and continues to this day. Paul tells us that by Christ all things consist. Everything we see occurs because God directly caused it or allowed it. His hand may not be as obvious as we would hope it would be, but that does not mean He is silent. Perhaps what the writer is asking is for open eyes. Maybe he is asking us to see what God was doing so that he could be encouraged that God was indeed doing something. Silence suggests inactivity. But as the snowfall outside was misleading, so to can the absence of God’s dramatic hand. There is still traffic. There is still activity. It simply means we cannot detect it.
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