Do you hear that? Just truly stop to listen.
All around are artificial sounds. They come from the AC fan blowing. People milling about around you. Gathering things together to leave. The shuffling of feet. Maybe the sound of a song on the radio or a show on the television. Perhaps the sound of a passing vehicle. And maybe a number of other sounds perchance occupy our ears. Everything is either noise that grabs our attention or has been drowned out to nothing more than background noise, sounds that nothing can be done so we just dismiss it to focus on other things that grab our attention.
And then there is the sweet silence that could be around us as we are miles from the nearest source of distraction. Because of the trees and curvature of the canyon at The Farm in Missouri, it is amazing how much your senses of hearing and smelling become keenly aware of what is around you. And then at night a few years ago the sound of an occasional breeze rattling the limbs of the cottonwood. But a night so quiet you swear you could hear the stars twinkling. I can even still close my eyes and let go and feel myself there in that driveway with the silence flowing around me like the waters of a stream. And only occasionally at certain times of the year will one hear the yelp of a coyote down at the creek or during the warm summers of the frogs and their soprano chirps and the bullfrogs with their bassy cha-ga-rum.
Or perhaps the sound of silence up high in the Cloud Peak Wilderness of the Big Horn Mountains sitting along the shore of a small glacier-fed lake. Despite me not being a Christian at that time, being thousands of feet above sea level on that mountain, it felt as if heaven could literally come down to earth. A tranquility unmatched, in my opinion, with fresh mountain air in abundance and not one artificial light, not even from aircraft, to distract or obscure the beauty of His heavenly creation of the stars and moon.
Or lastly perhaps while on the southern shores of Australia looking out over the ocean and seeing the moon larger than life and so close that one could almost touch it and feel the craters of the moon at your fingertips. And the sound? Nothing but the crashing waves to serve as a symphony to the glory of God with no other sound or noise to distract. And for a new Christian as I was then, I needed that moment to not just touch the throne room of God but for Him to truly become real in my life. I needed His presence so clear, so tangible, and so present then…just as I have sought His face and presence many times since.
No matter where in the world our praise to God has to be beyond singing, playing instruments, with lyrics on screens. Praise is beyond a couple of people leading a song with a chorus of people surrounding him or her as if a crowd validates the song. A couple of hours ago I was reminded of something found in the Psalm 65:1 MSG, “Silence is praise to you…” and the Amplified Version says, “To You belongs silence (the submissive wonder of reverence which bursts forth into praise) and praise is due and fitting to You, O God…” The best praise is not intense volume of adulation. Praise is from a heart crying out to God in total surrender and in silence because human speech cannot truly utter and human speech is profane in the ears of an Almighty God (see Isaiah 6:5).
And through that deafening sound of silent praise unto God is when we are able to discern the “still small voice” (see 1 Kings 19:11-12) to hear the voice of God. Repeated prayers do not break through. Even speaking in tongues can be insufficient. To God belongs the silence.