It is early in the morning and the silence is deafening! The house is too quiet. There is hardly any noise in my neighborhood. I miss hearing the school buses that are normally picking up children; and there is not any traffic on the nearby street that leads to the high school! This is my quiet time for prayer and study, but it is just too quiet! Simon and Garfunkel sang the song, “The Sound of Silence,” which has remained one of the most popular songs over the decades. It was based on the biblical passage, I am sure, found in Ecclesiastes 3:7, “A time to keep silence; A time to speak.”
Yet, there is a verse of Scripture found in Habakkuk 2:20 that is profound and needs to be understood in its immediate context. The writer was contrasting the reality of a living God with idols made of wood and silver, which are lifeless and cannot speak. In verses 20, 34 we read, “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (ESV). In the Old Testament the Temple in Jerusalem was where the presence of God could be found. However, the apostle Paul said, as recorded in Acts 17:24, that the Lord “does not dwell in temples made with hands.” Paul also said that God “is not far from each one of us!” (Acts 17:27). In Psalm 139, we learn there is no place we can be but that God is there! While He is in His “holy Temple,” that is Heaven, He can be everywhere at all times, but He is not in one place all the time.
Because God is so great in His majesty we are to “keep silence before him.” The Septuagint Version renders Habakkuk 2:20, “The Lord is in his holy temple; Let all the earth fear before him.” “The consideration of his infinite perfections, his self-existence independence, supremacy, immensity, eternity; his omnipresence; omniscience, and omnipotence; his unspotted holiness, his inviolable truth, and impartial justice; and especially his sovereign authority and dominion, should strike all men with a reverential awe, and should dispose them to the most perfect submission toward him” (Benson Commentary).
When we sing the following hymn, let us understand that it is more than a song to quieten people or just a call to worship. Let us humble ourselves before the great Almighty God and stand in awe of His holiness. Let us possess a reverential fear of our God in our hearts.
The Lord is in His holy temple
Let all the earth keep silence before Him
Keep silence
Keep silence
Keep silence before Him!
By William J. Kirkpatrick
Works Cited
Benson, Joseph. Benson Commentary. New York: T. Carlton & J. Porter, 1857.
