Say what? How can we be silent while cheerfully rejoicing? This daily devotional looks at what silence in the temple really means.
Nuggets
- God’s temple is an essential part of His kingdom.
- Silence facilitates worship.
- Silence is an indication of self-denial, self-discipline, and self-sacrifice.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Silence of the Soul series
When we did the Silence of the Soul series, I did all of the devotions on my list – except this one. It just didn’t seem to fit with the others.
The other ones talked about us being truly silent. But this one was different.
Part of it is the contrast between silence and rejoicing. It is hard to be silent when we are truly rejoicing.
So, what is it truly trying to tell us? Let’s see where we can go with this.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Our soul is our spiritual part that is immortal. The mind is a component of the soul that controls our will. It is in our minds that we process and make judgments and decisions.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines rejoice as “to feel joy or great delight.” Cheerfulness is defined by them as ungrudgingly, such as in cheerful obedience.
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Cheerfulness and Rejoicing
“But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Hab. 2: 20 ESV)
Now, wait a minute. Aren’t we supposed to be praising and worshiping God in the temple? I don’t equate that with silence.
Let’s concentrate on the temple first.
The Importance of the Temple
God’s temple is an essential part of His kingdom.
Mortimer wrote, “God loves the tents of Jacob, He loves the dwellings of Israel, but He loves His own house above them all, as the place where He makes His honour to be known.” That means the temple is consecrated — it is holy.
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Our being in the temple has no bearing with God being in the temple. “But the Lord is in his holy temple …” (Hab. 2: 20 ESV). Hastings said we could be indifferent, neglectful, or downright rebellious toward God. He will still be God in His temple.
We just talked about God being self-existent or self-sufficient. God doesn’t need us in order to be Sovereign God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
But we need to be in His temple. God wants to have a relationship with us. That is an important place where God reveals Himself to us.
We need to be in a continuous state of worship. That is especially so when we are in His house. Roberts said we are to adore Him.
We can’t think that God is only in His temple. One thing we cannot forget is we are also God’s temple. He lives within us.
Also, Jack reminded us that the universe is God’s temple. Every person — even worldview people — are in God’s temple.
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Roberts noted that “a Church is sanctified by the Word of God, prayer, and praise, independent of all other ceremonies.” We listen to His Word; we communicate with Him; we acknowledge His sovereignty.
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Silence leads to celebration!
The Importance of Silence in Worship
Silence facilitates worship.
The silence comes in because Jesus said that “… My house shall be called a house of prayer …” (Mt. 21: 13 ESV).
When we pray, we have to settle ourselves down. Why? Prayer is a two-way communication with God.
Hastings told us about the the importance of silence. He wrote, “‘Keeping silence’ indicates a sense of weakness and unworthiness, reverence and devout attention. It points also to the glory, majesty, and power of the Lord God omnipotent.” Collier said we should zip it unless we are praying or praising God.
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God doesn’t want us to think we have to rely on ourselves. He wants us to submit to Him and rely on Him.
Calvin contended that submission is silence. He wrote, “But there is another kind of silence, and that is, when we willingly submit to God; for silence in this respect is nothing else but submission: and we submit to God, when we bring not our own inventions and imaginations, but suffer ourselves to be taught by His Word.”
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I would say that Calvin was saying we need to silence our independence. Our arrogant, selfish desires need to be silenced. We can’t kick and scream when things don’t go our way.
The Biblical Illustrator noted there are five types of silences:
- Humiliation
- Adoration
- Submission
- Expectation
- Quiet resolution
Hmmm. I wish they would have expanded on what they were thinking on quiet resolution.
Collier reminded us of something important. He wrote, “The Psalmist calls the human voice ‘man’s glory’; and so it is, as sharing with the possession of reason ‘the glory’ of distinguishing between man himself and the coasts that perish. And our Lord warns us against the vain and idle use of this great gift, by the solemn declaration that ‘by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned’; and again, that ‘for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.’
