Be Still My Soul: A Cure for Panic
By Clint Archer – February 23, 2022 (www.churchleaders.com)
Be still my soul is a cure for panic.
At 8:07am on January 13, 2018, the population of Hawaii was propelled into abject panic and confusion by a text message that the state government sent out in error: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
Hawaii is located 4,600 miles (7,400 km) from North Korea, so a launched missile could conceivably hit within 15 minutes.
A friend shared that his father had been visiting Hawaii at the time. He was standing in line at a breakfast buffet table when the locals all pulled out their phones and immediately and frantically rushed out of the dining room crying and shouting about an incoming attack. He was left alone at the table with no idea what to do next or where to go to be safe. Everyone outside was rushing around in different directions, so he didn’t know who to follow. So, you know what he did? He served himself breakfast, poured some coffee, and sat and ate it alone in the dining hall, until 38 minutes later when everyone sheepishly returned for breakfast with tear-streaked faces.
The alert was accidentally triggered when an emergency agency worker who meant to send a test message, chose “missile alert” instead of “test missile alert.”
What would you do if you found out you and everyone in your life had 15 minutes to live? Would you try to hide from the nuclear blast, would you scream and cry, or would you continue living the last 15 minutes of your life in complete peace and security, knowing that what was about to happen was out of your hands, so you might as well enjoy a final breakfast?
David has some advice to be still in Psalm 131.
3 STEPS TO BE STILL TO OVERCOME ANXIETY…
1. HUMILITY BEFORE GOD
Psalm 131:1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
The first step in ensuring genuine peace in your soul is to keep perspective. Understand where you fit in the grand scheme of things and where God fits in.
David declares that he is pursuing humility in some very practical ways:
a) he doesn’t think highly of himself, “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up”
b) he isn’t overly ambitious, “… my eyes are not raised too high; and”
c) he isn’t concerned with issues above his theological pay grade. “…I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”
People fret and worry and panic when they are afraid to lose their position when they are discontent with their current position, or if they don’t understand why God is doing something in their lives they don’t like.
David relinquished these concerns to God. He opened his hand to let go of the deadweight of spiritual discontent, personal ambition, and intellectual agitation.
Romans 12:3 ”…[do not] think of [yourself] more highly than [you] ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Know your place, know your limits, and know your responsibilities.
Are you in charge of stopping a nuclear strike? Unless you’re a president or a ruler (or that former employee of Hawaii’s emergency agency), probably not.
Are you in charge of fixing the music, the preaching, the church? Unless you’re the pastor or an elder, probably not.
Are you discontent with the place God has you now, one who needs to just trust and obey, rather than lead and decide? Take it up with God, because if you don’t, you will feel anxious and agitated, unsettled and unsatisfied.
But there is a second step to quieting your soul and overcoming anxiety…
2. HUSH BEFORE GOD
Psalm 131:2 “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
David was the king. So, on a good day, his concerns included criticism from political critics, the economy of his country, threats from famine and drought, the security of the borders, and the safety of his family, which was under attack at times from various rebels who wanted to overthrow him.
On a bad day, David was being hunted by Saul and later Absalom to be killed, his wife was embarrassing him publicly, his daughter was raped by her brother, his one son was murdering his other son, his newborn baby died, his sin was exposed, oh, and an angel of death was wiping out 70,000 people in Israel because of his census.
And yet he says… ”But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
A weaned child is not a crying, howling, kicking, fussing infant, but a child who can eat solid food, one who is mature enough to be independent of mother’s milk. At the time David was writing this typically meant a child between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. A weaned child with its mother is an image of a child that is maturing, learning how to cope, independent of his mom.
The point is that David is not helplessly awaiting deliverance from his panic. He is actively pursuing a mature response to the temptation of anxiety. Overcoming stress and worry is an effort, not a passive waiting for deliverance.
Paul says in Philippians 4:6-8 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
The resistance to anxiety doesn’t just happen to you. You have to make the stillness happen, you need to be still in your heart and quiet your soul.
Learn to arrest your thoughts and show them who is boss. Develop a habit of recounting to yourself what is true, not what possibly might happen. Wrangle those stray, wild thoughts and force them into the corral of reality, truth, probability.
3. HOPE IN GOD
Psalm 131:3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Here David shares a simple directive to all of his countrymen to apply what he has learned and modeled: Hope in Yahweh, now and forever.
To hope in Yahweh is to trust in a certainty, an unchanging, unstoppable reality: God is good and strong and on your side.
When you are panicking or stressed or anxious, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and run through the truths you know about God: he is on your side, he is good, he is powerful. Jesus was able to calm the storm with a word, heal the sick with a touch, and dispel evil spirits. He conquered death and hell and sin.
God is your Father, your rock, your redeemer, your fortress, and your friend.
Ask him for help.
And say to yourself: “Soul, be quiet. Be still. And know that he is God.”
This article about how to be stClint is a committed citizen of Heaven, the happy husband of the world’s best wife (no seriously), and the doting dad of four exhaustingly cute Archers-in-training. He pastors Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama.ill originally appeared here.