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Psalm 46 · a question people ask

"Be still, and know that I am God" (46:10). Who is told to be still, and what does be still mean here?

In the text

The psalm shows who speaks: God, in his own words, "I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth" (46:10). It doesn't name who he speaks to. In Hebrew the command is plural, harpu, so it is spoken to more than one; the call just before it, "Come, see the LORD’s works" (46:8), is plural too. What the psalm has just described is the nations raging and the kingdoms moved (46:6), and the LORD who "makes wars cease to the end of the earth" (46:9). The verb is raphah. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives it as "sink, relax", and for the form here, among its uses, "let go" and "refrain"; Strong's gives "to slacken", and lists "be still" among the English words it is given as. Psalm 37 has the verb in the same form, spoken to one person: "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath" (Psalm 37:8). Psalm 46 doesn't say more than this about who is to be still, or how, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice and the earth melted.”
Psalm 46:6 · World English Bible
“Come, see the LORD’s works, what desolations he has made on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth.””
Psalm 46:8-10 · World English Bible
“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don’t fret; it leads only to evildoing.”
Psalm 37:8 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 46

Psalm 46: Be still, and know

"Be still, and know that I am God" (46:10) is God speaking, to more than one person, with the nations in view. And the refuge of 46:1 and the refuge of the refrain (46:7, 46:11) are two different Hebrew words, machseh and misgav.

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