Be Still And Know

The psalmist isn’t merely talking about house building in this famous psalm. He is talking about everything we build – a life, relationship, family, organisation, city, or society. There is no point in building anything without God, because it is bound to fail. Throughout the Bible we are introduced to people who tried to go it alone. Adam and Eve are the supreme examples, but they were merely setting the pace for a succession of people who felt they knew better than God and who tried to build their lives without him. Jesus’ teaching about the vine is very similar to this verse where he concludes “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We simply weren’t created by God to act independently of him. It doesn’t work. The God who created us knows us better than we know ourselves, and it is only as we work in partnership with him that we can be confident of the future. This psalm is entitled a psalm of Solomon, and he was, supremely, a builder. He had the privilege of building the awesome temple in Jerusale