Wednesday, August 11, 2010

So That We May Know

My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

- Psalm 131

God is a God who works and rests. Human beings work and rest because they are image bearers of this God. As such, our work and our rest are always done in relation to God. The rest that God wrote into creation is not a time of utter solitude, or a time to boast in the works of our own hands. As one writer puts it, God created Sabbath rest to teach us that

“The world relies on God’s promises and not on our efforts. The observance of Sabbath rest is a break with every effort to achieve, to secure ourselves, and to make the world into our image according to our purposes.”

In a world full of supposed self-sufficiency, Sabbath rest creates an opportunity for us to relate to the One who created us. Our rest is a sign of our trust in the goodness and sufficiency of God.

The psalmist portrays this rest as the rest of a weaned child with its mother. Such a child is not clamoring for food, anxious for the next meal. The weaned child is with its mother simply to enjoy the relationship and rest secure in the mother’s arms.

So it should be with us. Our rest is not primarily functional, but relational. We rest so that we may know.

“Be still and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

No comments:

Post a Comment