Be still and know that I am God

Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Exodus 15:26-27
  • Job 40:4-5
  • Psalms 16:1
  • Psalms 25:20
  • Psalms 31:1
  • Psalms 37:7
  • Psalms 46:10
  • Psalms 71:1
  • Habakkuk 2:20
  • Zephaniah 1:7
  • Zechariah 2:13
  • Matthew 9:21
  • Mark 5:11
  • Acts 3:16
Book Number:
  • 757

Be still and know that I am God,
be still and know that I am God,
be still and know that I am God.

2. I am the Lord who makes you whole,
I am the Lord who makes you whole,
I am the Lord who makes you whole.

3. In you, O Lord, I put my trust,
in you, O Lord, I put my trust,
in you, O Lord, I put my trust.

4. Be still and know that I am God.
I am the Lord who makes you whole.
In you, O Lord, I put my trust.

Anon.

The Christian Life - Submission and Trust

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Tune

The story behind the hymn

This simply-repeated chorus appeared in several books and in various forms in the last two decades of the 20th c, including the 1982 Jesus Praise soon followed by MP and others. What is here the 1st and last stz is Psalm 46:10, where the context needs to be noted; cf 46A, 46B and 754. A 2nd stz was sometimes printed as ‘I am the Lord that healeth thee’ (Exodus 15.26 AV, as in MP, where the same warning is needed); to avoid the archaism, JP like other books substituted ‘I am the Lord who heals your pain’—but God heals more than pain; hence the wording here. In 2004 CH introduced a further variant, ‘… the Lord that keepeth thee’. The 3rd stz changes from the ‘persona’ or voice of the Lord, to that of the worshipper, as in the similar openings to Psalms 7, 16 and 71—then back again to hear God’s word in stz 4. Clearly this meditative little song needs sensitive treatment; it is not one of those songs (like 173) which can readily assimilate additional stzs.

For notes on the anonymous tune BE STILL AND KNOW which Roland Fudge has arranged as in MP, see 80. In JP David Peacock’s 1980 arrangement is used; here the ‘linking’ bars are added by Linda Mawson.