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The voice is man’s glory, not God’s glory. We use our words to build ourselves up and heap the honor on ourselves.
The words that justify us are “Father, I have sinned” and “I submit to You, Sovereign Lord.”
Anything but that would be the vain use of the gift. Would it be an idle use?
Psalms 4: 4 says, “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still” (KJV). We talked about this before as meditating on Him.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
What we said there was, when we meditate on God, we look inside ourselves to take stock. He wants us to think about where we are as a disciple and what we need to work on to be more holy. We have to come into God’s presence the right way.
Collier also said that the silence allows us to prepare for when “… the sinner stands before God self-accused and self-condemned.” We will all stand before God one day and be judged.
But to me, it is more than that, too. When I decided to do a blog online, I needed to be quiet. I didn’t need to be telling God, “I can and will do this, and this, and this. But I will not do that, and that, and that.“ I needed to listen.
Kelman brought up the fact that people today call for more leisure time. This is different than silent time. Kelman wrote, “No one can worship rightly, no one can even hear the call to worship, who does not often feel that he must be silent.”
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Too often, we think of leisure time as sport and hobby time. Maybe it is decomp time.
God wants it to be listening time. We listen as we study His Word and pray to Him. We listen as we worship.
What Is the Root of Silence?
Silence is an indication of self-denial, self-discipline, and self-sacrifice.
OK, let’s stop a second. Where did I get this topic? The Silence of the Soul series came out of Edwards’ sermon Of Taking Up the Cross when we were doing the What Should We Do about Who Jesus Is? devotion.
That devotion was in the Who Is Jesus? series. It was in the Sunday Morning Bible Study series. Jesus was asking His disciples Who they thought He was.
Then He told them, “Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me’” (Lk. 9: 23 CSB).
Edwards told us that submission and silence fuel happiness. I think the submission fuels the silence.
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The root of all of that is self-denial. We talked self-denial, self-discipline, and self-sacrifice.
We take self out. We put the focus on God— which leads to the silence.
How do we do that? Foote said we must give up our sinful bodily indulgences. They eat at the spirituality of our mind.
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When we live a life of self-denial, we focus on God. When we focus on God, we worship Him.
Making the Connections
But sometimes, we get the wrong attitude. Hastings said something that stopped me in my tracks. He wrote, “He is accountable to no one.”
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Ooo, baby. Don’t we try to make God accountable to us sometimes? Let Him not answer a prayer on our timetable or in the way we want. Don’t we start trying to make Him see things our way?
How Do We Apply This?
- We need to fear the Lord. We need to reverence Him and praise Him.
- We should meet whenever possible in the house of the Lord. He reveals Himself to us there.
- Jack said that it is our duty to worship God.
- Edwards said that Heaven is a temple. We need to prepare to praise and worship God for eternity.
- We have to voluntary submit.
- Bag the evil voices. Kelman listed them as “passion, selfishness, self-assertion, lust, fear …”
- We must calm our mind, heart, and conscience.
- We need to study God’s Word and communicate with Him.
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It is important to remember that we are God’s temple. Think of it this way. We are unworthy, rebellious creatures who are made worthy because of our faith in Jesus. He comes to live inside of us, just as He fills His temple
The biggest silence is the silence of death. There will be a judgment day, but it is not going to be a debate. It is not going to be a trial where we defend ourselves. It will be the books being opened, our lives being examined, and God judging us while we stand there silently.
We have to make decisions in this life. It is our choice now whether to submit to God or not. Once we die, we cannot change our choice.
We have to ABCD – today. We can’t wait, because we are not guaranteed tomorrow.
The silence of cheerfulness and rejoicing. If silence is submission to God, that leads to cheerfulness and rejoicing because that makes Him our Heavenly Father. Being a child of God for eternity brings much joy.
Father God. We talk too much. Lord, we need to listen to You and focus on what You are telling and teaching us. We stand in silence at the foot of Your throne, listening to what You need to say to us. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
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