Tonight, I encourage you to open your Bibles to Psalm 46. We're going to start there. I'm just going to give a brief meditation tonight on prayer, Psalm 46, and we'll get there in a minute. In Minnesota, there is an echo-free chamber that is apparently, from what I read online this week, the quietest place on earth. It's so silent that the background noise measured is actually negative decibels. I don't know how that's possible, but it is in this echo-free sound chamber. The room's so quiet that you can actually hear your own heart beating. You can hear your stomach gurgling and some have even reported that you could hear your lungs breathing. I don't think I've ever heard my lungs breathing except for when I was wheezing. The longest anybody could stay in this chamber was 45 minutes. Most people said if they stayed in longer they would actually go crazy. And I thought that was interesting because I think that maybe our culture is not different than other cultures, but I'd be willing to bet that it is. We live in a culture that is so used to noise and racket and interaction and distraction that the idea of solitude is a foreign idea. In fact, when you mention the word solitude, what comes to most people's mind is solitary confinement, which is a negative thing, not a positive thing. But last week, we spent a little time talking about hindrances to prayer, and the last hindrance that I gave was that we think that we need to speak the whole time in prayer, whether it is in our mind or audibly. But the fact of the matter is we don't. There is a subcategory, if you will, of prayer that is known as silence or meditation. And I think that in our day and age, in the 21st century, whenever you think of or mention meditation, people immediately think of Eastern religions, Eastern mysticism, Eastern transcendentalism, where you're meditating, pinching your fingers, listening to some ambiance music, and perhaps there's some burning incense in the background. But there is a Christian category. for meditation, and before the church was birthed some 2,000 years ago, there was a category for meditation and reflection in the people of Judaism. In fact, this isn't totally proven. It hasn't been proven yet. But the prevailing theory amongst Old Testament scholars is that the word selah in the Psalms is really meant to be something of a pause. It is a direction from the music director telling the people in some festival or some leading of some hymn after they have sang a particular refrain, selah, pause. Think about that, consider that, worship. Again, it hasn't been proven, but it's the most prevailing theory at this time, and I think that there's probably some merit to it. So I hope that this last week you've had some time to practice some meditation and some silent reflection in your prayer. Tonight, what I'd like to do is I just wanna do three very quick things. I wanna give you a definition of what silence and solitude and prayer is. Secondly, I wanna give you the principal purpose in silence and solitude in prayer. And then finally, I just wanna give you a few brief examples, okay? So we're gonna go real quick with these first two things, and then we're gonna spend a little bit more time on the examples. So first off, what is a definition, what is a biblical definition of silence and solitude in prayer. We'll start with silence. Silence, first of all, is the discipline of silence being the voluntary and temporary abstention from speaking so that certain goals might be sought. So that second part of the definition is very important. It's kind of like fasting. Fasting is not just not eating. Fasting is not eating so that in the time that you would eat, hypothetically, you do what? You pray, you reflect, you meditate. And so also, it's not just being silent for silence sake, it's being silent so that you can accomplish a particular goal. Now, there's two types of silence you could think of. You could think of outward silence. Outward silence is silence that is observed in order to read or pray or write or so on. There's no outward speaking, but there may be some internal dialogues that go on with God. On the other hand, there's also inward silence, and that is when we are silent both outwardly and inwardly, and we're just sitting in silence in order to be moved or led by the Spirit. Now, don't read too much charismaticism into that. I'm going to qualify that in a moment. But I do think we can even say, as Reformed Christians, that's just Christians, without the fear of having the label charismatic being placed on us, that there is a category for sitting silent and waiting for God to speak to you. And again, in a moment I'm going to qualify what I do and do not mean by that. So what is solitude then? Solitude is the spiritual discipline of voluntarily and temporarily withdrawing to privacy for spiritual purposes. And we saw last week, very briefly, that Jesus did that. Now you could give, you can marshal some other examples of this. I think it's always fascinating to go back to somebody like Moses. who basically, he was around 80 years old before the Lord really started to use him. He kind of had his first phase of life, which was 40 years, and then he went into the wilderness for 40 more years, and it was after he went into the wilderness for 40 years, in a time of, for the most part, silence and solitude, that then the Lord was ready to use him. I find that fascinating. I also find it hopeful. I think of Paul as well. We miss this detail often times in the book of Galatians. But when he had been converted, or I should say after he had been converted, he went to the Arabian desert for three years. And he was there for three years in the desert. I happen to think, wait I can't prove this but I think it makes sense, he was working out a lot of the theology that he had learned growing up and now connecting it to Jesus as the Messiah, but a lot of this happened in the context of solitude and silence. So what's the purpose, secondly, what's the purpose of silence and solitude? I'm gonna say one thing. There's many things that could be said, but I just wanna focus on one thing tonight, okay? The main purpose, I would say, of silence and solitude in prayer is this. To discern if you need a reorientation in the priorities of your thoughts and affections. Let me say that again. To discern if you need a reorientation in