I found this wonderful translation of Psalms 65:1 in a German Bible:
Bei dir zur Ruhe kommen – damit preist man dich, du Gott, der auf dem Berg Zion wohnt. (Ps 65:2 NGÜ)
Are you as excited as I am? Well, probably not quite yet. So let me give you a translation: To find rest with you – through that we praise you, God, that lives on Mount Zion.
Let me give you King James:
Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion.
The word translated “waiteth” is dumiya (Strongs h1747) and means stillness, silence, silent, waiteth.
The Neue Genfer Übersetzung – a modern German translation – hints on something deeply rooted in the character of God here. Let me give you my wording: if my trust in God is big enough to have rest not depending on the circumstances I am in – that is true worship.
I am reminded of Jesus in the boat in midst of the storm. A storm bad enough to scare professional fishermen to death. As the disciples woke him, he told them what made the difference: he had faith. That means: he trusted God.
His father told him: go to the other side. So he knew he would reach the other side. Jesus told the disciples the same: let’s go to the other side. Yet they trusted the circumstances more than him.
In Hebrews 4 the writer explains that there still is rest available for the people of God. He compares law and Israel with new covenant and believers – us. It is obvious that the Israelits did not find this rest – otherwise no need for a new covenant. But God does not take back his promisses – therefore there still must be rest.
But what exactly is this rest?
On the seventh day God rested from his work. He called this day Shabbat and in the law it was established as a day of rest. In the New Testament Paul shows that it was but a sign:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Col 2:16-17)
While the Shabbat is a shadow, the body or realization of it is Christ. Christ – Jesus and his annoynting, he the head and we the body. In our unity with Jesus is the realization of perfect rest.
In the New Testament David would have put it like this: To find rest in you – through that we praise you.
Trust and faith in every situation is worship. Have you worshipped him that way today?
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