Hebrew Word Study – Be Still – Harephu  Hei Resh Pei Vav

Psalms 46:10:  “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

“In silence, your ears will hear nothing, but your heart will hear the world weep.”  Rabbi Abel.

In a couple of weeks, I will be traveling down South to a Trappist monastery where I will spend a few days in silence before God.  They call it a retreat.  However, this retreat does not feature guest speakers or social activities.  One is given a private room and total freedom to roam the compound with one very strict rule that you may not speak with anyone during the duration of your stay.  You are to live in complete silence.   It is a time to be still and know that Jehovah is God. I usually keep a journal during my time in silence.  My journal from prior experiences of living in silence has been traditionally published in a book entitled; “Journey Into Silence.” It is on Amazon.

In silence, you do not hear with your ears but you listen with your heart.  You do not see with your eyes but you will see things with your heart.   Your heart can hear things that your ears will never hear and will see things that your eyes will never see.   It is with the heart that man believes unto righteousness (Romans 10:10).   It is only with your heart joined with the heart of God that you will see what God sees, you will hear what God hears.  It is with your heart that you will hear God weep, it is with your heart you will see His tears. 

The word used in Hebrew that we render as still is harephu. This word could come from one of two root words, either raphah which means to hand down, relax or be feeble, where we get the idea of being still or it could come from the root word ruph which would put this word into a Hiphal imperative form and would mean to bring about a healing. Another possible root word is rapha’ which also means to be healed.   Translators tend to lean toward the root word as raphah as it would make more sense to say: “Be still or silent and know that I am God” rather than “Be healed and know that I am God.”  

I really believe what we have here is a play on words.  God is telling us to not only be silent and know that He is God but to also use this silence to bring about a healing process.  The word know in Hebrew is yada’ which is an intimate knowing.  This is found in a simple Qal imperative form which would suggest that the simple act of being silent before God will bring about an intimacy with His heart and healing to His broken and wounded heart.

In my Pastoral Counseling class 101, I learned that when you are called to the side of someone who has just lost a loved one, the best thing you can do is just be with that person and be silent (harephu).  Just let the person know you are there, and you care, and let them talk out their grief if they want to, but it is important that you keep silent and not say a lot of pompous, pious words which they will hear enough of from well-wishers when they start to come around.  

More than once I have attended a funeral where a husband/father has passed and the grieving wife is surrounded by her children.   In that time of grief, her children have their arms around their mother, hugging her, holding her but saying nothing, they are silent.   There is so much healing that takes place in that silence and that grieving widow is drawing strength and encouragement in just having her children nearby. 

Every day, every moment someone that God dearly loves dies lost and the Father grieves over this loss.  But, of course, we act like spoiled children as if that is not our problem.  After all, we have our own needs that God must attend to, He will just have to get over His loss, get on with the program and start addressing our own needs for prosperity, health, and the millions of other things He needs to get done to make our lives comfortable.  

There is a time to make our request known unto the Lord and there is a time when we are to be silent and know (yada’) that He is God.  There are times we just need to keep our big mouths shut and enter his quiet room and weep with Him, let Him hold us, and allow ourselves to share in His sufferings.   There are times we must be quiet, join our hearts with God’s heart and listen to the cry of the world.  Perhaps it may really motivate us to leave that quiet room and find that lost soul that He loves and let them know that God is weeping for them.  Perhaps it is time we start to do something to protect His heart rather than demand that He keep protecting ours.  

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