Silence is praise

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our pastor has been regularly reminding us of the first words of Psalm 62:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

    from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

    my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

In one of his reminders a few weeks ago, he shared this story about waiting in silence:

"I was listening to an interesting podcast earlier this morning, a conversation with a man named Jerome, who has a stutter and can go 45 seconds to a minute between words. The interviewer asked him how he deals with that, and Jerome had this interesting response. He said the silence between the words he had come to consider a prayer of intercession, asking God for the next word.." 

Silence as prayer. An intriguing thought! And then, just a few days after hearing this from our pastor, I read these words at the beginning of Psalm 65*:

Silence is praise

Silence as prayer, yes, but even more, silence apparently can be praise.

As I reflected on this, I heard something like “why don’t you try being quiet?”.

The Holy Spirit? Or just my imagination? 

Honestly, I don’t know. But as I reflected on what God might be inviting me to do, I found these words from Richard Rohr:

Centering Prayer is simply sitting in silence, open to God's love and your love for God. This prayer is beyond thoughts, emotions, or sensations. Like being with a very close friend or lover, where words are not required, Centering Prayer brings your relationship with God to a level deeper than conversation, to pure communion. (https://www.lindsayboyer.com/richard-rohr)

I had heard about Centering Prayer some time ago, but nothing "clicked" that helped me take action. The combination of the words from Psalms 62 and 65 with what Rohr says "clicked".

It is powerful to think that my taking a few minutes to just sit with God in silence may be a way he desires to receive praise. So I’ve made a few feeble attempts to do this, and something in me is saying “more!”. 

*The Message

The painting is "At the dances" by Moldovan artist Rusu Ciobanu, ca 1957