the priorities of your thoughts and affections. Now in the Psalms, oftentimes, and even in the Prophets, There is oftentimes a movement from disorientation to reorientation. And you can get a sense of what is meant by those words. Disorientation, discombobulation, a state in which you think everything's going crazy, the world is turned upside down. I mean, you can fill in the blank with whatever has been going on in your life, has gone on in your life, is going on in your life, but something to which you need the Lord to reorient you. And oftentimes, like, for example, the book of Habakkuk, he moves from disorientation in chapter one to reorientation in chapter two. And then in chapter three, he bursts out in praise because of the reorientation that the Lord gave him in chapter two. But what do I mean by reorientation more specifically? Well, that's where we come to Psalm 46. I'm not going to spend a lot of time setting this up. I just want to go to verse 10 and read this verse and unpack it very briefly. Psalm 46, verse 10. This is a familiar refrain that many of you have probably said to yourself. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Here's what has always struck me about this refrain in Psalm 46. The psalmist was obviously in a state of anxiety, right? I mean, you don't tell yourself be still unless you're what? Restless, right? So he's obviously in a state of anxiety. No doubt it's anxiety perhaps over some problem in life. And you would think that if the Lord would be of some comfort to him or her in a time of restlessness and anxiety, that the refrain would be something like, listen, be still and know that I will solve your problem. Be still and know that I will make it all go away soon. but the verse is actually counterintuitive. It's counterintuitive in that it says nothing about what the psalmist perceives to be the problem. Rather, the refrain says, be still and just know that I am God. In other words, take your eyes off yourself and put them on me. That's counterintuitive to me. Because I think what we think a solution is to our problem is, is take the problem away. And as I've been spending over these last five, six years, all this time in Habakkuk, what's fascinating is that he did get reoriented, but no solution came to him. The problem was the Babylonians, but God didn't come in and, like the deuce ex machina that we see in the Greek tragedies and plays, and just roll down the shelf of all the gods, and the gods fix all the problems, and the gods get back on the shelf, and then it rolls back up, and then everything's fine. God didn't do that in the case of Habakkuk. He gave him a promise. And he said, know that I am God. And that was enough for Habakkuk. That's what you call reorientation, and reorientation often comes through the medium of silence. So finally, let me give you two examples of how reorientation comes. The first one is a group of texts that I'm not going to go through specifically, but in the Minor Prophets, there are three times that silence precedes some theophany of God. What is a theophany? It's a manifestation of God in some vision. It's usually a manifestation of God in some vision, either the prophet is reporting the vision or seeing the vision. But in this vision, whether he's reporting it to the people or seeing it for himself, it's God delivering, God delivering his people. And three times in the Minor Prophets, Silence precedes the theophany. Let me just rattle them off. You don't need to turn there. You'll be here all night because they're in the Minor Prophets, and most of us can't find it anyway. But in Habakkuk 2.20, after chapter 2, chapter 1, he complains in a state of disorientation. Chapter 2, the Lord gives him a vision. And then at the end of that vision, he says in chapter 2, verse 20, But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." And then in chapter 3, Habakkuk breaks out in this articulation of all the mighty works that God has done in the past in saving Israel. And then he says in chapter 3, verse 2, Lord, I have heard the report of You, Your works, O Lord, do I fear. In the years to come, renew them. In the years to come, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy." And then he recounts all these wonderful deeds of Yahweh. Silence preceded that. Second example, Zephaniah 1.7. The prophet says, be silent before the Lord God for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And then what immediately follows is an iteration that we see constantly throughout the prophets of a declaration of the coming of the day of the Lord. The third one is Zechariah 2.13. Here the exiles are waiting to return to the land. And in Zechariah 2.13, the prophet says, And then in chapter 3, the very next chapter, he gets a vision. And if you haven't ever reflected on this chapter, it's a beautiful chapter. He gets a vision of the high priest Joshua standing in filthy garments. Do you remember this? It's tucked away in the Minor Prophets. Most of us have not read it or not read it often or recently. But the high priest Joshua in the time of the exile in a foreign land is standing in filthy garments. And an angel comes and says, remove the filthy garments and now I shall clothe you from the Lord. I shall clothe you with pure vestments. And right before that depiction, he kind of gives a description of what's going on. He says, Israel, you are a brand plucked from the fire. You are a brand plucked from the fire. And that is a visual illustration, you see, of what God's gonna do with them. He has them in the fires of Babylon. He has them in the fires of a foreign land. He has them in a place where Sabbath upon Sabbath, they can't worship in the way that God has ordained that they should worship because they're in a foreign land. And their captors are calling them to sing songs of deliverance, and they're saying, how could we sing songs of deliverance when we're not even in the land that God has promised to us? But he says, you will be like a brand plucked from the fire, I will take you. In all three of these examples, what precedes these declarations, these theophanies of God's mighty work? It's silence. It's silence. The next example I want to show you as I close tonight is in 1 Kings 19, and I would ask that you turn there. You're familiar with this one too, it's a good one. 1 Kings 19, and I'm going to read verses 11 through 18. 