The Beauty of Silence

UV 1094/10,000 The Beauty of Silence


Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

Zechariah 2 v 13

Reverence for the Lord will teach us the spiritual discipline of silence. We refrain from speaking as we enter His holy presence. We remain still as we recognize and realize His awesomeness. It is beyond words, comprehension and description and so we are moved to silence and stillness before the Lord. As we perceive His glory, understand the extent of His goodness and love, words will fail us. No muttering of words under our breath, no music or songs, no prayers or sounds. Allow the Lord’s presence to fill our entire being as an aroma fills a habitation, slowly but surely.

The human senses and the tongue are not prepared for an experience, a close encounter with a holy God. This is the reason that Isaiah the prophet cried out as He perceived the Lord sitting on His throne, high and lifted up, surrounded by the angels and archangels, the heavenly host: “ … Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Then a seraphim flew to him with a live coal from the altar of God and touched his tongue and purged it, cleansed it of its iniquity.


We need to have some times of absolute silence and stillness before the Lord. We need to make a sacrifice of our speech and our movements to the Lord. He will cleanse and purify our tongues and bless our limbs. His holiness and beauty will pervade and fill our being. Before people enter the habitation or office of a person of high ranking or importance, they prepare themselves. They remind themselves in whose presence they are going to be in. They caution themselves to be measured in their words, gestures and tones. No unnecessary sound should escape their lips even inadvertently. How much more we should prepare ourselves as we enter the holy habitation of the Lord God! Our flesh should tremble with excitement and anticipation of the amazing experience we are about to behold. We need to behold the image of Jesus that John saw: a holy person whose feet are of gold, whose eyes are like blazing fire, whose voice is like the sound of many waters, who is dressed in a robe dipped in blood. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. We will also see with our spiritual eyes the armies of heaven following Him, dressed in fine linen, white and clean, riding on white horses. These moments of intense silence, quiet worship and deep meditation will cleanse our tongues, our thoughts, our lives and enable us to be more perfect like Him. As we remain silent, we have the opportunity to remember all the greatness of the Lord that can be perceived here on earth for which even the angels worship Him.



Prateep V Philip