"Be Still for the Presence of the Lord" is a contemporary
hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...
written by British songwriter David J. Evans in 1986.
Evans was involved in the
charismatic movement
The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream Christian denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spirit ...
but felt that some of its worship risked treating God in a trivial fashion. Specifically, he was inspired by the phrase in the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
– "then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said 'surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.'" Also inspirational was Exodus 3: 1–6, where Moses met the Yahweh at the
burning bush
The burning bush (or the unburnt bush) refers to an event recorded in the Jewish Torah (as also in the biblical Old Testament). It is described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus as having occurred on Mount Horeb. According to the bib ...
.
This hymn has been heard on the BBC's ''
Songs of Praise
''Songs of Praise'' is a BBC Television religious programme that presents Christian hymns sung in churches of varying denominations from around the UK.
The series was first broadcast in October 1961. On that occasion, the venue was the Ta ...
'' and was voted as one of the UK's 10 most popular hymns in 2019.
References
External links
Hymnary.org - Be Still, For the presence of the Lord
British Christian hymns
Contemporary Christian songs
1986 songs
20th-century hymns
{{christian-song-stub