Be still ... Sit sill ... Stand still ...

Following a post in which I quoted from Isaiah 30:7 - "Their strength is to sit still", I was asked for some comment on the rest of the chapter. 

Here are some comments on Isaiah 30:15-16 - ‘In returning and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, “No!”’ 
God wants to bless us. He wants to be our ‘salvation’. He wants to be our ‘strength’. How does God bless us? How does He become our ‘salvation’? How does He become our ‘strength’? We must want His blessing. We must want His ‘salvation’. We must want His ‘strength’. We must return to Him and rest in Him. We must quietly listen to His Word, putting our trust in Him. There is no ‘salvation’ without ‘returning and  rest’. There is no ‘strength’ without ‘quietness and trust’. God does not force Himself upon us. We can say, ‘No! I will have none of it’. God wants to bless you. Will you say, ‘Yes, Lord! I want You to be my “salvation”. I want You to be my “strength”’?

When I quoted from Isaiah 30:7, I moved directly to Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God" - and Exodus 14:13 - "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." Here are some comments on these two chapters. The comments on Psalm 46 include comments on Psalm 47. The comments on Exodus 14 include some comments on part of Exodus 13.

‘Be still, and know that I am God...Shout to God with loud songs of joy’(Psalm 46:
10; Psalm 47:2). 
In our worship, there is to be both quiet trust and loud praise. We read the great words: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46:1). God’s Word brings peace - ‘in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength’. We must not keep God’s blessing to ourselves. We must share it with joy - ‘Sing to the Lord...let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare His praise in the coastlands’(Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 42:10-12). The Lord is to be ‘exalted among the nations’. He is not only ‘our King’. He is ‘the King of all the earth’(Psalm 10; Psalm 47:6-7). ‘Father (Jesus/Spirit), we love You. We worship and adore You. Glorify Your Name in all the earth’(Mission Praise, 142).

Sin may be ‘near’, but God never leads His people into it (Exodus 13:17, James 1:13). Following Christ means walking a narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14). We are surrounded by many temptations. Pray that your feet will not slip (Psalm 37:31; Psalm 17:5; Psalm 44:18). Sometimes, the Lord leads us ‘by way of the wilderness’ - a way of apparent fruitlessness. Why? - So that ‘equipped for battle’, we might learn to serve Him better (Exodus 13:18). The Lord does not leave His people in the wilderness. Pursued by their enemies (the Egyptians), they were guided by the ‘cloud’ and ‘fire’ (Exodus 13:21-22). God was with them, and He was about to reveal His saving power in a mighty way (Exodus 14:13-14). There is judgment as well as salvation (Exodus 14:30). Looking to neither the ‘right’ nor the ‘left’, we must look to the Lord (Exodus 14:21-22). Rejoicing in ‘the great work’ He has done, our faith ‘in the Lord’ grows strong (Exodus 14:31).