Awed To Contentment

“Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.” (Ps 4:4 AV)

 

There is a relationship between standing in awe of God and being honest with one’s own heart.  As Cambridge Bible notes states, “Let wholesome fear, continues David, deter you from persisting in this course of action, which is nothing less than sinful.”  The awe spoken of here is not an awe of admiration only.  It is not the awe we feel when we go to the circus and see some great act do the impossible.  It is not the awe we feel when we watch some athlete accomplish something no one else has been able to do.  It is not the awe we feel when we read the works of a brilliant writer and wonder where he or she came up with those thoughts.  This awe is a healthy and pure fear of one infinitely greater than self.  It is the awe one feels while at the foot of Niagara Falls and hearing the roar and crash of the water on the rocks.  It is the awe one feels when he or she sees the power of a tornado.  It is the awe one feels when he hears and feels the roar of a lion go into his ears and through his bones.  This awe is not a terror.  As long as the observer keeps his distance, he is safe from the crashing water, the power of the tornado, or the appetite of the lion.  He is safe because that which produces the awe does not present itself as a threat.  Although David is addressing the men of verse two who would challenge his office as king, and the possibility of judgment is raised, the saint is not in such a case.  At least as it pertains to eternal judgment.  The saint should stand in awe of the greatness of the Almighty and, in response, commune with his or her own heart.  The result is to be still.

The stillness of which David speaks is the opposite of the agitation his enemies exude towards him.  If they would simply stop and realize just who and what God is, then their agitation and rebellion would cease.  But the saint can take away something a bit different here.  Stillness is the result of a proper view of the person of God.  The opposite of stillness is fear, agitation, impatience, anxiety, envy, or any host of evil dispositions of the heart.  To be still means to be quiet.  It means the heart is brought under the discipline of the truth of God’s person and nature.  The saint is cumbered about much.  He or she is stirred by the demands and circumstances of life.  Our minds are undisciplined and often lead our hearts to places it does not need to go.  The command to stand in awe of God means that God’s presence and person are greater than anything that might enter our minds and hearts.  To stand in awe of God means we allow the person and presence of God to be the most significant thing in our minds and hearts.  To stand in awe of God means nothing comes between the saint and He.  All these things that bother us may still be there, but the presence of God is greater.

To give an example, one cannot transverse the cave of the winds and experience the Falls crashing almost at your feet and be bothered by anything else in life.  We could be going through the depths of trials, but if we stand at the water’s edge and feel the earth move beneath our feet; feel the mist hit our face; hear the roar of the water so loudly one cannot carry on a conversation, all our troubles become secondary to the experience.  We could stand at ground zero where fighters do a flyover and go vertical, feel the sonic boom, and feel the concussion go through our bodies.  I’ve mistakenly done that!  I can tell you at that time, I wasn’t thinking of the utility bill that was past due, the doctor’s appointments we couldn’t afford, or the three jobs I was working at the time.  This is the thought here.  David advises all of us to stop and stand in awe of God.  Commune with our own hearts and allow the majesty of God’s presence and person to fill the heart that we might be still.  To stand in awe is to let God be bigger than any and all that is in our lives.  It is allowing Him to fill both void and volume.  He must increase and all we think and feel must decrease.  Then we can be still.