1 Kings 19, 11 through 18. This is Elijah. You know the context. The Lord has been doing breathtaking things through Elijah. I mean breathtaking things. He's been doing miraculous things. What has He been doing? Well, Elijah raises the widow's son. He's predicted a drought, and then a drought comes. Then he predicts that the drought is going to end, and then the drought ends. And then he goes up against all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It's the Super Bowl of the gods. The prophets of Baal are mustering all their divinations and their prayers and everything to try to get fire to come out of heaven. And Elijah is praying to Yahweh, and only Yahweh sends fire from heaven. Yahweh wins the Super Bowl of the gods, and then Elijah slaughters or has slaughtered all these prophets. I mean, the Lord is doing amazing things through him. It's clear that the hand of the Lord is on Elijah, but in the midst of all of that, the one thing that he focuses on is not these amazing, breathtaking miracles that the Lord has been doing through him, but a wicked woman, Jezebel. And Jezebel sends a messenger to him saying, you're gonna be dead by this time tomorrow. And so he flees to Mount Horeb. And now we'll pick up the text in verse 11. 1 Kings 19, 11. And the Lord, he, the Lord said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broken pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper, or in other translations, a small, still voice. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu the son of Mimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel and Elisha the son of Shafat of Abel Mehoala you shall anoint to be prophet in your place and the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. I want you to notice a few things here tonight. If you were standing there on Mount Horeb and you saw or you felt a strong wind come through and you saw that strong wind literally break up rocks, what would you say? There's the Lord right there, right? You'd say there's the Lord. But the text says, but the Lord was not in the wind. Likewise, if you were standing there and an earthquake took place, earthquakes aren't super common in Israel like they are in California. You were standing there and you felt an earthquake, you would say, surely that's the Lord. But the text says the Lord was not in the earthquake. If you were standing there and a fire came and just ripped through the bushes and the branches and the trees right there on Horeb, you would say, surely that is the Lord. But the text says the Lord wasn't in any of these things. The text says that the Lord was in the low whisper. I sometimes think I hear low whispers at night when I'm sleeping. I don't know if you do. It's probably because I have my white noise on. But there's nothing miraculous about that. It's just normal. And I think that that's the key. And I think that that's what the Lord is trying to teach us through this text tonight. So often, listen to me, so often we are looking for large scale production miracles from God in our life. That's what we're looking for. We have been conditioned as a society religiously to think charismatically. In other words, we need the biggest and the best and the next best thing. We need a word from Paul Tripp. We need a word from the superstars in the evangelical world. We need God to come down and do a miracle. Because if God does that, then we'll know that He's on our side. Then we'll know that He's got our hand. Then we'll know that He hasn't forgotten us. We want the Lord to make the sickness go away. We want the Lord to make the trial go away. When in reality, you know what? Most times, the Lord doesn't have anything miraculous for us. Instead, you know what He has? He doesn't have miracle. He has good, old-fashioned, regular providence. You know what providence is? The Lord has brought this into your life for a particular reason. In effect, He's saying, no, Josh, you're going to have to pass through this. I'm not going to bail you out. But I'll tell you this. I am God. I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And I promise that that will be enough. We hear that. We see that. We read that in the low whisper of the words of God that He's already given us in these 66 books. It's sufficient. It's enough. And I know that many of us, I think hopefully all of us, since you're in this church, we wear the badge of reform, and we say we're not charismatic, and theologically that may be the case, but practically I wonder, because I know sometimes I fall into this, I'm looking for God to do something amazing, which is not out of His character, that's in His resume, right? God does amazing, miraculous things. But sometimes I think what God wants us to hear is the low whisper, the small, still voice. Not in the miracles, but in the fact that God, through providence, is taking us through something, and He wants us to stay exactly where we are. He wants us to learn something. He wants us to depend on Him. He doesn't want us to see the earthquake that's going on over here, and the fire that's going on over here, and the rumble that's going on over there. He wants us to see what's right before us. And this is where sometimes my children teach me. because the other day in the living room, like, Caleb was eating a graham cracker with peanut butter on it, and it fell on the ground. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to have to clean that up. And then the dog, like, spilled water on the floor over in the corner. And then Cohen left the pillow on the ground, and the dog got Paul marks all over and the whole place was a mess, but there were my two boys Just petting my dog on the ground like nothing else in the world was going on They were focusing on one thing and I think that that's what God wants from us sometimes Don't focus on the things that are going on here I'm doing something through them but focus on me focus on the low whisper that I'm giving you through my word and I think the best way we can do that is to sit in silence before God and Sit in silence before God and let Him speak to us through His Word. We're not looking for something above and beyond His Word. We may be looking for a prodding that is consistent with His Word, but we're looking for what He wants to teach us through His Word. So that's all I have tonight. Let's go into a season of prayer now.