For God alone my soul waits in silence;
From him comes my salvation . . .
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
For my hope is from him.
Psalm 62: 1, 5 (ESV)
In these verses from Psalm 62 the psalmist recognizes that he needs to wait in silence for his deliverance (vv. 3-4). He recognizes that his future, his hope, comes from God and that this is not the time to be inwardly frantic or devising plans for overcoming his trials. God will act because the psalmist has chosen to rest his soul from his own efforts and depend on God.
This practice of calming and silencing one’s soul while one remains in a receptive stance before God has traditionally been referred to as contemplation. This is in contrast to meditation in which one uses reasoning and imagination to actively gain a greater understanding of God or his words.
The promise and encouragement of contemplation is that God will come and bring his blessings to us as we wait in silent receptivity. As we place our hope in him and wait, he meets our soul and provides.
But our responsibility is to be intentional about contemplation. Notice that the Psalmist commands his soul to wait in silence! It is not human nature to cease our efforts and wait on God. This means that we need to make contemplation part of our routine. Even just three minutes of contemplation a day gives God a chance to give us an impression, give us understanding or wisdom about our situation, or just infuse peace and presence into our spirit. As we practice this we will learn how to wait in greater stillness and give God more freedom in us.
